Free Jack Idema Blogburst: 1/17/2007

Right now, illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces soldier Jack Idema is stuck inside one of the world's most infamous prisons, Pulacharke, for crimes he was cleared of committing two, full years ago. As for Jack's right-hand-man, Captain Brent Bennett remains in hiding, denied access to his own passport and the right to return home to the country he fought for. Brent is, in his own words, 'a man without a country'.

Meanwhile, under cover of darkness last Friday, a former Deputy Minister for the Taliban, Mullah Shahidkhel, was flown out of Pulacarke on President Karzai's orders. Shahidkhel, who no one doubts deserved to be imprisoned, was returned to his Taliban 'brothers'. He was personally greeted by Mullah Omah.

It will, perhaps, be instructive to compare and contrast the kind of men Karzai keeps imprisoned with those he chooses to release.

First, then, there's Jack Idema. Far from having committed any crimes whatsoever, Jack and his team spent the three years from 2001-2004 engaged in the following:

• Fighting terrorists alongside our allies in the Northern Alliance.
• Rescuing women and children from earthquake-hit areas.
• Hunting Bin Laden.
• Rescuing the President of Afghanistanís Ariana Airlines, Robullah Amain, from a rioting Islamist mob.
• Thwarting a terrorist plot to firebomb Bagram Airbase

So that's the guy who President Karzai and the US State Department illegally imprison -- What about the Taliban leader they choose to release? Well, from his time as one of the key Islamofascists running Afghanistan under the Taliban right up until the present day, Mullah Shahidkhel has been involved in the following, actual crimes:

• As the Deputy Minister [pdf] in the Taliban's Religious Education Ministry, Shahidkhel closed schools, burned schools, burned books, and had hundreds of teachers and lecturers working in non-religious fields hanged.
• Ordered the execution of scores of women who secretly educated their daughters.
• Was serving a 17-20 year sentence for murder and torture.
• While imprisoned, ordered yet more schools burned and teachers assassinated.
• Was facing fresh murder charges for his leadership role in the March 2006 riots at Pulacharke which left a dozen people dead

Something is going badly wrong in Afghanistan, and men like Jack Idema and Brent Bennett are paying the price. As for Mullah Shahidkhel, well, the only thing he'll be paying for in the near future is the gasoline he needs for burning more schools to the ground.

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.

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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, 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 and Special/Blown-It.