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Time July 19, 2004 Notebook His Own Abu Ghraib In Afghanistan, an ex-Green Beret sets up a private prison By Tim McGirk When Afghan authorities raided the house of a former Green Beret named Jonathan (Jack) Idema in Kabul last week, they were startled to find a makeshift prison. Inside were three Afghan prisoners hanging from their feet. Five more men were locked up and badly beaten. Another example of prison abuse by U.S. forces? No, this do-it-yourself Abu Ghraib was a private jail being run by Idema and two other Americans who, along with several Afghan helpers, appear to...

A rising chorus of officers in each of the services is calling for commanders up and down the military chain to be held accountable for the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses in Iraq, officials tell Inside the Pentagon. Many are concerned the reputation of U.S. service members around the globe already has been deeply harmed by photos depicting physical abuse, sexual humiliation and the use of unmuzzled German shepherds to frighten detainees at the U.S.-run facility outside Baghdad. Some say the abuse scandal rivals the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam in terms of the long-term toll it may take on...

The scandal won't determine the fate of democracy in the Middle East.ACCORDING TO Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland, "the humiliating scenes of abused Iraqi prisoners" and the war in general "have turned that country [Iraq] into a model to be feared and avoided in the eyes of many in the Middle East, and a tool in the hands of governments reluctant to change." Telhami, who was a driving force behind a recent major Muslim-targeted public-diplomacy project chaired by former assistant secretary of state Edward Djerejian and paid for by Uncle...

A local Army reservist facing potential court-martial on charges that he abused and humiliated Iraqi prisoners under his watch previously faced allegations of making physical threats against his own family. Charles A. Graner Jr., 35, of 52 Johnson Ave., Uniontown, who works as a state prison guard in civilian life, since 1997 has been accused three times of abusing his former wife, Staci, and their two children, according to Fayette County Court records. Graner didn't show up for his last court appearance in March 2001, records show. As a result of that hearing, Fayette County Judge Ralph Warman issued a...