Friday, December 01, 2006

Free Jack Idema Blogburst 12/1/2006

Regular readers of the Free Jack Idema Blogburst will recall the events last month which resulted in Brent Bennett's forcible removal from Afghanistan. As Brent was being dragged out of the country in handcuffs, Jack Idema was involved in a tense standoff with the fifty-or-so Karzai goons who were trying to move him to a prison away from his (relatively) secure quarters at Pulacharke.

Although Northern Alliance Generals eventually resolved that situation by forcing Karzai's troops to stand down, the number of pro-Taliban, non- Northern Alliance guards working at Pulacharke Prison has been increasing steadily for some time.

This week (though apparently only reported by Cao's Blog and in the Gulf Times) the results of this policy became clear:
    KABUL: Three men held at Afghanistan’s main prison on terrorism charges walked out of the high-security facility by pretending to be visitors, while another inmate was found dead, officials said Thursday.

    The men who escaped from Pul-i-Charki prison on the outskirts of Kabul on Wednesday were facing sentences ranging from death to 15 years in jail after being convicted of terror offences, officials said on condition of anonymity.

    They did not say if the three were linked to the Al Qaeda or Taliban extremist groups active in Afghanistan or give details of the charges.

    The interior ministry refused to comment, saying it was trying to collect details.
Now, Pulacharke is Afghanistan's most secure prison. Aside from one illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier, it also houses some of the most brutal and dangerous terrorists captured during the WoT. And yet four such men (the very least of them jailed for fifteen years) simply walked out Pulacharke? Is this really credible? Or is it worth wondering if the presence of large numbers of Taliban-supporting guards at the prison was the real reason behind the ease of the terrorists' escape?

If so, then this is a very worrying development in terms of the Jack Idema's story. After all, if the security situation at Pulacharke is now so weighted in favour of pro-Taliban elements that four of the world's most dangerous terrorists can simply stroll out of custody, what next?

-- If this is the case, then how will Jack fair when the next carefully-orchestrated al-Qaeda 'riot' occurs? In the past, he's been able to count on the support of Northern Alliance guards. How will his new, pro-Taliban jailors react to a terrorist attempt on Jack's life? By fighting to protect him? On the strength of this week's events, that hardly seems likely, does it?

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's 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 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 Ev, Hyscience, Stuck On Stupid, The Daily Blogster, You Don't Know Jack and Right Wing Nation.