AMIR SHAH Associated Press writer | Posted: Friday, July 9, 2004 12:00 am
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan forces arrested three Americans on a freelance counterterrorism mission after busting into a private jail the three were allegedly running and finding prisoners hanging from their feet, officials said Thursday.
The U.S. military, facing a widening investigation into prisoner abuse, quickly distanced itself from the three, who had been posing as American agents before their detention Monday in Kabul. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday "the U.S. government does not employ or sponsor these men."
Afghan officials also dismissed claims by the apparent ringleader, a purported former Green Beret called Jonathan K. Idema, that he was a "special adviser" to their security forces.
Private bounty hunters and mercenaries began arriving in Afghanistan after the U.S. government posted a $25 million bounty on al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
The Americans and four Afghans who were detained along with them "formed a group and pretended they were fighting terrorism," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said. "They arrested eight people from across Kabul and put them in their jail."
Another Afghan security official said intelligence and police officials who raided the group's house on Monday found the prisoners hung by their feet.
"They were hanging upside down," the official said on condition of anonymity. The official said a report showed that the men also were beaten, though he had no details.
Jalali said the American-led group had no "legal link" to any Afghan or other authorities.
Still, officials said they were seen regularly around Kabul wearing military uniforms and armed with assault rifles.
Idema, described in media reports as an ex-special forces operative better known as "Jack," first appeared in Afghanistan in late 2001, when U.S. and allied Afghan forces routed the Taliban.
He featured prominently in a top-selling book called "The Hunt for Bin Laden," which says he fought for 10 months with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
He also offered his services to Western television networks, including an apparent al-Qaida training video.
On Thursday, police gave an Associated Press reporter a business card apparently handed out by Idema.
The card bears an Afghan flag with a small Stars-and-Stripes at its center and a Northern Alliance flag. "Special Advisor" is printed on the bottom and "Jack" is scrawled in Dari language at the top. None of the three phone numbers worked.
State Department spokesman Boucher identified one of the other Americans as Brent Bennett, but didn't give other details.
One police official said Idema's group appeared to be behind the disappearance of a man in west Kabul three weeks ago.
"They took away a person called Abdul Latif," said the official, who also asked not to be named. "His wife told us she assumed the foreigners were from ISAF" - the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force which patrols the capital.
The official said the three foreigners, dressed in military uniforms, returned to the house earlier this week, where police confronted them.
"This man called Jack said he had orders to quickly arrest a terrorist before he could blow himself up in a government building," the official said. "They said they belonged to an important network and couldn't say more."
Jalali said all eight prisoners found Monday were released. It was not clear how long they had been held.
There was no sign of Latif at his house in a quiet residential street.
Two men who answered the door Thursday said the previous tenant's wife recently moved out.
Afghan police and intelligence officers seized the men in downtown Kabul on Monday. Jalali said the men were operating in Kabul under the guise of working for an export company.