jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

One of the things worth stressing about the case of Jack Idema and Brent Bennett, the two US Special Forces soldiers held illegally in Afghanistan, is that the injustices they've suffered weren't aberrations. All across Afghanistan, right now, the freedoms men like Idema, Bennett and the Northern Alliance won for the Afghan people are being rolled back in an effort to appease Islamists and 'former' Taliban members.

A case in point is the reintroduction of the infamous Office for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, a move which prompted the following objection from the Afghan Bar Association [pdf]:

The Afghan Bar Association seriously and completely opposes the establishment of a new Afghan Government Office for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue. This Office, which was established by the Taliban terrorist government was known as Amrer Bil Maroof Wa Nahee Anil Monka, Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue. This office, under our Taliban oppressors, became infamous for corruption, abuse of power, terrorism, torture, and murder. Under the Taliban, this office was responsible for countless deaths of innocentAfghans for crimes ranging from wearing nail polish, to failing to pray or shaving beards. The Afghan people, after 25 years of war and struggle, know this office as the face of terror and oppression, a terrorist operation, which struck fear in the hearts of all Afghans and imposed their vicious and brutal will upon our people with the whip, the braided cable, and the machinegun.

Those of us who've followed the Idema case for some time now shouldn't find this, latest move of President Karzai's surprising -- It was with his blessing that Jack, Brent and the rest of Task Force Sabre were subjected to a trial under Taliban 'law', presided over by a Taliban judge, and this only a few months into Karzai's Presidency. Two years down the line, it seems as though the re-Islamisation of Afghanistan is gathering pace.

These two issues -- the campaign to free Jack and Brent and the campaign to keep Afghanistan free of Taliban-style religious police -- came together in Washington recently, when a group of American and Afghan women, dressed in burkas, handcuffed themselves to railings outside the Afghan embassy:

The Taliban executed women for wearing nail polish. A FREE THEM NOW spokeswoman said, "Mr. Hamid Karzai simply tortures them and imprisons them, not for nail polish, but for speaking out, divorce, adultery, sex outside of marriage, and many other things. Americans must never fear exercising the Constitutional rights paid for with American blood for more than 200 years." The women remained anonymous under the Burkas throughout the protest.
[...]
"We demand justice, and if it takes a dozen Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on September 11th 2006, then 300 Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on October 12th, the anniversary of the first bomb being dropped on the Taliban in the war of liberation, and then 1000 more Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on November 12, 2006, the anniversary of the American liberation of Kabul, then we will do it. But the terror and oppression must be stopped."

The protesters handed the Afghan Ambassador, Sayed Jawad Tayeb, a videotape of Afghan Supreme Court Judges discussing the Idema case and stating that Jack is completely innocent. Further protests are planned in Washington, New York and London for October 16th. For more information, readers should visit the Free Them Now homepage.

So what else 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 any of the people listed in previous posts and make your feelings known.



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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The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
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