EFL
| "I'da got 'im, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!" |
An American on trial for allegedly torturing Afghan terror suspects in a private jail claimed Saturday in his first interview from custody that he was hot on the heels of Osama bin Laden and other militant leaders when he was arrested on July 5. Jonathan Idema told The Associated Press he had a note from his Mom official sanction from Afghans and Americans to hunt down terrorists and said he has been prevented from showing the evidence in court. "We would have had (renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin) Hekmatyar in 14 days or less. We would have had bin Laden in less than 30 days" had he and his team not been arrested, said Idema, a colorful former U.S. Army soldier who spent three years in jail in the 1980s for allegedly bilking 60 companies out of more than $200,000 in goods.
After initially denying any knowledge of Idema's activities, the U.S. military announced in July that it had received a prisoner from the American and held him for more than a month at Bagram Air Base before deciding that he was not the man Idema said he was. A military spokesman said the military did not realize Idema was working on his own at the time. Idema also convinced NATO peacekeepers to help his group on three raids in the capital of Kabul. The security force said experts found traces of explosives in two houses raided by Idema and his colleagues. Idema, Americans Brent Bennett and Edward Caraballo, and four Afghans stand accused of torturing about a dozen prisoners in their private jail. The Afghan prisoners, including a senior judge and six of his family members, have been released. Idema denied the torture charges. |