Free Jack Idema Blogburst
I came across the subject of Jack Idema at Cao’s Blog, and the subject content intrigued me. I will be posting on this subject once a week. Please take the time to review it. Some background can be found here, here, and here.
One aspect of the case of illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema that is always worth re-visiting is the horrendous treatment he and his men were subjected to after their arrest.
While Jack and his team (operating one of fifty-or-so similar SF safe-houses in Afghanistan) have been proven to have tortured no one, during the month of July 2004, Jack was beaten so badly by his pro-Taliban interrogators that he suffered the following injuries:
- Detached retinas in both eyes
- A broken sternum
- Torn rotator cuffs
Jack’s second-in-command, Captain Brent Bennett, was:
- Beaten so badly he lost eight teeth
- Shown a knife and threatened with death on numerous occasions
- Told his nose and ears would be cut-off if he failed to co-operate
Major Ezmerai, ‘Zorro’, Syhail and Sherzai (the Northern Alliance officers and men on Jack’s team), were subjected to:
- Beatings
- Electrocution
- Scalding with boiling water
- Death threats
- Phalanga (where the bare feet are tied to a pole and hit with rods)
- Torture with live scorpions
- Starvation
- Attempted rape
While these tortures were conducted by pro-Taliban officials at the NDS Headquarters in Kabal, they happened with the full knowledge of the U.S. State Department.
On July 11th 2004, Jack Idema contacted his embassy and claimed Prisoner of War status. His request was turned down by Sandra Ingram, Acting US Consul, who also refused to give Idema a copy of the Geneva Convention.
Visiting a second time (and after Jack managed to put his request for PoW status in writing), Ingram refused to either accept the document or pass it on to the Red Cross, claiming her State Department superiors ‘ordered her not to do this’. Most disturbing of all, perhaps, Ingram (assisted by the FBI) also removed Jack and Brent’s dog tags, Geneva Convention I.D. cards, and their U.S. passports.
During both of Ingram’s visits to Jack and Brent during July 2004, it would have been quite obvious that both men had been badly beaten. Far from offering assistance to them, the U.S. State Department (along with the FBI, who also removed documents and videotapes seized by the NDS after Jack’s arrest) moved to confiscate any and all means Jack and Brent had to prove either their innocence or the legitimacy of their mission in Afghanistan.
In the light of these facts, it’s easy to see why the State Department continue to obstruct Jack’s release ” These people have one hell of a lot of questions to answer.
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.
You should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:
Secret US EMBASSY Fax: – 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180
US Consul Russell Brown – 011-93-70201908 (Fired)
US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908
(denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid – 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)
Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey
H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (202) 483-9523
Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046
Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: 202-225-4121 / Fax: 202-225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040
M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18
Senator Steven Saland (Jack’s Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack’s Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224.6342
Fax: 202-224.1100
Senator Richard Burr (Interested)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3154 / Fax: 202-228-2981
Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack’s Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165
Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett’s Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
202-224-3841
Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack’s Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2731 / Fax 202-225-5773
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(Reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633
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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January 6, 2007 - 12:05 AM on January 6th, 2007
ONE MORE STORY Of evil doing by a low life U.S. Pro taliban Government, jack was beaten his guys beaten the pig sanda Ingram the U.S Conaul must hate our freedoms. and with the full knowledge of this government how sad but what can you do? people will say nothing do nothing life is still good, our people who are in the military may someday be setup for killing by our own government for the ideals of hate and one world evil doers.
remember jack was beaten almost to death with the full knowledge of the u.s. consul he and his guys were almost killed with the full knowlegde of our own so called government, you can’t white wash that or can you?
this story will go no place.
January 6, 2007 - 12:05 PM on January 6th, 2007
Where are the protests from Amnesty International? The outrage from the U.N.? The hand-wringing in the MSM?
I remember when it was reported that an American guard at Gitmo MIGHT HAVE KICKED A KORAN!!!
That was a big story! But this? Not a mention…yawn…
The Left is so disgustingly and disgracefully hypocritical…they can go to hell for all I care.
And Fred is right. Where is out own Gov’t on this? Easier to just let it slide, I guess.
January 6, 2007 - 01:00 PM on January 6th, 2007
Somebody was standing on my prayer rug the other day. I yelled at him to get off my prayer rug. He jumped back and then I wiped my feet with it as I walked out. The horror!
January 6, 2007 - 03:58 PM on January 6th, 2007
I have no use for this religion………..it’s utter shit.
January 6, 2007 - 04:09 PM on January 6th, 2007
I have no use for ANY religion. They’re ALL utter shit.
Religion is a crutch for the weak-minded.
January 6, 2007 - 04:42 PM on January 6th, 2007
#4, #5
Agreed. Karl Marx has it right; “Religion is the opiate of the masses”.
January 6, 2007 - 07:36 PM on January 6th, 2007
Anyone bring this up to Ross Perot? This might be the kind of thing that he might be willing to bankroll. I wouldn’t worry about getting him out of Afghanistan under legal means. The state dept has already decided to burn him and his men like sacrificial lambs. I’d be more interested in seeing what can be arranged to get him out of the country in an extralegal manner. Dumping that B#$%h from the state dept in a river someplace wouldn’t break my heart either. I have a friend who used to do “plausible deniability” jobs for, as he put it, various and sundry government agencies. His comments one which agencies to trust were, “The CIA is generally okay, they’ll normally keep a mission secret and take care of you if things go wrong. NEVER tell anyone in the State dept the truth as to what your plans are. They’ll invariably tell the other side your plans.” I’m firmly of the opinion that the vast majority of people in the State dept need to be replaced. It’s become more of a hindrance to US interests than it’s worth. Someone needs to explain to these morons which country that they work for. They told the Mexican government where the Minutemen were going to be watching so that the Mexican Government could redirect the illegal aliens around them.
For those who haven’t heard, a number of armed men from Mexico forced a group of National Guardsman manning an observation post to withdraw from the post before returning to Mexico late Wednesday night. The Mexican Government is also planning on giving out, free of charge, 200,000 GPS units to Mexican citizens (NOT US citizens) to use to sneak into the US illegally. This is the country that our State dept claims is such a good neighbor. Last month, an EGYPTIAN of questionable motives was detained for transporting illegal aliens in New Mexico. He claimed to be a Mexican, but his fingerprints told a different tale. Does anyone actually believe that keeping a wide opne border really is in our best interest?
January 6, 2007 - 09:03 PM on January 6th, 2007
Why not allow the Mexican people here? They just want to work, just want to support their families! Anyway that lettuce you get for 99 cents would be a lot more if not for the labor of immigrants, yessirree! And they do jobs Americans won’t take, so there!
That’s all the arguments I have against enforcing immigration laws. Maybe some of the other Liberals can think of more. But they are pretty clever, rather convincing, aren’t they?
January 8, 2007 - 08:31 AM on January 8th, 2007
FrmrArtyoffcr thank you, and yes people who care know all about the Mexican Army running off our N.G, Guys! “and may God help Jack and his guys”
becuase this government hates us all as much as Mexico City/Bin Laden hates us all.Buy Guns for life.