Free Republic

Afghan forces arrested three Americans, including a purported former Green Beret, after raiding a jail they were allegedly running in the Afghan capital and finding prisoners hanging from their feet, officials said Thursday. The U.S. military, facing a widening inquiry into prisoner abuse, quickly distanced itself from the three, who had been posing as American agents before being detained Monday. 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, Jonathan K. Idema, that he was a "special adviser" to their security forces, saying...

One of the three U.S. citizens accused of torturing Afghans in a private jail said today that the they acted with the support and knowledge of U.S. Defense Department officials, the Associated Press reported. Jonathan K. Idema and two other men went on trial today in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, following their arrest on July 5. The charges against them include hostage-taking and torture. Several of their former detainees told the court they were beaten, doused with boiling water and deprived of food, AP said. U.S. and Afghan authorities said the defendants were vigilantes posing as U.S. Special Forces members and...

KABUL, Afghanistan - Three Americans arrested in Afghanistan were on a self-appointed counterterrorism mission that included holding eight inmates in a private jail, a senior official said Thursday. U.S. officials identified one of the men detained Monday in a raid in Kabul as Jonathan K. Idema, a purported former Green Beret who claims to have links with Afghan militia forces. The American military has warned that Idema had been posing as a U.S. military or government employee. Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said the three men had, along with four Afghans also arrested Monday, "formed a group and pretended they...