Jack Idema - Blogburst

It’s now been eight very long weeks since anyone heard from illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces soldier Jack Idema. While we continue the anxious wait for any developments, this past week has brought two pieces of good news in the case.

First, there was the news that a US Judge, Emmet G. Sullivan, had taken an interest in Jack, and, in particular, the involvement of the FBI and US State Department in Idema’s arrest and torture:

While this Court is keenly aware of case law suggesting that it does not have jurisdiction over a habeas petition stemming from a foreign conviction and sentence, petitioners’ claim does more than simply challenge a foreign conviction. Petitioners allege that United States officials ordered their arrest, ordered their torture, stole exculpatory evidence during their trial and appeal, exerted undue influence over Afghan judges, and either directly or indirectly ordered judges who found petitioners innocent not to release petitioners from prison.
[…]
The Court cannot simply ignore petitioners’ alleged facts and find that it lacks jurisdiction without any response to these troubling facts by respondents.

Judge Sullivan goes on to demand a response by April 10th.

What is particularly encouraging about this motion is Sullivan’s refusal to simply dismiss Jack’s plight as a matter internal to the Afghan justice system. Although this is something the Free Jack Campaign have always stressed, this is the first time anyone on the ‘outside’ has recognised that Idema’s arrest, torture, trial and illegal-imprisonment happened with the direct involvement of the US Government.

The second piece of good news this week comes from one of our US Military sources in Kabul:

Heard through the grapevine from a few friends in Kabul that Jack’s judge was fired, placed under arrest, and is being investigated by the Justice Commission for his conduct of Jack’s trial.

This, presumably, means Abdul Baset Bakhtyari, the ‘former’ Taliban Judge who stated, at Jack and his team’s first ‘trial’, that he intended to conduct the case according to the Taliban criminal code instead of post-liberation Afghan law. Bakhtyari also refused to allow Jack and his men to submit evidence in their own defence or cross-examine any of the witnesses giving evidence against them. Bakhtyari also ejected the only competent interpreter from the court after half-a-day’s work, threatening to have him arrested if he returned for the afternoon session. In fact, the interpreter in question was lucky — When Brent was appointed a female lawyer, one of Bakhtyari’s Taliban associates threatened her with death if she so much as set foot in the courtroom. If it is, indeed, true that Bakhtyari is under investigation for these flagrant abuses of the Afghan legal system, this can only be a good thing.

However. There are two issues that must not be ignored: One is whether Bakhtyari is being set-up as a scapegoat so that the equally guilty parties in the US State Department, the FBI and the Karzai administration can dodge Judge Sullivan’s attention.

The second, and more pressing, matter is the whereabouts and wellbeing of the man at the center of this legal storm. Just where is Jack Idema?
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

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Right For Scotland
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The Daily Blogster
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Special/Blown-It
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