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: