Justice for Jack Idema 5/23/2007

Here is this week's Justice for Jack Idema. I am going to post the email I received, because I just woke up and I want you to have this information. It is important that we remain the watchdogs on the this (and every) case that affects our brave men and women. Also, we are our brothers' keepers. The moment we forget that...we are doomed.

Illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces Soldier Jack Idema's struggle to wrest his own passport from the hands of his own Government continues. As the weeks drag by without this appalling situation getting any nearer resolution, it really is worth considering the difference between the behaviour of the State Department's little, trained minions and that of Jack's allies in the Northern Alliance.

As regular readers will doubtless recall, Jack's search for justice has spilled out into the US courtroom of Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. Last time around, we concerned ourselves with the frankly laughable attempts of the State Department to explain why Jack was occupying a wing of Afghanistan's highest-security prison six months after his 'official' release. In whatever alternate-reality State Department drones inhabit, the most plausible-sounding explanation they could offer boiled-down to the bizarre assertion that no one in either the US or Afghan governments could simply put Jack on a plane.

Certainly, there's a vein of black-comedy running through all this. Only, here's the thing: While State Department officials treat the illegal-imprisonment, torture and attempted murder of their countrymen as a laughing matter, many decent Afghans don't seem to get the joke:

My name is Abdul Latif. I am a citizen and resident of the Islamic State of Afghanistan. I read, write and speak Pashtu and Dari. I have worked for different government ministry departments. I was also in the resistance against the Russians, the Taliban, and Al Qaida terrorists. I now work for the Ministry of Justice as the senior Block Commander of the most dangerous area of Pulacharke.

After my good friend General Sherzaman was killed protecting Jack two years ago, I was chosen to protect Jack. I was block commander in that area until the riots last year, and then took over Block 2. I control about 10 Colonels and another 100 officers beneath them. I have 1460 prisoners under my control, many are very violent terrorists who have killed many people. They are not allowed to have any relation with me because they are very bad criminals. But I eat dinner with Jack many times, and I feel Jack, Brent and Wahid are very good men and very good friends. I always know they were innocent and I myself heard our highest judges say they were innocent to my face.

This comes from Abdul Latif's affidavit to Judge Sullivan's court, and, in these two paragraphs, he tells us everything we need to know about both his, and Jack's, character. Let's consider what he has to say.

Here is a man who has spent his entire life fighting ALL the right battles. When the Soviets invaded his homeland, he took up arms against what was then the second-mightiest army in the world. When the Taliban seized control of his country, he took up arms against them. And, when Al Qaida terrorists crawled into bed with the mullahs running pre-9/11 Afghanistan, Latif fought them as well.

Back in 2001, when US and British Special Forces (Jack Idema among them) entered Afghanistan, Abdul Latif and his comrades were hemmed into a tiny, northern province of their own country, fighting what had been a losing battle against the forces of Islamofascism ranged against them. And yet. Men like Abdul Latif still fought.

If this is the pedigree of the people who call Jack Idema 'friend', then what does that say about the quality of those who tortured and imprisoned him?

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 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.