[Shadow_Group] Fw: [liberation_news] We were working with US military, say 'torturers' jailed for 10 years

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: jamesk at cruzio.com<mailto:jamesk at cruzio.com> 
To: liberation_news at lists.riseup.net<mailto:liberation_news at lists.riseup.net> 
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 4:04 AM
Subject: Re: [liberation_news] We were working with US military, say 'torturers' jailed for 10 years


This is an interesting hoax designed to make the public think the US is 
working "outside the box" and doing everything possible to catch al-Qaeda - and 
at the same time provide further evidence that al-Qaeda actually exists (as 
something beyond the elaborate CIA-sponsored hoax that it is.)

Another interesting hoax was the CIA officer "Anonymous" writing not one, but 
two books - while still on the CIA payroll - on the Bush administration's 
failure to pursue al-Qaeda agressively.  A common propaganda technique is to 
use the release of information seemingly against the interests of authority 
(accusations of incompetence in this case) to buttress the deeper propaganda 
message it wants to disseminate - that al-Qaeda exists and is still a menace.  

> We were working with US military, say 'torturers' jailed for 10 years
> 
> THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
> September 16, 2004, Thursday
> We were working with US military, say 'torturers' jailed for 10 years 
> 
> By Hamida Ghafour in Kabul
> 
> 
> THREE Americans were jailed for a total of 28 years in Kabul yesterday for 
running a
private prison and torturing detainees.
> 
> The sentencing brought to an end a shambolic case that a defence lawyer 
called a circus.
> 
> Jack Idema, described by US officials as a bounty hunter, and his colleague 
Brent Bennett
were sentenced to 10 years. A documentary film maker, Edward Caraballo, was 
given eight
years.
> 
> They were arrested on July 5 after Afghan authorities raided a home in Kabul 
and found
eight Afghan prisoners. Several claimed to have been tortured by being denied 
food or
having hot water poured over them to extract information about Taliban and al-
Qa'eda
terrorists.
> 
> All three men denied the charges. Idema claimed to be working with the 
knowledge of the
Pentagon while Caraballo said he was making a film about Idema's pursuits. 
Their four
Afghan accomplices were jailed for between one and five years.
> 
> Idema, a former special forces soldier who helped the US-backed Northern 
Alliance defeat
the Taliban in 2001, reacted furiously to the judge's verdict. "I apologise for 
helping to
save them," he told a packed courtroom. "We should have let the Taliban murder 
every
goddamn one of them."
> 
> The remarks were typical of a farcical trial with a court translator advising 
the judge,
the American defence lawyers explaining the concept of presumption of 
innocence, and the
prosecution presenting press cuttings as evidence.
> 
> When Idema took an oath on the Koran to tell the truth, the packed court 
erupted with
cries of "God is great" in the mistaken belief that he had converted to Islam.
> 
> The defence played videotapes shot by Caraballo, including one showing Idema 
meeting a man
identified as a US army captain co-ordinating counter-terrorism activities in 
Kabul who
said Idema's group was "rolling up AQ [al-Qa'eda] like nobody's business."
> 
> The three said their visas were arranged by the Afghan ambassador to India, 
and showed
film of them being greeted at Kabul airport by senior Afghan government 
officials. But the
judge said this proved only that they had "private contacts" with Afghan 
officials, not
that they were working for the US military.
> 
> Idema claimed the US authorities disowned him after the torture allegations. 
His lawyers
claimed that 500 documents, 300 photographs and 200 videos proving the group 
was working
with the knowledge of the Pentagon and the coalition were seized illegally by 
the FBI. One
of the lawyers, John Tiffany, said: "Whether the judge made a decision as a 
result of
pressure exerted by the US government or whether he doesn't know how to conduct 
a trial in
accordance with international standards of justice I don't know."
> 
> The US embassy, the international peacekeeping mission and the coalition deny 
that Idema
worked for them.
> 
> Robert Fogelnest, Caraballo's lawyer, said the Afghan legal system, destroyed 
by two
decades of war, did not meet basic international standards for a fair trial. 
The hearing
was plagued by inaccurate translations and misunderstandings of court 
proceedings.
> 
> At one point, Mr Fogelnest told the Dari-speaking translator: "I've been told 
by several
people you do not translate what I say and are advising the judge."
> 
> "Sit down," the translator ordered. "Fine, it's your circus," Mr Fogelnest 
told the judge.

> 


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