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jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

One of the biggest problems faced by those of us who campaign, week-in, week-out
for the release of falsely-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema and
his compatriot Brent Bennett is the fact that mud sticks.

What this has meant for Jack and Brent is that the outright lies that they were guilty of kidnapping and torture have been repeated so often that many people assume there must be some truth behind the allegations. There isn't.

The section of Jack's counter-terrorist work, then, that has bearing on his arrest and the charges brought against him involved:

• Arresting suspected terrorists.
• Interrogating them in order to obtain actionable intelligence.

Let's look at these in turn, weighing the
credibility of Jack's case against the claims made against
him.

First, then, was Jack entitled to make arrests? The U.S.
State Department and Karzai denied that this was the case, and, further, claimed
Jack was never operating in an official capacity. However, if this was really
the case, we need to ask ourselves how it is that Jack is able to provide ample photographic evidence to the contrary?
Indeed, the attempts to deny Idema was involved in official counter-terrorism
operations in Afghanistan begin to look more than a little shaky when you see
pictures of him:

• Leading columns of Northern Alliance troops
• Rescuing
  civilians from earthquake-hit regions
• Meeting with no less than five
  top Afghan Generals

All of the above should, if nothing else, make the
Karzai/State Department denial that Jack was working in an official capacity
seem scarcely credible. And if that's that the case, how could he possibly be
guilty of kidnapping the terrorists in his custody?

Second, did
Jack torture anyone? This is, more than anything else, the aspect of the case
that disturbed most people at the time of the first (September 2004) trial.
Here's what Jack and his men were accused of in early
press-reports:

These terrorists, who were working directly for
Osama bin Laden and Gulbideen Hekmatyar, both on America’s Most Wanted list, now
claim they were tortured and abused; now claim we smashed their heads in bloody
bags, cut off fingers, poured boiling water on them, hung them upside down and
dipped them in boiling water, repeatedly burned them with cigarettes, beat them
day and night, and refused to feed them.

Certainly, this makes for
grim reading ... Only, here's the thing: No evidence that any of this took
place has ever been presented. None.

When the terrorists Jack and his team arrested appeared in court to give evidence against him, all were in good health, with nary a scold, cigarette-burn, missing finger or bashed head in sight. Also, no photographic or forensic evidence of the alleged 'torture' was produced, and all Jack's accusers refused to be sworn in (on the Koran) before giving testimony. Most tellingly, witnesses claimed that the head-basing and finger-chopping took place in the basement of Jack's house. One, small problem with this claim is that the property in question had no
basement.

So that's the 'case' against Jack Idema and his team. Now
here's Jack himself, describing the real methods he used:

We kept them
awake with 24 hours of non-stop questioning, played loud Rock and Roll music and
offered to let them work for us if they would turn over on the others. All that
we questioned turned on each other. When one didn’t, we did not beat him, we
simple confronted him with two that were cooperating and he quickly decided to
join the same team.
Once they told us a little we gave them non-stop Miranda
soda and restaurant kabob and promises of a new job working against
terrorism.
The soldiers in Iraq that claim their abuse of prisoners was
ordered by MI (Military Intelligence) are liars. You only have a few days at
most to get actionable intelligence. Let a terrorist sit in a cell and you lose
the initiative to find the others. Beat the terrorists and he admits to anything
or nothing. Again you lose. Humiliate the terrorist and he hates you and feeds
you lies.
Your only way to get the terrorists to talk is sleep deprivation,
promises for freedom if he gives up the other terrorists, and convincing the
terrorist you are his friend.

So who do we believe? A group of known
terrorists making claims that they either cannot substantiate or which are
demonstrably untrue (Jack's vanishing basement, the absence of bashed-in heads
and missing fingers)? Or a U.S. Special Forces soldier with decades of service
to his country behind him? Whatever the MSM who so-uncritically covered the case
might think, this isn't a trick question.


So what can we do? Well, anyone
reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack
Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao
or Rottweiler
Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly
short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section
devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a
timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available
over at SuperPatriots, without whose
work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You can also contact the following people and make your feelings known:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: – 301-560-5729 (Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown – 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908 (denied them water and mail at
Thanksgiving)

US Embassy Translator Wahid – new – 011-93-70201902

US Embassy Translator Bashir Momman– 011-93-70201923

US Consul (friend of Jack's Now fired) Dawn Schrepel– 011-93-70201908

Embassy of Afghanistan (Good
guys, Northern Alliance)
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Ph: 202-483-6410, Fax: no. 202-483-6488

Ambassador Massoud Khalili (wounded with Massoud)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
New Delhi, India

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (+1-202) 483 6414
Fax: (+1-202) 483 9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (+1-212) 972 2276 or 972 2277
Fax: (+1-212) 972 9046

Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E880
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Ph: (703) 692-7100
Fax: (703) 697-9080

Lt General William Boykin
Deputy Undersecretary
of Defense for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E836
Washington, DC 20301
Ph: (703) 697-0170
Private Fax: (703) 697-9080

Stephen Cambone
Principle Deputy Secretary for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E
Washington, DC 20310-0100

General Peter J. Shoomaker
Chief of Staff, Department of the Army
200 Army Pentagon – Room # 3E528
Washington, DC 20310-0200
Ph: (703) 695-2077 / Fax: (703) 614-5268

The Honorable John D. Negroponte
Director National Intelligence
New Executive Office Building
725 17th Street, N.W., Room 4203
Washington, DC 20503

The Committee
On Homeland Security
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: (202) 225-4121 / Fax: (202) 225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18
Email

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
310 New Bern Avenue, Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Fax: 919.856.4053

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (of Interest)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154 / Fax: (202) 228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2731 / Fax (202) 225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633


Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this
site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party
is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

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