The Hindu : International : U.S. vigilantes' leader claims Pentagon support

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 22, 2004

International

International

U.S. vigilantes' leader claims Pentagon support

KABUL, JULY 21. Three Americans accused of torturing Afghans in a private jail during a freelance counter-terror mission went on trial on Wednesday, with their ringleader denying any wrongdoing and claiming U.S. Government support.

Jonathan K. Idema, Brett Bennett and Edward Caraballo were arrested when Afghan security forces raided their makeshift jail in a house in Kabul on July 5. American and Afghan authorities say they were vigilantes posing as U.S. special forces and had no official backing.

Appearing before a three-judge panel in a national security court, the trio listened quietly to the charges — including hostage-taking and torture, and as three of their ex-detenus described how they were beaten, doused with boiling water and deprived of food.

The Americans did not testify. But Mr. Idema said afterwards the abuse allegations were invented. He also said he was in regular phone and E-mail contact with Pentagon officials ``at the highest level.''

Mr. Idema named a Pentagon official who allegedly asked the group to go ``under contract'' — an offer they refused. ``The American authorities absolutely condoned what we did, they absolutely supported what we did,'' he told reporters crowding round the dock.

The trial comes at an awkward time for American officials trying to contain a widening scandal over abuse in official U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq.

An official from the U.S. Embassy observed the trial but declined to comment on the proceedings, where only one of the Americans was represented by a lawyer.

There was no lawyer in court for Mr. Idema, a former American soldier who appeared in a khaki uniform with a reversed American flag on the shoulder.

Mr. Idema told reporters his group had arrested militants who were plotting to blow up the main U.S. military base with fuel trucks and assassinate a string of Afghan leaders.

In the hearing, he interrupted the judge to complain about the error-strewn translation and glowered at his former prisoners as well as his Afghan assistants when they incriminated him. Ghulam Safi, a shopkeeper from eastern Laghman province, said Mr. Idema's men stopped his car near Kabul, put a hood over his head and bundled him off to their jail, where he was held for 18 days.

``They put me in the shower and let boiling water run over me,'' he said.

He said he had lost feeling in his hands and that his watch and money were stolen.

A taxi driver called Ahmad Ali said his head was forced repeatedly under the surface of a basin of water and that he was beaten on the feet and stomach. He said he was fed two pieces of bread in seven days.

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