If you’re looking for pieces on Jack Idema and his team, please click on this link.

Amrullah Saleh was an interpreter for an NGO in Pakistan when the war broke out in 2001. His knowledge of the United States and his impeccable English, made him a perfect choice for CIA operators coming into the country and Saleh quickly found himself a new high-paying job, going from $400 a month, to $200 a day. When the war wound down, Saleh, found himself with lots of contacts, dual citizenship (he had lived in the US), and political ambition. In 2003, the FBI, hot to break into the Afghan counter-terrorist ops club, started setting up shop in Kabul by throwing around lots of money. They aligned with Amrullah, used their State Department contacts to get Engineer Araf (a Massoud man and high-ranking member of the Northern Alliance) fired. Karzai, with the help of the FBI, now had control of the country’s intelligence service, and that meant he could decrease Panshir power and protect his Pashtun “former” Taliban appointees. In February of 2004, Amrullah Saleh, already a senior NDS intelligence official, replaced Panjshiri Mohammed Sarif Sarwari, as the new head of NDS (National Directorate of Security) aka NSD (National Security Directorate).

Saleh is alleged, and significant evidence exists to support it, to have personally beaten Jack and Lt. Banderas soon after their arrest in July of 2004 -to unconsciousness while handcuffed in his office, and while FBI agents stood in the hallway laughing. The horrors of the torture perpetrated on these Americans at the hands of the Afghan NDS are breathtaking:

Shortly after their [Jack and his team’s] arrest, they were subjected to varying degrees of torture and interrogation, apparently determined by rank. Jack Idema was repeatedly beaten by, and in the presence of- Amrullah at NDS Headquarters, as was Lieutenant Rasuli. A palace official was personally aware of and authorizing, at a minimum, Idema’s initial torture at NDS Headquarters by Amrullah, with FBI agents in close proximity and directing the interrogation.

During the following days and nights Idema was tortured with boiling water, starvation, threats of death, and assault with various implements (such as wire cables and rubber whips), resulting in broken ribs, a separated sternum, torn rotator cuffs, hemorrhaged eyes, multiple concussions, lacerations, contusions, and bruises. Although the U.S. Embassy later had medical reports indicating the extent of the torture, Sandra Ingram, Assistant U.S. Consul DOS Kabul, ordered the reports rewritten to tone down the extent of the injuries.

If Jack’s torture isn’t enough, there were other individuals who received similar treatment:

Major Ezmerai was beaten, threatened with death, and repeatedly electrocuted during interrogation. Lieutenant Rasuli was repeatedly beaten until bleeding and semi-conscious. Sahibi, a young non-combatant, was initially beaten just after the arrest until Idema interceded. Another non-combatant, Ahmadi, was threatened with death, as were Bennett and Caraballo who were not originally tortured during the initial interrogation phase because NDS thought they were both journalists.

Sherzai Ahmadi, one of Idema’s men, was beaten and drugged by NDS agents and “foreigners” at which time he woke up with purple ink on his thumb, indicating he had signed a statement. Ahmadi told the Court that he thought it was a dream. Ahmadi says he was given three blue tablets, believed to be Valium, for his torture injuries, then rendered incapable of resisting his fingerprint on a false statement.

Major Ezmerai, Idema’s close protection officer, was electrocuted, and showed the court the electrical burns on his palms, which were still present five months later. Even after repeated electrocution, Major Ezmerai, a Ministry of Defence employee and 15 year veteran of the Panshir Army and Northern Alliance, refused to sign any statement against Jack, Brent and Ed.

And then there is the torture of Ed and Brent. Ed Caraballo was a victim of Falaqua, and John Tiffany saw his foot was like a football when he went to Afghanistan. John said in his interview with me:

These men were severely injured. Caraballo’s foot was like a football, he had been the victim of Falaqua.

Brent has lost 8 teeth so far as a result of his beatings.

Even more astonishing is–the torture of Jack and his men occurred in the presence of American FBI agents and with the knowledge of high levels of the FBI in Washington.

Karzai, Amrullah, Dawari, Mudafea, the ten FBI Agents, and others, both known and unknown, either knew about, authorized, and/or personally (such as Amrullah and Mudafea) conducted interrogations and violent torture on a repeated basis. Based on conversations with FBI Agents, Robert Mueller was personally informed of this ongoing torture by the two un-named FBI agents. Task Force Sabre/7’s screams during the torture sessions could be heard throughout NDS Headquarters and into the streets of Kabul night after night. Although Mueller and Khalilzad were aware of the ongoing torture, neither of them acted in any way to stop the torture of these men during this time. More than a month later the beatings of Idema stopped because it was feared the marks would be shown in Court, and to the press.

Subsequent torture after the “interrogation phase” included beatings, 24 hour a day restraints, falaqua, whipping, threats of execution, attempted rape, beatings with sticks even while Task Force Sabre/7 were using bathrooms or naked taking baths (time between baths could be anywhere between 20 and 30 days– Bennett was only allowed one bath a month, while Muslim al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners were allowed baths two or three times per week), threats with knives to cut off eyes, noses, and lips for refusal to pray and accept the Muslim religion (“convert” for the Americans), and even the use of scorpions on strings as a form of torture. This particular “torture art form” was referred to as “DaancÈ hamrai Gazhdoom” – Dance with the Scorpion.

In most instances threats and torture were used to extract confessions or false information, or statements against members of Task Force Saber/7, was occasionally for enjoyment, and often later in the case of Idema, Bennett, and Caraballo, to coerce them into praying to Allah. Much of this torture was conducted by “former” Taliban officials and/or “former” Taliban members employed by NDS and at the direct orders of Amrullah, Dawari, Mudafea, and/or other deputies and officials under President Karzai, including the FBI, and with the knowledge of Director Mueller.

The general conditions at the NDS facility were exceptionally brutal. Amrullah’s personal house of horrors, funded by U.S. tax dollars was at the beck and call of President Karzai and the FBI exclusively. U.S. military and CIA forces were rarely, if ever, allowed entry, and then only on a highly restricted basis and to an extremely limited area– one room for meetings. This was the FBI’s exclusive club and private Abu Ghraib. Director Mueller, and his agents, used, and still use, the NDS Saderat facility to engage in the rendering of terror suspects and American citizens in order to employ illegal aggressive interrogation techniques—such as electrocution, stick beatings, boiling water, and illegal drug use.

At the direction of Amrullah, torture at NDS still continues on a daily basis. Some prisoners are placed in special solitary cells to recover from signs of torture. Some are brought milk and olive oil daily by the prosecutors to speed their recovery and heal bruises when outside or family inquiries are made as to their whereabouts. One example of this is Haji Daoud Zalmia from Maidanshar, one of Task Force Sabre 7’s cellmates who barely survived Amrullah’s bloody torture sessions. Other prisoners, with gruesome cigarette burn scars or electrical burns are threatened with execution if they show their injuries to the Red Cross. Major Ezmerai was threatened with death and the arrest of his family if he showed his electrical burns during court appearances because there were dozens of reporters and cameramen present. Others are threatened with execution if they show their injuries (cigarette burns, bruises, lacerations, electrical burns, etc.) to Red Cross visitors. Recently, after the Red Cross was finally allowed monthly visits severely tortured prisoners would be transferred back to the secret NDS basement torture chamber in another building just prior to a Red Cross visit. Prisoners who die as the result of torture are secretly removed at night under cover of darkness by placing their bodies in the back of Amrullah’s Land Cruisers and taking them to an undisclosed location “for disposal.”

What is sickening is bearing all of this in mind and discovering that in November of 2005, Saleh received an honorary doctorate from Cleary University in Michigan, USA. Is this the kind of individual Congressmen should be nominating for honorary American awards or degrees? Amrullah Saleh, director of the Afghanistan National Security Directorate, received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in Analysis at the University’s 2005 Winter Commencement on Saturday, December 10, 2005, in Ypsilanti.

Saleh was nominated for the honorary degree by U.S. Congressman Mike Rogers, who is a Cleary emeritus-trustee.

“Amrullah Saleh distinguished himself while serving as an informal ambassador and coordinator of non-governmental organizations with Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance,” Rogers stated in his recommendation. “During this difficult and dangerous time of opposing Taliban rule, he clearly rose above other leaders with his decisive style, business acumen and charismatic personality.”

Saleh, however, decided to change sides to line his pocketbook and engage in despicable acts against Americans and it’s sad that Americans like Mike Rogers seem to be either totally clueless about these facts, or decide to go ahead and do it in spite of the evidence that indicates Saleh has committed some serious, grossly criminal acts.

Stay tuned for more interesting news as it unfolds–Keep an eye out over at Superpatriots.us

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