Posted on Mon, Jul. 19, 2004
3 Americans in illegal jail case hear charges
Leader tells Afghan judge he works for U.S.
BY CARLOTTA GALL
New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan — The three Americans who were arrested by the Afghan police on July 5 on suspicion of operating an illegal jail in Kabul appeared in court Sunday and, at a preliminary hearing, were also charged with robbing, beating and torturing their detainees.
The three men, wearing plain clothes and U.S. Army combat boots, said they were Jack Idema, a former member of the U.S. Special Forces; Ed Caravallo, a journalist; and Brent Bennett, who gave no profession. Idema said he intended to call high-level Afghan officials, generals, corps commanders and ambassadors in his defense and said he had been working with Afghan and U.S. forces, contentions that Afghan and U.S. officials have denied.
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He said that he worked for a secret counterterrorist unit directly responsible to the Pentagon and that the U.S. Embassy would not know of his activities. He said he fought beside anti-Taliban forces in 2001 and returned to Afghanistan this year.
(snip)
Idema, who answered questions from the judge and prosecutor for the whole group, said the four Afghans arrested with him included two interpreters, a housecleaner and gardener, and a man who had come to him for a job as a guard.
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