Free Jack Idema Blogburst 8/30/2006

Another Wednesday, another blogroll. In case you do not know what this is about, please consider visiting Cao's Blog. There, you shall find mountains of evidence and research that has to do with this case.

BTW, if you think this is not possible, remember that Armatige knew "Scooter" Libby was innocent in October 2003. How? Because he is the one that leaked the information. For two years, he did say a word. He was under secretary for Colin Powell. Both men were against the war. So this gives them a reason to leave the White House--their employer--out to hang in a no-news investigation? THAT is your state department at work. Believe it. On with the show...this is written by Cao and/or Rottweiler Puppy. Have a good day.

One of the biggest problems faced by those of us who campaign, week-in, week-out for the release of falsely-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema and his compatriot Brent Bennett is the fact that mud sticks.

What this has meant for Jack and Brent is that the outright lies that they were guilty of kidnapping and torture have been repeated so often that many people assume there must be some truth behind the allegations. There isn't.

The section of Jack's counter-terrorist work, then, that has bearing on his arrest and the charges brought against him involved:

• Arresting suspected terrorists.
• Interrogating them in order to obtain actionable intelligence.

Let's look at these in turn, weighing the credibility of Jack's case against the claims made against him.

First, then, was Jack entitled to make arrests? The U.S. State Department and Karzai denied that this was the case, and, further, claimed Jack was never operating in an official capacity. However, if this was really the case, we need to ask ourselves how it is that Jack is able to provide ample photographic evidence to the contrary? Indeed, the attempts to deny Idema was involved in official counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan begin to look more than a little shaky when you see pictures of him:

• Leading columns of Northern Alliance troops
• Rescuing civilians from earthquake-hit regions
• Meeting with no less than five top Afghan Generals

All of the above should, if nothing else, make the Karzai/State Department denial that Jack was working in an official capacity seem scarcely credible. And if that's that the case, how could he possibly be guilty of kidnapping the terrorists in his custody?

Second, did Jack torture anyone? This is, more than anything else, the aspect of the case that disturbed most people at the time of the first (September 2004) trial. Here's what Jack and his men were accused of in early press-reports:

These terrorists, who were working directly for Osama bin Laden and Gulbideen Hekmatyar, both on America’s Most Wanted list, now claim they were tortured and abused; now claim we smashed their heads in bloody bags, cut off fingers, poured boiling water on them, hung them upside down and dipped them in boiling water, repeatedly burned them with cigarettes, beat them day and night, and refused to feed them.

Certainly, this makes for grim reading ... Only, here's the thing: No evidence that any of this took place has ever been presented. None.

When the terrorists Jack and his team arrested appeared in court to give evidence against him, all were in good health, with nary a scold, cigarette-burn, missing finger or bashed head in sight. Also, no photographic or forensic evidence of the alleged 'torture' was produced, and all Jack's accusers refused to be sworn in (on the Koran) before giving testimony. Most tellingly, witnesses claimed that the head-basing and finger-chopping took place in the basement of Jack's house. One, small problem with this claim is that the property in question had no basement.

So that's the 'case' against Jack Idema and his team. Now here's Jack himself, describing the real methods he used:

We kept them awake with 24 hours of non-stop questioning, played loud Rock and Roll music and offered to let them work for us if they would turn over on the others. All that we questioned turned on each other. When one didn’t, we did not beat him, we simple confronted him with two that were cooperating and he quickly decided to join the same team.

Once they told us a little we gave them non-stop Miranda soda and restaurant kabob and promises of a new job working against terrorism.

The soldiers in Iraq that claim their abuse of prisoners was ordered by MI (Military Intelligence) are liars. You only have a few days at most to get actionable intelligence. Let a terrorist sit in a cell and you lose the initiative to find the others. Beat the terrorists and he admits to anything or nothing. Again you lose. Humiliate the terrorist and he hates you and feeds you lies.

Your only way to get the terrorists to talk is sleep deprivation, promises for freedom if he gives up the other terrorists, and convincing the terrorist you are his friend.

So who do we believe? A group of known terrorists making claims that they either cannot substantiate or which are demonstrably untrue (Jack's vanishing basement, the absence of bashed-in heads and missing fingers)? Or a U.S. Special Forces soldier with decades of service to his country behind him? Whatever the MSM who so-uncritically covered the case might think, this isn't a trick question.

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.

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.

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, Making Headlines, Right For Scotland, Freedom Folks, The City Troll, Sacramento Boxing, Causes of Interest, Concatenation of Events, Hyscience, Stuck On Stupid and The Daily Blogster.

Technorati tags: jack idema, afghanistan and Technorati Search for Jack Idema.
Category: (Military) POW's.