American Says He Was on Bin Laden's Trail

[Judi Lynn]

American Says He Was on Bin Laden's Trail

Sat Aug 21, 7:49 PM ET

By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan - An American on trial for allegedly torturing Afghan terror suspects in a private jail claimed Saturday in his first interview from custody that he was hot on the heels of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and other militant leaders when he was arrested on July 5.


Jonathan Idema told The Associated Press he had official sanction from Afghans and Americans to hunt down terrorists and said he has been prevented from showing the evidence in court. Prosecutors say Idema was waging a private war, and he faces up to 20 years in a crumbling Afghan prison if convicted.


"We would have had (renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin) Hekmatyar in 14 days or less. We would have had bin Laden in less than 30 days" had he and his team not been arrested, said Idema, a colorful former U.S. Army soldier who spent three years in jail in the 1980s for allegedly bilking 60 companies out of more than $200,000 in goods.


Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Idema came to Afghanistan (news - web sites) and was featured in several books about the war and the search for bin Laden. He has also worked with several western TV networks. He said he came to Afghanistan again earlier this year because he felt U.S. anti-terror efforts were failing.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=731&e=1&u=/ap/20040821/ap_on_re_as/terror_us_vigilante_interview

[mitchtv]

1. "colorful" ex soldier- who else is colorful?

kadahfy? Gordon Liddy?

[Syrinx]

3. yep, they never use "colorful" unless they mean crazy.

[0007]

4. John Negroponte the Iran/Contra convict and now ambassador

to the NEW Iraq government is indeed colorful. James Woolsey x-CIA head is another colorful guy, in fact you could call him a calico.

[geek tragedy]

2. "And I would have had him if it weren't for those meddling kids!" n/t

[Moderator]

5. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=767678