Justice for Jack Idema Blogburst 5/2/2007

It's been over three weeks since the news broke that US Special Forces soldier Jack Idema had been released from nearly three years of illegal-detention in Afghanistan. Since the initial flurry of articles in MSM that followed this announcement, however, the usual silence has descended over the Idema case.

... Which is strange if one considers that, when it comes to some other detainees, MSM have plenty to say.

Take, for example, the BBC's coverage of David Hicks, the Islamofascist fighter (trained, amongst other things, in assassination and 'martyrdom operations') who was recently transferred from Guantanamo Bay to a prison in his native Australia. During the two-month period between the announcement of the date for Hicks' tribunal and his eventual move, the BBC produced no less than sixteen articles on the case. Granted, some of these are legitimate (though typically-slanted) news stories. The majority, however, are clearly designed to do nothing more than keep Hicks' story fresh in readers' minds.

How different things are for Jack Idema, whose release drew only one report from AP, three weeks ago, and then silence. While Hicks' (disproved) claims of ill-treatment are picked over in detail, there has still been no mention of the (very real) torture Jack and his men suffered after their arrest. While Hicks' family are given every opportunity to put their case (such as it is), no one in MSM has ever bothered to contact Jack's WWII veteran father and ask how he feels about his son's imprisonment. While the press-pack devote thousands of column-inches to debating the legitimacy of Gitmo, there is little-to-no interest in the fact that Jack Idema has been held in absolute violation of both Afghan and US law for two, full years. And while no one doubts Hicks' guilt (which even he accepted), Jack Idema not only maintains his innocence, but proved it when he and Brent were acquitted on appeal -- Something else that MSM have never bothered to fully report on.

This matters, and not just in terms of how well it illustrates Big Media's obsession with terrorists and its indifference to US troops. See, the constant barrage of (mainly supportive) press Hicks received helped to keep the issue of his incarceration alive. Arguably, it also helped to net him an unjustly-light nine-month sentence.

Right now, Jack Idema could use some of that kind of press. Instead, it begins to look as though MSM have flushed his name back down the memory-hole, leaving him to struggle on alone against the State Department's obstruction tactics.

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.

Technorati tags: jack idema, afghanistan and Technorati Search for Jack Idema.

Justice for 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 and GM's Corner.