[Shadow_Group] jonathan "jack" idema part 2

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

      Jonathan Idema on Trial
            Andrew North - BBC   

      Pomp and farce at Kabul trial

      The Kabul courtroom was packed with journalists, officials, representatives from the US embassy and many spectators. 

      The trial of Jonathan Idema and two other Americans is taking place in the main court for Kabul province, amid tight security.

      The court itself is a surprisingly grand place.

      Inside a fairly ramshackle, run-down government compound, white painted columns surround the walls of the court chamber, ornately decorated in gold at the top and bottom. Green and gold friezes decorate some of the walls.

      The presiding judge, Abdul Basset Bakhtiari, is imposing too, in a red and gold fringed gown with a shaped velvet hat.

      At the last hearing, he was wearing just a suit and open-necked shirt.

      'Farce' 

      But despite the relative grandeur of the occasion, the trial itself has sometimes verged on the edge of farce with Jonathan Idema sometimes shouting out at both the judge and prosecutor as he attacks the proceedings.

      He has called the process "insane" and "crazy".

      Twice the American, dressed in the same military-style fatigues and sunglasses, turned to the judge and said, "Why don't we just get this over with now - just give me the 15 years".

      The morning hearing and part of the post-lunch session was dominated by such exchanges.

      Idema said he had not been given an English copy of the charges against him.

      "How can I defend myself when I don't even have a copy of the indictment?" he demanded.

      Evidence 

      The former US soldier said all the evidence he needs is being kept away from him.

      He said there are hundreds of photos, videos and documents that were at the house in Kabul where he was arrested in early July.

      He says this has been handed over to the FBI.

      Mr Idema also complained about the quality of the translation.

      This was a frequent source of confusion for others too, with many Afghans in the audience who speak English shaking their heads in surprise at some of the translations that were being made.

      After lunch the judge, Abdul Basset Bakhtiari, was able to impose more order and called first on Mr Idema's translator to speak.

      Edward Caraballo, who was arrested with Jonathan Idema, has also been speaking for the first time, saying he is just a journalist who is in Afghanistan to document the fight against terrorism.


      ...


      Round two for Kabul's trial of year

      Kabul's trial of the year is due to resume on Monday. 

      Former US soldier Jonathan K Idema and two other Americans, Edward Caraballo and Brent Bennett, are facing charges including hostage-taking, torture, illegally entering Afghanistan and running a private jail.

      Four Afghan men arrested with them in Kabul in early July are also in the dock.

      Even the judge admits he has never tried a case like it.

      But the key question for this next stage is this: Will Mr Idema produce any evidence for the sensational claims he made at the first hearing three weeks ago?

      He said then that he was in Afghanistan on a secret anti-terrorist mission approved at the highest levels of the Pentagon - claims the US military denies.

      "We were in contact directly by fax and e-mail and phone with [Defence Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld's office," Mr Idema said when journalists asked him to name names, "and with the deputy secretary of defence for intelligence."

      Civil war 

      Wearing military style fatigues, he said he had uncovered a sophisticated plot ordered by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden to assassinate key Afghan politicians including Yunus Qanuni, now a presidential candidate, and to drive truck bombs into US military and Nato bases.

      The aim of the plot, Mr Idema said, was to stoke a new civil war in Afghanistan.

      All this emerged in a kind of impromptu press conference Mr Idema held before the judge had arrived, with journalists and cameramen pressing around the dock.

      Mr Idema also said he had handed over a senior Taleban figure in May to the US military at its main Bagram base north of Kabul.

      American spokesmen later admitted they had received an Afghan man from Mr Idema.

      However, they said he was not who Mr Idema claimed and had been released two months later.

      The case has been embarrassing for both the US authorities in Afghanistan as well as in Washington.

      It has also raised new questions over the widespread use of private military contractors in Afghanistan.

      The best known are President Hamid Karzai's US bodyguards.

      And with their trademark beards and shades, and similar weaponry, they all look very alike.

      "It is very difficult to tell who's official and who's not," says one Kabul-based security specialist.

      'Slew of evidence' 

      In this climate, many find it quite possible that the American authorities were secretly employing Jonathan Idema.

      But the US military totally rejects this.

      "He is not an employee of the United States military," Lieutenant-General David Barno, the senior US commander in Afghanistan, told the BBC.

      "We have no relationship with him."

      And the general denied US forces were employing so-called "plausible denial" freelance operatives to carry out missions in Afghanistan.

      "Not at all, absolutely not," he said.

      However, Mr Idema's lawyer in America, John Tiffany, says he is assembling a "slew of evidence" which proves his client was working for the US government.

      He says it includes e-mails, photographs and video, but says he does not want to reveal any details for now.

      But he attacked the Afghan judicial system saying "nobody is afforded due process".

      Judge's warning 

      The trial judge, Abdul Basset Bakhtiari, rejects this.

      In a BBC interview, he admitted the first hearing in this "very unusual case" had not been perfect.

      "We had some problems with translation," he said, "and there was some disorder."

      But he blamed this on the behaviour of journalists.

      "That doesn't mean the Afghan legal system is weak," he said.

      Next time, the translators would be better Judge Bakhtiari promised, but also warned that journalists could be expelled from the court "if they create disorder".

      One place the events of the next hearing will be followed especially closely is at the bar of the Mustafa hotel in central Kabul, a favourite haunt for the many people working in the private security industry.

      Before arrest, Jonathan Idema was sometimes among them. 

      ...

      10/2004
      US vigilantes convicted in Kabul


      Three Americans have been jailed for up to 10 years for torturing Afghans and running a private jail in Kabul. 

      Jonathan Idema and Brent Bennett were sentenced to 10 years in jail and Edward Caraballo eight years.

      Idema, who the US calls a bounty hunter, said his work had been approved by Afghan and US authorities. He told the court the FBI was setting him up.

      Four Afghans working with the Americans were also found guilty and sentenced to between one and five years in jail.

      Idema said after the trial: "I apologise that we tried to save these people... We should have let the Taleban murder every... one of them."

      The judge said the defendants, who were arrested in Kabul in July, had the right to appeal.

      A lawyer for Idema, John Edwards Tiffany, said an appeal would be launched.

      Chaotic 

      Lawyers for the American defendants had called for the charges to be thrown out, arguing that the Afghan legal system was not fit to try them.

      The defendants denied charges of kidnapping, torture and illegal entry into Afghanistan.

      The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul says the verdict was a sensational end to what has often been a sensational trial.

      He says Idema, who claimed to have tracked down one hiding place of Osama Bin Laden, had failed to prove his actions had been sanctioned by Washington.

      Idema had taken the stand on Wednesday and was applauded from the public gallery as he swore "in the name of Allah to tell the truth and nothing but the truth".

      He said he had been given a passport by an unnamed American agency and had a visa similar to those owned by US special forces.

      He did not elaborate on his allegations against the FBI.

      The trial has been marred by scenes of chaos, and repeated objections from the defence. Little strong evidence has been presented.

      Wednesday's proceedings were reportedly the most orderly yet.

      The prosecutor, Mohammed Naim Dawarty, accused the defendants of opening private cells, abducting and torturing Afghan people and seizing their property.

      He said their activities "have created distress of the people of Afghanistan, the government and the United States".

      Plea rejected 

      Defence lawyer Robert Fogelnest had called for an end to the trial because the Afghan legal system was unfit to carry it out.

      Judge Abdul Baset Bakhtyari rejected the plea, saying: "Come to the point if you have any arguments."

      The judge did allow the defence to show a video of the men apparently being greeted upon arrival in Afghanistan by several Afghan officials, including the Kabul police chief.

      "It's ridiculous to claim they entered illegally under these circumstances," Mr Fogelnest said.

      The video also showed one of the Afghans detained by the men confessing to plotting to kill senior Afghan leaders and bomb the US military base in Bagram, north of Kabul.

      During his trial, Idema alleged that hundreds of videos, photos and documents were removed by FBI officers after his arrest in Kabul.

      He said the documents would prove that "while we were not in the United States army, we were working for the United States army".

      The Pentagon denies any ties with the men.

      The three defendants were arrested when Afghan security forces raided a house in Kabul being used as a private jail and containing eight Afghan prisoners.
     
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