Three rogue U.S. jailers sentenced in Afghan abuse case

By Seattle Times news services

Jonathan Keith Idema gets a 10-year prison term.

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Group leader Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema, 48, wearing his trademark dark sunglasses and khaki uniform, barely flinched when he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Brent Bennett, 28, received the same sentence. Edward Caraballo, 42, who has said he was making a documentary on the hunt for al-Qaida, was sentenced to eight years.

Idema, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier once convicted of fraud, later swore several times, suggested he might kill a couple of people before any appeal and mentioned a "bloodbath."

Idema, who wore sunglasses and khaki fatigues bearing an American flag throughout the trial, denounced the decision as a throwback to the times of the hard-line Islamic Taliban movement.

"The same sick Taliban judges, the same sick sense of justice," Idema said. "I apologize that we tried to save these people. We should have let the Taliban murder every ... one of them."

The three Americans, who arrived in Afghanistan in mid-April, were accused of setting up a prison in a house in Kabul, under the guise of an import-export business.

Idema has insisted he worked under the direction of the U.S. government and said he had been talking to officials below Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He has maintained he was hunting for al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The U.S. military acknowledged having taken custody of one of Idema's prisoners earlier this year but freed him when an investigation turned up no evidence of terrorist activity.

Idema, who has acknowledged being enticed by a $25 million reward for the capture of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, did not deny charges that he seized Afghan civilians and interrogated them in a private home in Kabul. The co-defendants were arrested July 5 while detaining eight Afghan captives, some of whom claimed they had been tortured.

Several Afghan officials were videotaped meeting with Idema, who many people assumed was a member of the U.S. Special Forces because he acted and dressed like one. International peacekeeping forces even helped Idema carry out three raids on houses where he captured Afghans.

Military records indicate that, as far back as 1977 during his Green Beret training, commanders had warned Idema was dangerously unstable and unfit for combat.
 
In a July 1977 evaluation, Idema's Special Forces supervisor, Capt. John Carlson, described him as "without a doubt the most unmotivated, unprofessional, immature enlisted man that I have ever known. ... This man's performance is continuously one step above punitive disciplinary action."

Jim Morris, a retired Special Forces officer and friend of Idema, called the verdict "disappointing. I suspect that it's unjustified. Obviously, it's not an example of justice because the Afghan system is not set up for justice."

But Stephen Antonelli, a retired Special Forces instructor who trained alongside Idema in 1976, said the American widely known as "Jack" had undermined the military's Afghanistan mission.

"Ninety percent of our business as Special Forces soldiers is nation building," said Antonelli, of San Antonio. "What Idema did was push everything back. Jack and his torture chamber — that's all they (the Afghans) are going to remember."

Idema spent three years in jail in the 1980s for bilking 60 companies out of more than $200,000.

Compiled from the Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News and The Associated Press