3 Americans held for fake missions against terrorism

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Three Americans arrested in Afghanistan were on a self-appointed counterterrorism mission that included abusing eight inmates in a private jail by hanging them by their feet, Afghan officials said yesterday.

The U.S. Embassy identified one of the men detained Monday in a raid in downtown Kabul as Jonathan K. Idema, a purported former Green Beret who says he has links with Afghan militia.

The American military has warned that Mr. 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 arrested Monday, "formed a group and pretended they were fighting terrorism."

"They arrested eight people from across Kabul and put them in their jail," Mr. Jalali said.

Another Afghan security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said intelligence and police officials found the prisoners "hanging upside down." He said reports on the case showed that the men had been beaten, though he had no details.

Mr. Jalali said the eight were released but did not identify them. He described the group of Americans as "rebels" with no "legal link" to Afghan or other authorities.

However, the intelligence official said, the three Americans had been wearing uniforms that appeared to be from the U.S. military and had been armed with assault rifles.

Mr. Idema, described in media reports as an ex-Special Forces soldier in his 40s, cropped up in Afghanistan in late 2001 when U.S. and allied Afghan forces routed the Taliban regime.

He offered his services to Western television networks, including a videotape showing a purported al Qaeda training facility near Kabul, and later featured in a top-selling book called "The Hunt for Osama bin Laden."

An Afghan police official said the Americans appeared to have been behind the detention of a man in west Kabul about three weeks ago.

"They went to a house and took a person called Abdul Latif," said the official, who also asked not to be identified. "His wife told us she assumed the foreigners were from ISAF" -- the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force that patrols the capital.

The official said three foreigners, dressed in military uniforms, returned to the house earlier this week, where police confronted them.

One of the men "said he had orders to quickly arrest a terrorist before he could blow himself up in a government building," the official said. "They said they belonged to an important network and couldn't say more."

It was not clear whether Mr. Latif was among the eight persons freed.

Mr. Jalali said the Americans had been operating in the capital under the guise of working for an export company.

The security official denied reports that shots had been fired in the raid. He said security forces had been trailing the men and caught them by surprise.