- KABUL -- The leader of a
group of westerners arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of illegally detaining
and torturing alleged Islamic militants said yesterday he was working for
the United States government, and he had evidence to prove it.
-
- Jonathan "Jack" Idema said he had been in frequent
contact with the Pentagon and other US agencies in the course of his work
tracking Islamic militants in Afghanistan, including al-Qaeda members.
-
- "We were working for the US counter-terrorist group
and working with the Pentagon and some other federal agencies," Idema
said before his trial opened.
-
- "We were in contact directly by fax and e-mail and
phone with Donald Rumsfeldís office," he said, referring to
the US secretary of defence.
-
- Idema, a former US soldier and convicted fraudster, features
in a best-selling book about the war against the Taleban called Task Force
Dagger: The Hunt for bin Laden.
-
- The US military and NATO peacekeepers have said that
the group was not acting on behalf of, or in conjunction with, their forces.
-
- Idema and his two US colleagues were arrested on 5 July
after a brief shoot-out in Kabul. They and some Afghan accomplices had
illegally detained and interrogated in a Kabul house eight people who they
believed to be terrorists, Afghan officials said.
-
- Three of their former captives described yesterday being
beaten, held under water and left without food.
-
- The three westerners face up to 15 years in prison if
found guilty of illegally taking people hostage, detaining and torturing
them. Idema denies mistreating the detainees.
-
- The packed court sat for about two hours yesterday, with
a prosecutor giving details of the charges against Idema and his two co-accused,
Edward Caraballo and Brent Bennett. Idema said Bennett was working with
him, but that Caraballo was a journalist.
-
- Idema has said he stopped a plot to attack US forces
with fuel-lorry bombs and to kill Afghan officials, including the education
minister, Yunis Qanuni, and defence minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim.
-
- He said that he had captured several militants, including
a Taleban intelligence chief and had passed him to the US authorities.
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- ©2004 Scotsman.com http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=836652004
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