jack idema

The Justice For Jack Idema Blogburst

Following MSM's coverage of the case of illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces soldier Jack
Idema can be an infuriating experience.

Usually, the cause of annoyance is the way in which journalists studiously ignore the
fact that a US citizen has been imprisoned illegally by agents of his own state for more than two years. Occasionally, however, these long periods of silence are punctuated by the kind profoundly misleading journalism that Big Media drones always resort to when forced to write
about the Idema case.

Thus:

An American citizen imprisoned in Afghanistan for running a private jail
for terror suspects has a new passport. His dog has been vaccinated
for overseas travel. But two months after being freed by presidential
decree, Jack Idema remains in his Afghan cell.

Technically, all of this is true. Jack was, indeed, imprisoned for running a private jail, and he was, indeed, freed by Presidential decree earlier this year. Only, what the AP's Jason
Straziuso fails to point out is that Jack and his men were cleared of all charges on appeal in March 2005. So. Not only does this mean that Straziuso is missing the very important 'falsely' qualification to his use of 'imprisoned', but that he also fails to ponder the question of why it took Karzai a full, two years to get around to ordering Jack's release. Then there's this:

They [the reasons Jack remains in jail] also involve documents that Idema says would finally prove his claim that he was a hired mercenary hunting al-Qaida suspects on a mission sanctioned by U.S. counterterrorism officials — a claim that American authorities have denied.

Now, let's be quite clear about this: Jack Idema has never claimed to be a mercenary -- Quite the opposite, he has always denied receiving even one dollar from a foreign power. Moreover, whether or not the State Department choose to deny the fact that Jack and his team worked for the US is quite beside the point -- Way back in September 2004, evidence produced by Jack forced them to admit to accepting prisoners from him.

Straziuso save the best for last:
Another issue has been compensation demanded by one of the men Idema held in
his prison. The man, a senior judge called Sadiq, had originally wanted US$13,000 (€9,700) in compensation, but told the AP that he gave Idema a letter on Friday forgiving him.
"Because I'm an Afghan Muslim, I forgive all these things," said Sadiq, who goes by
one name. "I'm not his enemy, he's not my enemy."Obviously, this attempt to portray Sidiq as the kindly, forgiving type might be a little trickier to pull-off if Straziuso actually stirred himself to mention the fact that, at the time Jack's team arrested him, the 'forgiving Afghan' in question was in possession of explosive detonators, Hezb-i-Islami membership cards and a letter of introduction from Mullah Omar.
It might also strike the AP's readership as more than a little odd that Sidiq feels the need to 'forgive' Jack at all -- He is, after all, on record as stating that the allegations of torture against Idema were fabricated and that, far from Jack stringing captive Afghans up in a (non-existent) basement, "there was no torture, we never saw, not beating, not slapping, not even a pinch. NOTHING".

Then again, it's to be assumed that the effectiveness of sneering hit-pieces like this one will always increase in direct proportion to the number of facts they either distort or omit.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Justice for 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 should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

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

US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

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.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

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

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

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 (Interested)
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

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati
Search for Jack Idema

The Justice for Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Cao's Blog
Rottweiler Puppy
Causes of Interest
Stuck On Stupid
You Don't Know Jack
Right Voices
Causal Nexus
A Real Man
GM's Corner

Passport, passport, who's got the passport?

jack idema
The Justice For Jack Idema Blogburst

Illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces Soldier Jack
Idema's struggle to wrest his own passport from the hands of his
own Government continues. As the weeks drag by without this appalling
situation getting any nearer resolution, it really is worth
considering the difference between the behaviour of the State
Department's little, trained minions and that of Jack's allies in the
Northern Alliance.

As regular readers will doubtless recall, Jack's search for justice has spilled out into the US courtroom of Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. Last time around, we concerned ourselves with the frankly laughable attempts of the State Department to explain why
Jack was occupying a wing of Afghanistan's highest-security prison six months after his 'official' release. In whatever alternate-reality State Department drones inhabit, the most plausible-sounding explanation they could offer boiled-down to the bizarre assertion that no one in either the US or Afghan governments could simply put Jack on a plane.

Certainly, there's a vein of black-comedy running through all this. Only, here's the thing: While State Department officials treat the illegal-imprisonment, torture and attempted murder of their countrymen as a laughing matter, many decent Afghans don't
seem to get the joke:

My name is Abdul Latif. I am a citizen and resident of the Islamic State of Afghanistan. I read, write and speak Pashtu and Dari.
I have worked for different government ministry departments. I was also in the resistance against the Russians, the Taliban, and Al Qaida terrorists. I now work for the Ministry of Justice as the senior Block Commander of the most dangerous area of Pulacharke. After my good friend General Sherzaman was killed protecting Jack two years ago, I was chosen to protect Jack. I was block commander in that area until the riots last year, and then took over Block 2. I control about 10 Colonels and another 100 officers beneath them. I have 1460 prisoners under my control, many are very violent terrorists who have killed many people. They are not allowed to have any relation with me because they are very bad criminals. But I eat dinner with Jack many times, and I feel Jack, Brent and Wahid are very good men and very good friends. I always know they were innocent and I myself heard our highest judges say they were innocent to my face.

This comes from Abdul Latif's affidavit to Judge Sullivan's court, and, in these two paragraphs, he tells us everything we need to know about both his, and Jack's, character.
Let's consider what he has to say.

Here is a man who has spent his entire life fighting ALL the right battles. When the Soviets invaded his homeland, he took up arms against what was then the second-mightiest army in the world. When the Taliban seized control of his country, he took up arms against them. And, when Al Qaida terrorists crawled into bed with the mullahs running pre-9/11 Afghanistan, Latif fought them as well.

Back in 2001, when US and British Special Forces (Jack Idema among them) entered
Afghanistan, Abdul Latif and his comrades were hemmed into a tiny, northern province of their own country, fighting what had been a losing battle against the forces of Islamofascism ranged against them.
And yet. Men like Abdul Latif still fought.

If this is the pedigree of the people who call Jack Idema 'friend', then what does
that say about the quality of those who tortured and imprisoned him?

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 should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

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

US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

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.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

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

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

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 (Interested)
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

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati
Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Cao's Blog
Rottweiler Puppy
Causes of Interest
Stuck On Stupid
You Don't Know Jack
Right Voices
Causal Nexus
A Real Man
GM's Corner

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

Although illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces soldier has now been officially released from prison in Afghanistan, it seems the US State Department is doing everything in its power to prevent him returning home.

Earlier today, Jack's Afghan lawyer, Rahim Ahmadzai, put out an affidavit which confirms many of the things the Free Jack campaign has been saying all along. Before presenting the facts, though, I'll let hmadzai introduce himself:
My name is Rahim Ahmadzai. I am an attorney licensed to practice law in all courts of Afghanistan. Prior to 2005, I was employed as an administrative member of the Supreme Court and by the National Security Courts of Afghanistan. I received my degree in Shariat law in 1979, and my Masters Degree in Islamic Religious Jurisprudence in 1988, and have practiced law or been a judge since.

Over the past 25 years, I served as a judge in the Human Rights court, then as a judge in the Family Court, then a judge in the Criminal Courts, then a Judge in the Juvenile Courts, then a Judge in the National Security Court, and finally, a member of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan. I was intimately involved in the trial of Cmdr. Jack Idema, Captain Brent Bennett, and Lieutenant Z. Wahid Rasuli Banderas.

So, question: how many high-court judges do you know who have the moral courage to step down from the bench in order to prevent a miscarriage of justice?

Well. Exactly.

Rahim Ahmadzai is to be commended for his bravery. That said, Ahmadzai has many interesting things to say on the subject of Jack and Brent's first 'trial: It was because of their trial, and the way it was mishandled and illegal, that I resigned from the Court and left the government in disgust. The entire trial and subsequent conviction was orchestrated and controlled behind the curtain by the United States Embassy in Kabul. These men never would have been charged or prosecuted had it not been for the United States Embassy.
It was a known fact that they were officially working for the Afghan National Security Advisor and Minister of Defense. The trial violated almost every aspect of the Afghan Penal Code, Criminal Code, and Constitution related to criminal trial conduct.

In the second trial the men were declared innocent, but again the US Embassy stopped their release. The complete illegitimacy of Jack's first, September 2004 trial is something we've remarked upon again and again in this blogburst. As it turns out, the 'ex'-Taliban judge who presided over that travesty, Bakhtyari, is now doing the kind of work more suited to a man of his dubious talents:

Judge Bakhtyari has since been demoted and reassigned as a small claims judge in civilian small claims court - to my knowledge, he does not have any formal education in law or any other subject.

While Bakhtyari struggles to resolve whose-goat-is-it-anyway? disputes in his small-claims courtroom, however, it really is worth asking why a group of US soldiers and their Northern Alliance allies wound up having their liberty taken away by a man with no legal (or, indeed, any) education. Were no competent judges available? Or, more likely, did the US State
Department actually prefer that Jack and Brent's case be presided over by an incompetent judge?

Whatever the truth of that, right now, Jack is faced with the following difficulties:

In March 2007, I visited Jack Idema and volunteered to represent him against certain Afghan officials, who, acting under the orders of the United States Embassy, violated his rights. I also volunteered to represent Captain Brent Bennett, who has
been illegally denied a visa to return to Afghanistan for his property. That visa was blocked at the direction of the United States Embassy in Kabul, which exercises extensive, if not full control, over the government agencies involved in the Bennett and Idema case. I also volunteered, at Jack Idema’s request, to represent, for the first time in my legal career, their dog, Nina Natasha Nikita, in an effort to
also secure the release of the dog from Afghanistan.
The United States Embassy has since blocked the return of Jack Idema’s original
passport, which is prima facie evidence of his innocence on several of the accusations made. Additionally, the United States Embassy has blocked the return of Jack Idema’s documents and property from the National Security Directorate (NDS).

Now, we will remember that one of the original charges against Jack was that he'd entered
Afghanistan illegally. Obviously, his passport is the key to disproving this entirely false allegation, which is why the US Embassy staff are currently refusing to hand the document over. They are also withholding documents that would prove his innocence on the charges of
kidnapping and torture. Here's Rahim Ahmadzai, describing his encounter with the US authorities in Afghanistan:

I was at NDS approximately three weeks ago, after the Saleh Order was signed,
when US government agents were there requesting NDS withhold the property, passport, and evidence and not follow the Saleh Order. After the US Embassy met with the 17th Division of the NDS, Director Modafi, who worked with (and for) the US Embassy in the original trial against these men, he refused to return Jack Idema’s and Brent Bennett’s property, documents, and evidence.

Let's put all this together. Here we have a US citizen, illegally-imprisoned for three years on the say-so of the US State Department and a small-claims court 'judge'. When said US citizen is finally released, the US authorities promptly confiscate all documents which would prove said
citizen's innocence. They even attempt to use said citizen's beloved pet dog as a bargaining-chip in the wrangle -- You get to go home with the mutt, we get the documents which prove your innocence.

How far we've fallen from the high purpose of those post-9/11 days. Back then, Jack Idema, and dozens of men like him, helped the Northern Alliance decimate the Taliban and their al-Qaeda cohorts, driving the bearded-crazies out of power in the name of a free Afghanistan. And
today? Today, Jack Idema fights to recover his own passport, while his lawyer, obviously disgusted with what has become of Afghanistan under Karzai, has the following to say:

Contrary to what appears on the surface, in Afghanistan in this country the American Embassy controls this government, completely. If you are employed by the Afghan government, you simply do not refuse the orders of the Embassy
unless you are ready to be fired or arrested.

This is an absolutely disgusting situation. Let's hope and pray it is resolved soon.

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

It's now been seven very long weeks since anyone heard from illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces soldier Jack Idema.

For those of us involved in this campaign week-in, week-out, it is, perhaps, easy to forget just how strange this entire situation is.

Consider: here we have a US citizen, tried in a Taliban court and illegally-imprisoned for four years, who has, quite simply, been removed from all contact with the outside world. Right now, Jack is unable to:

• Make or receive phone calls
• Send or receive mail
• Receive visitors
• Receive care packages

Indeed, the isolation being imposed on Jack is so total that no one even knows where he is being held.

How different things are for the head-hacking, Taliban crazies who wind up in Afghan prisons these days:

An international dispute was developing last night after an Italian journalist kidnapped by the Taleban was released, apparently in exchange for five senior Taleban insurgents who had been held in an Afghan jail.
[...]
Mr Karzai's spokesman said: "There were some demands, and some of the demands were accepted. You see the result of it, the journalist was released. This was an exceptional case, and it will not happen again."
But Adrian Edwards, the UN spokesman in Afghanistan, said: "The UN does not negotiate with terrorists." The Afghan Independent Journalists' Association said that the deal was "not acceptable", and a spokesman from the US Embassy in Kabul said: "It is US policy not to make concessions to terrorists' demands."

Of course, this simply isn't true -- A recurring theme of the Free Jack Blogbursts has always been the steady trickle of Islamist fanatics Karzai has quietly set free in return for either hostage releases or, as with the Pulacharke riots in early-2006, in return for ceasing to repeatedly gang-rape 50 female prisoners.

Point of fact, the Karzai method for dealing with problematic Islamofascists has always been to offer them deals. Thus:

• Threaten to behead a journalist -- Karzai will release some Holy Warriors
• Threaten to butcher 50 female hostages in a prison riot -- Karzai will release some Holy Warriors

And

• Complain your feathers have been ruffled because a man called Jack Idema arrested a Taliban High Court Judge -- Karzai will torture, illegally-imprison, then finally disappear the Green Beret in question.

Anything to oblige the head-hackers.

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 should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
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- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (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.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

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

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

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 (Interested)
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

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation
Ron's Musings
Right Voices
7.62mm Justice
Special/Blown-It
And Rightly So!
Causal Nexus
Death To The Swiss
A Real Man

Background Update continued

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

In March 2005, US Special Forces soldier Jack Idema and his men were declared innocent of kidnapping and torture on appeal. Since Jack remains illegally-imprisoned in Afghanistan's infamous Pulacharke Prison, however, it would be wise to look, again, at the first, August-September 2004, 'trial' that sent him there.

To begin, then, there was the judge in the case, Taliban sympathiser Abdul Baset Bakhtyari:

The original motion [from Jack and his defence team], like all motions filed, was ignored by Bakhtyari, who claimed the Interim Criminal Code, was merely a guideline, not really law, and that the laws of his former Taliban government would be applicable.

Quite apart from the rather obvious conflict of interest at work in having a Taliban judge try a group of Taliban hunters, this decision was no more legal than a US judge deciding to try his cases under Mexican law.

Next, there was the NDS Chief Prosecutor, Abdul Fatah, a man who had previously worked for the KGB during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan:

Fatah would pass the note up to prosecutor Dawari, who would then walk right up to the Judge’s bench and hand it to him while Jack, or later, one of the attorneys, would be talking. Bakhtyari would then read the note, and make some wild ruling. Regardless of how many times the defense objected or yelled about the secret communications, Bakhtyari would just ignore the complaint.

What we seem to be looking at here is much more serious than the procedural flaw of shutting the defence team out of communication between judge and prosecutor -- The dynamic was actually closer to the judge receiving instructions from the prosecution. So much for judicial impartiality.

What about a defence team? Well, although Idema and his men finally managed to acquire a U.S. lawyer, John Tiffany, to represent them, the state of play in the early stages of the trial was rather different:

Brent Bennett finally got a female Afghan lawyer in September 2004, ten days before the final verdict. She met Bennett ONE TIME for 20 MINUTES. She promptly informed Bennett that if she represented him Bakhtyari would not allow her to speak because she was a woman, and he did not normally allow women to appear in his court without a Burka. Then she dropped the real bomb– if she appeared in court for Bennett, she would be murdered.

There were similar problems for Jack and Brent when it came to translators. At first, 'Judge' Bakhtyari simply refused to appoint anyone to translate on the somewhat bizarre grounds that he had no intention of allowing the defence team to question any of the witnesses giving evidence against them.

After Jack filed a motion (written on paper smuggled into court under his shirt) demanding a translator, an official from the Italian Embassy was grudgingly appointed. This individual did a good job -- Too good, as far as Bakhtyari was concerned: he threatened the man with arrest if he returned to court after lunch on his first day.

Clearly, this still left the defence team in need of a translator, and Bakhtyari had this post filled by another former Soviet official whose behaviour was more to his liking:

[The] translator, who wasted no time interjecting his own thoughts on the defendants' guilt and talking about what horrible people they were. Of course he wasn't actually translating anything during this time, just offering his opinion to the court. This was common at every hearing, three difference translators were used by Bakhtyari, and all three acted as prosecutors, often refusing to translate Jack's words, or the videos the defense showed.
At one point, early on, either the third or fourth court appearance, Zorro leaned over to Jack and told him that the translator was changing all of his words and speaking as though Jack was confessing. Zorro was afraid to completely say what the translator was mis-interpreting because NDS had threatened to kill Zorro and arrest his family. Jack pointed out that the translator was making things up. The result? Upon return to NDS Zorro was placed in full body chains, where he remained for thirty days for telling Jack about the incorrect translations.

To say that Jack, Brent and the rest of Task Force Sabre 7 did not receive a fair trail in August-September 2004 is perhaps missing the point. On the strength of the above, it is quite arguable that they did not receive anything resembling a trial at all.

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 should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
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- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (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.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

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

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

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 (Interested)
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

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation
Ron's Musings
Right Voices

Background Update

jack idema
Free Jack Idema Blogburst

One aspect of the case of illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema that is always worth re-visiting is the horrendous treatment he and his men were subjected to after their arrest.

While Jack and his team (operating one of fifty-or-so similar SF safe-houses in Afghanistan) have been proven to have tortured no one, during the month of July 2004, Jack was beaten so badly by his pro-Taliban interrogators that he suffered the following injuries:

• Detached retinas in both eyes
• A broken sternum
• Torn rotator cuffs

Jack's second-in-command, Captain Brent Bennett, was:

• Beaten so badly he lost eight teeth
• Shown a knife and threatened with death on numerous occasions
• Told his nose and ears would be cut-off if he failed to co-operate

Major Ezmerai, 'Zorro', Syhail and Sherzai (the Northern Alliance officers and men on Jack's team), were subjected to:

• Beatings
• Electrocution
• Scalding with boiling water
• Death threats
• Phalanga (where the bare feet are tied to a pole and hit with rods)
• Torture with live scorpions
• Starvation
• Attempted rape

While these tortures were conducted by pro-Taliban officials at the NDS Headquarters in Kabal, they happened with the full knowledge of the U.S. State Department.

On July 11th 2004, Jack Idema contacted his embassy and claimed Prisoner of War status. His request was turned down by Sandra Ingram, Acting US Consul, who also refused to give Idema a copy of the Geneva Convention.

Visiting a second time (and after Jack managed to put his request for PoW status in writing), Ingram refused to either accept the document or pass it on to the Red Cross, claiming her State Department superiors 'ordered her not to do this'. Most disturbing of all, perhaps, Ingram (assisted by the FBI) also removed Jack and Brent's dog tags, Geneva Convention I.D. cards, and their U.S. passports.

During both of Ingram's visits to Jack and Brent during July 2004, it would have been quite obvious that both men had been badly beaten. Far from offering assistance to them, the U.S. State Department (along with the FBI, who also removed documents and videotapes seized by the NDS after Jack's arrest) moved to confiscate any and all means Jack and Brent had to prove either their innocence or the legitimacy of their mission in Afghanistan.

In the light of these facts, it's easy to see why the State Department continue to obstruct Jack's release -- These people have one hell of a lot of questions to answer.

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 should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
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- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (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.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

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

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

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 (Interested)
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

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation
Ron's Musings