Justice for Jack Idema: 6 June 2007

It never seems to amaze me anymore that the dinosaur media continues to get things wrong. THIS is what frightens me. That what I read I can no longer trust. Let's look at what is happening to one of our own:

Following MSM's coverage of the case of illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces soldier Jack Idema can be an infuriating experience.

Usually, the cause of annoyance is the way in which journalists studiously ignore the fact that a US citizen has been imprisoned illegally by agents of his own state for more than two years. Occasionally, however, these long periods of silence are punctuated by the kind of profoundly misleading journalism that Big Media drones always resort to when forced to write about the Idema case.

Thus:

An American citizen imprisoned in Afghanistan for running a private jail for terror suspects has a new passport. His dog has been vaccinated for overseas travel. But two months after being freed by presidential decree, Jack Idema remains in his Afghan cell.

Technically, all of this is true. Jack was, indeed, imprisoned for running a private jail, and he was, indeed, freed by Presidential decree earlier this year. What the AP's Jason Straziuso fails to point out is that Jack and his men were cleared of all charges on appeal in March 2005.

Now wait just one cotton-pickin' minute. Why is it that these 'media' type can print a story about a Kor'an being flushed down a toilet--which, by the way, caused many deaths and was never apologized for--and be silent about a private American citizen being held in a foreign prison after being found INNOCENT and not raising a stink? Why is that okay? Cindy Sheehan farts, and it makes news. I guess you have to hate your country, not love it enough to go and defend it, before the Left-wing 'media' notices.

So. Not only does Straziuso miss the very important 'falsely' qualifier to his use of 'imprisoned', but he also fails to ponder the question of why it took Karzai a full, two years to get around to ordering Jack's release. Then there's this:

They [the reasons Jack remains in jail] also involve documents that Idema says would finally prove his claim that he was a hired mercenary hunting al-Qaida suspects on a mission sanctioned by U.S. counterterrorism officials — a claim that American authorities have denied.

Now, let's be quite clear about this: Jack Idema has never claimed to be a mercenary -- Quite the opposite, he has always denied receiving even one dollar from a foreign power. Moreover, whether or not the State Department chooses to deny the fact that Jack and his team worked for the US is quite beside the point -- Way back in September 2004, evidence produced by Jack forced them to admit to accepting prisoners from him.

Once again, the State Department is one of the greatest leakers in this war (makes me think they're on the side of al Qaida sometimes) go unscathed. Why? Are they not government officials? Are we not to be suspicous of them as well?

Straziuso saves the best for last:

Another issue has been compensation demanded by one of the men Idema held in his prison.

The man, a senior judge called Sadiq, had originally wanted US$13,000 (€9,700) in compensation, but told the AP that he gave Idema a letter on Friday forgiving him.

"Because I'm an Afghan Muslim, I forgive all these things," said Sadiq, who goes by one name. "I'm not his enemy, he's not my enemy."

Obviously this attempt to portray Sidiq as the kindly, forgiving type might be a little trickier to pull-off had Straziuso actually stirred himself to learn and mention the fact that at the time Jack's team arrested him, the 'forgiving Afghan' in question was in possession of explosive detonators, Hezb-i-Islami membership cards and a letter of introduction from Mullah Omar.

It might also strike the AP's readership as more than a little odd that Sidiq feels the need to 'forgive' Jack at all -- He is, after all, on record as stating that the allegations of torture against Idema were fabricated and that, far from Jack stringing captive Afghans up in a (non-existent) basement, "there was no torture they ever saw, no beating, no slapping, not even a pinch. NOTHING".

Then again, it's to be assumed that the effectiveness of sneering a hit-pieces like this one will always increase in the direct proportionate to the number of facts they either distort or omit.

Ah, the nitty-gritty. It's all about the money, right? Then why do the 'media' go after the stories where 'if it bleeds, it leads'? Is that not because they plan to make as much MONEY as they can? To hell with America, just as long as they get the big bucks?

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.

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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.

If you have the time once a week, I encourage you join with us. Not enough people know enough about this situation and if it were you, I would be writing to save you, too. We need to be each others eyes and ears and sometimes each others voice. Please help us to help Jack. Thank you, and have a nice day.

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

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.