jack idema
Brent Bennett Freed?

It's beginning to look as though Captain Brent Bennett has been released from prison:

KABUL, Afghanistan - An American was released from an Afghan prison and flown out of the country Saturday after serving more than two years for running a private prison as part of a freelance hunt for terrorists, officials said.
Court documents filed Friday in Washington, D.C., show that U.S. officials planned to secure Brent Bennett a passport and a ticket out of the country, and an Associated Press reporter saw a man identified as Bennett board a plane for Dubai late Saturday.
It was not clear if Bennett, 29, was free or in the custody of U.S. officials. He was held in a private room at the airport and journalists were prevented from talking to him.

So what's going on? Well, we know from Jack Idema's own account (speaking both to the AP and to members of the Free Jack campaign), that Brent was removed from the Task Force Sabre compound by force last Thursday. What's less clear is if he was also forced to leave Afghanistan. It certainly looks as though the U.S. officials moving him around have gone to great lengths to keep him out of sight, and are denying him the right to speak with members of the press -- If Bennett really is a free man, then why such heavy-handedness on behalf of the U.S. and Afghan authorities?

Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long before getting answers to some of these questions, and in the meantime, at least, we can breathe a sigh of relief that both Brent and Jack are out of immediate danger.