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.
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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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