Afghans arrest Americans in Kabul

[Nizark]

This is semi-breaking news, but check it out and try to make some sense of it,


Thursday July 8, 2004 8:46 AM


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan police have arrested three Americans in Kabul, officials said, including a man who the military said had been posing as a U.S. government or military employee.

The arrests were made Monday during a raid in Kabul's Kart-e-Parwan district, said Cdr. Chris Henderson, a spokesman for international peacekeepers in the Afghan capital.

Henderson said Wednesday that he was ``aware'' of Afghan media reports that police discovered an illegal jail allegedly run by the Americans, as well as guns and ammunition, but wouldn't elaborate.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Roy Glover identified one of the men as Jonathan K. Idema, and said American officials were trying to find out why the three were arrested. It wasn't immediately clear why the detained Americans were in Afghanistan.

``We do know that there are some American citizens being held. It sounds like there are three people,'' Glover said.

The U.S. military as well as the Afghan Interior Ministry and intelligence service declined to comment on the case.

But the military issued a statement on Monday distancing itself from Idema, who ``allegedly represented himself as an American government and/or military official.

``The public should be aware that Idema does not represent the American government and we do not employ him,'' the statement said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4288365,00.html

[2RHPZ]

This is semi-breaking news, but check it out and try to make some sense of it,


Thursday July 8, 2004 8:46 AM


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan police have arrested three Americans in Kabul, officials said, including a man who the military said had been posing as a U.S. government or military employee.

The arrests were made Monday during a raid in Kabul's Kart-e-Parwan district, said Cdr. Chris Henderson, a spokesman for international peacekeepers in the Afghan capital.

Henderson said Wednesday that he was ``aware'' of Afghan media reports that police discovered an illegal jail allegedly run by the Americans, as well as guns and ammunition, but wouldn't elaborate.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Roy Glover identified one of the men as Jonathan K. Idema, and said American officials were trying to find out why the three were arrested. It wasn't immediately clear why the detained Americans were in Afghanistan.

``We do know that there are some American citizens being held. It sounds like there are three people,'' Glover said.

The U.S. military as well as the Afghan Interior Ministry and intelligence service declined to comment on the case.

But the military issued a statement on Monday distancing itself from Idema, who ``allegedly represented himself as an American government and/or military official.

``The public should be aware that Idema does not represent the American government and we do not employ him,'' the statement said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4288365,00.html

Afghans Seize 4 Men Claiming to Be With U.S. Special Forces

By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: July 8, 2004

ABUL, Afghanistan, July 7 - Four men claiming to be Americans and posing as Special Forces commandos were arrested Monday by Afghan security agents in a raid on a house here, NATO and Afghan officials said Wednesday. At least eight men being held prisoner in the house and four Afghan interpreters were also detained, the officials said.

The four foreign men had sometimes posed as American soldiers and sometimes as peacekeepers for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, an Afghan police officer said.

A spokesman for the NATO force, Cmdr. Chris Henderson, said that he was aware of the case, and that at least one American was among four foreigners arrested. He said that the men were not connected to United States forces and that he had "no idea" who they were.

The United States Embassy said it was investigating the matter. "We have reports that there are three Americans but we don't have confirmation," an embassy official said. The men did not have documents to prove their identity, he added.

One of the men detained, identified as Jonathan K. Idema, was known to the military and had apparently been under surveillance. He was the subject of a media advisory by the United States military press center several days ago, which warned that he was an imposter pretending to be a member of the American military.

"U.S. citizen Jonathan K. Idema has allegedly represented himself as an American government and/or military official,'' the e-mail notice said. "The public should be aware that Idema does not represent the American government and we do not employ him." A military spokesman, Maj. Jon Siepmann, denied all knowledge of the arrests, but another American official said Mr. Idema was among those arrested.

One foreign military official said the men had tried to pass themselves off as Special Forces troops, or "other agencies," who wear plain clothes and often wear beards and sunglasses. Kabul is brimming with plainclothes agents and former military types working for private security firms. Many drive around in unmarked cars, often armed, and Afghan law enforcement officials usually allow them free passage. United States Special Forces troops also move around unhindered in unmarked cars, sometimes looking like Afghans in Afghan clothes and beards, and sometimes more recognizable as Americans, in uniforms, baseball caps and sunglasses.

But the men detained were being investigated by both the Afghan security forces and the foreign military. Afghan police officers and intelligence agents mounted the raid on Monday, but a foreign military unit had played a part in surveillance, Afghan police officials said. The men lived in a house in central Kabul.

"At least two are saying they are Americans and they give different names each time,'' Commander Henderson said. "There are two other foreigners but it is not clear if they are Americans." he said. The police also found four Kalashnikov rifles and some clothes with blood on them, he said.

All the men are being held by the Afghan intelligence service, the National Security Directorate.

[DPGLAW]

Isin't Jonathan K. Idema the guy from the HUNT FOR BIN LADEN by Robin Moore? In that book he said he was a green beret (ret.)...Feel free to correct me if Im wrong but I have read that book like 5 times and im sure I remember that....