Alexandria, Va. ? A federal judge Monday rejected arguments by John Walker Lindh to have the charges against him dismissed and also decided to keep the case in Alexandria, denying a series of constitutional claims by the American captured last year with Taliban fighters.

In an uninterrupted discourse that lasted nearly two hours, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III dissected and rejected each of Lindh’s challenges of the 10-count indictment filed against him in February.

Lindh, 21, was captured by northern alliance forces in November in Afghanistan. He has been charged with conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, providing support and services to the Taliban and al-Qaida and using a firearm during a violent crime. He did not speak during the hearing, and he did not make eye contact with his parents or teen-age sister, who sat behind him in the courtroom.

Lindh’s attorneys had filed a series of motions trying to have various counts of the indictment dismissed. Using a similar approach, attorneys for Richard Reid accused of trying to blow up a U.S. jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes succeeded last week in having one count thrown out by a Boston judge.

Ellis acknowledged the unusual nature of the Lindh case during his ruling, saying: “All of this is difficult. All of this is uncharted territory.”

James J. Brosnahan, Lindh’s lead attorney, first argued that the trial should not be held nine miles from the Pentagon, where 184 victims died Sept. 11, saying local jurors would be prejudiced against his client. He noted that the judge in the Oklahoma City bombing case moved the trials of its two main defendants to Denver.

“We see no way (Lindh) can get a fair trial here,” Brosnahan said. He claimed that surveys show 75 percent of area residents believe Lindh is guilty.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Randy I. Bellows, the lead prosecutor, said the Oklahoma City bombing “had a singular and unique impact on Oklahoma City. There just is not a comparison with the facts in this case and this defendant.”

Ellis asked Brosnahan whether the prosecutors weren’t allowed to try a case wherever the rules permitted and later told him: “If I go through jury selection and can’t select a fair and impartial jury, then we won’t. We’ll go somewhere else. One might have to go as far as the planet Pluto before we can find inhabitants who haven’t heard about this. … I think the defendant can receive a fair trial here as well as elsewhere.”

Defense lawyers then argued that Lindh was acting as a soldier in the Afghan army and was entitled to the legal protections of international treaties governing war conduct. “You can’t charge a soldier with murder for simply being a soldier,” said George Harris, another of Lindh’s attorneys.

Prosecutors said that President Bush in February declared the Taliban and al-Qaida to be “unlawful combatants” not covered by military law and said the declaration cannot be challenged in court.