Karzai's Holiday Pardons Set an American Free

DISCOURAGED FORWARD! Junior Cape Crusaders Worldwide and our new trusty side-kick Psychotic and Homicidal Lynn Thomas of COWS BLOG!

Well Junior Cape Crusaders the saga continues! We found this article interesting and laugh at Psychotic and Homicidal Lynn Thomas claims that Jackbo refused the pardon because Karazi was doing the same for terrorist. Laughable! Like Jackbo would refuse to leave that wonderful prison if and WHEN his time is up..... LOL! Jackbo will run out of that place so fast that the escort cars will not be able to keep up! What an IDIOT you are Lynnbo......


Karzai's Holiday Pardons Set an American Free
By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: May 1, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan, April 30 An American imprisoned here after being found guilty of running a private jail and torturing detainees was released Sunday under a presidential pardon.

Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press Edward Caraballo, of the Bronx, was arrested at what Afghan officials called a private jail in Kabul. President Hamid Karzai granted an early release to Edward Caraballo, 44, an independent filmmaker from the Bronx, and to all other prisoners with less than a year to serve. Mr. Caraballo had served 21 months of a two-year sentence.

The pardons were in honor of two national holidays, the Prophet Muhammad's birthday and Afghanistan's defeat of Communism.Mr. Caraballo was convicted in 2004 along with two other Americans, Jonathan K. Idema, known as Jack, and Brent Bennett, former members of the United States military. All three were arrested at a house in Kabul where Afghan security forces said they found Afghan detainees and signs of interrogations. Mr. Idema and Mr. Bennett, who are serving longer sentences of five and three years, respectively, remain jailed. "I am not trusting it until it happens," Mr. Caraballo said Sunday from the prison, hours before getting on a plane.

He said that American Embassy officials and the Afghan prison chief had first told him he was to be released Saturday, telling him to get ready to leave that afternoon. "I am ready for it," he said of the shock of going from an Afghan prison to the United States. "I just want to get back and see my daughter."Mr. Caraballo had been trying to convince Afghan authorities of his innocence by distancing himself from Mr. Idema and Mr. Bennett. He said he was a journalist who had been filming Mr. Idema's group and was not involved in its activities. His original sentence of eight years was reduced on appeal last year. A convoy of vehicles from the United States Embassy escorted Mr. Caraballo to the airport.

An Afghan airport official said the embassy had asked that reporters be prevented from speaking with Mr. Caraballo. During the trial, Mr. Caraballo was given little chance to state his case. The court found all three men and four Afghan employees guilty of involvement in the detention and torture of eight Afghan detainees. Several of the detainees were witnesses at the trial. Mr. Caraballo said his release was expedited after he narrowly escaped a lynching during a prison riot. All three Americans were imprisoned in Pul-i-Charkhi, a sprawling Russian-designed prison in Kabul with 1,000 inmates, some of them suspected of links to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Suspected members of Al Qaeda attacked prison guards on two occasions and then tried to reach the Americans, apparently in attempts to kill them.In continuing violence, three Afghan soldiers were killed Sunday by a remote-control roadside bomb, Reuters reported. Three other Afghan soldiers were wounded in the blast, which took place in Helmand Province, in the south.On Sunday morning, the body of an Indian engineer kidnapped with his Afghan driver on Friday afternoon was found beheaded beside the main highway in southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. The Taliban had set a 24-hour deadline for the Indian government to withdraw all Indian workers and diplomats from Afghanistan in return for the kidnapped man's release.

The engineer, identified only as Mr. Surayanarayan by his employer, the Roshan telephone company, was killed when he tried to escape Sunday morning, Taliban officials said. "When he tried to escape, the mujahedeen shot him in the back," Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, the Taliban spokesman, said in a telephone interview. "We wanted to negotiate and give more time, but it happened suddenly." Mr. Ahmadi denied that the engineer had been beheaded but added that "irresponsible fighters" could have done it. He said the Afghan driver would be released unharmed.

Ruhullah Khapalwak contributed reporting for this article.

DISCOURAGED FORWARD!