jack idema

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 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 NeumanUS Embassy- Afghanistan6180 Kabul PlaceDulles, VA 20189-6180
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknownUS Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)
Ambassador Massoud Khalili(wounded with Massoud)(Great and Kind man)Islamic State of AfghanistanEmbassy of AfghanistanAnkara, Turkey
Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)CONSULATE GENERAL OFAFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK360 Lexington Avenue,11th Floor New York,New, York, NY 10017Tel.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277Fax: (212) 972-9046
Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on IntelligenceH-405, U.S. CapitolWashington, DC 20515-6415;Office: 202-225-4121 / Fax: 202-225-1991Toll Free: (877) 858-9040
M. Cherif BASSIOUNIIndependent Expert of the Commission on Human RightsOn the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human RightsUNOG-OHCHRCH-1211 Geneva 10Ph: +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 Senate555 Dirksen Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510Ph: 202-224.6342Fax: 202-224.1100
Senator Richard Burr (Interested)United States Senate217 Russell Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510Phone: 202-224-3154 / Fax: 202-228-2981
Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack’s Side)United States SenateHart Senate Office BuildingRoom 716Washington, DC 20510Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183FL Fax 407-872-7165
Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett’s Representative)United States SenateHart Office Building, Room 331Washington, D.C. 20510202-224-3841
Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack’s Representative)United States Congress2437
Rayburn House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515Phone: 202-225-2731 / Fax 202-225-5773
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger(Reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)State Capitol BuildingSacramento, CA 95814Phone: 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
No Tags

.