Jose Padilla: The Destruction of a Human Being

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

Dr. Angela Hegarty, director of forensic psychiatry at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, N.Y., who examined Mr. Padilla for a total of 22 hours in June and September, said in an affidavit filed Friday that he “lacks the capacity to assist in his own defense.”

“It is my opinion that as the result of his experiences during his detention and interrogation, Mr. Padilla does not appreciate the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him, is unable to render assistance to counsel, and has impairments in reasoning as the result of a mental illness, i.e., post-traumatic stress disorder, complicated by the neuropsychiatric effects of prolonged isolation,” Dr. Hegarty said in an affidavit for the defense.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/us/04detain.html?ei=5094&en=02ab7b458c838c22&hp=&ex=1165208400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

[Jcrowley]

1. Damn

Dec. 11, 2006 issue - Lawyers for "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla claim he is so disoriented from three years of isolation and aggressive interrogations that he is now mentally ill. In new court filings, Padilla's lawyers also assert for the first time that Padilla's interrogations were taped, thereby providing a potentially extensive video record of how the government treated a man once considered a dangerous Qaeda operative.

<snip>

Padilla's lawyers recently moved to have the entire case dropped because of government conduct that allegedly included subjecting him to sleep deprivation, extreme cold, injecting noxious fumes into his cell and giving him mind-altering drugs. Justice lawyers said there was not a "shred of record evidence" to support claims of "torture," but have declined to address specific interrogation techniques. Defense lawyers then submitted an affidavit from psychiatrist Dr. Angela Hegarty, who asserted Padilla was so "traumatized" by his treatment that he cannot bear to watch tapes of his interrogation, and when "approached by his lawyers, he begs them, 'Please, please, please' not to have to discuss his case." Hegarty says Padilla is suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder and cannot assist in his defense—a claim that could be a basis to put off his trial. Another new affidavit says Padilla suffers from "facial tics" and bodily "contortions," and fears that his lawyers are government agents. Human-rights lawyer Scott Horton said he expects lawyers for other Qaeda detainees at Gitmo to make similar claims, and also to press for access to tapes of clients' interrogations. "This is going to wind up being an enormous issue," he said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16011273/site/newsweek

K&R

[blogslut]

10. Wait...there's more!

In the article passage you quoted:

Dr. Angela Hegarty, who asserted Padilla was so "traumatized" by his treatment that he cannot bear to watch tapes of his interrogation...

There are tapes. And apparently Padilla's lawyers want them for evidence:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2852691

[uppityperson]

39. that is just sick. this whole thing is sick

[Ninja Jordan]

2. Welcome to the new Police State

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. That is beyond appalling. The poor SOB hasn't even been tried yet.

He's been tortured and abused for all this time; the presumption of innocence ignored -- and if it hadn't been for the work of a bunch of good lawyers, Bush's government would have kept him in this condition forever.

I wish I believed in Hell so I could imagine these people roasting in it for doing this.

[Bandit]

29. I don't think he has even been charged with a crime..

First they said he was going to set off a dirty bomb but when it became apparent they had no evidence they dropped that charge and I have not heard of any other crime he has been charged with. They say they don't need to charge him with anything because "they say" he is a terrorist without any evidence to support them. Padilla a US citizen arrested on the streets of Chicago has been denied all his Constitutional rights on the word of one man Bush*.

[mcg]

31. "Jose Padilla and The Death of Liberty"

an article written 9/10/05:
Jose Padilla and The Death of Liberty
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10223.htm

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. He's been used as a guinea pig

He's the experiment in taking a U.S. citizen prisoner, holding him without charges for years, and keeping him isolated. Significantly, he's someone from a racial minority with a criminal record and apparently no close friends or relatives to campaign for his release.

If they can get away with doing that to him, they can do it to anyone. Remember, he's a U.S. citizen.

Tyrants always start by repressing people who aren't very popular with the general public.

[Morgana LaFey]

15. Exactly right

IMO.

Padilla was an experiment in how much they could get away with AND a first step in "desensitizing" the American public to such treatment of "enemy combatants" who might also happen to be American citizens. I was terrified by that whole case, and am heartsick and nauseated by this news. Some things cah't be un-done, put back to where they were.

There isn't a hell big enough or bad enough for these people (incl. Bush) I swear.

[enough]

23. Yes. (nt)

[lutherj]

5. Can't help wondering if Padilla knew something that the administration

wanted silenced.

[aquart]

24. I don't think he knew a damn thing.

[Rose Siding]

25. The bushies just needed to goose up the boogey man

Padilla (whether he's guilty of anything or not) was used by them to send the message that we should Be Very Afraid.

[Eric J in MN]

6. Congress should pass a law allowing both lawsuits...

...and criminal prosecution for giving a prisoner:
a) prolonged isolation
b) sensory deprivation
c) drugs without consent
d) noxious fumes
e) sleep deprivation

[Octafish]

7. He is a citizen of the United States.

If they do it to one American, Bush and his cronies will do it to others.

Why so many refuse to see this is beyond my understanding.

[TexasLawyer]

38. A very important point

Padilla is a US citizen born in the USA.

People who think that being American keeps one safe from the clutches of this government needs to think again. Anyone, American or not, can be declared an "enemy combatant" on the flimsiest charge and sent to Gitmo forever.

That Padilla even got to see an attorney in the first place was pure accident, according to his lead attorney. How many other Jose Padillas are out there?

[Bonobo]

8. OMG. Reminds me of the movie, "Brazil".

That's basically what they do to suspects in that movie too.

This was horrifying and I wouldn't believe it possible if it weren't for what I've seen in the last 6 years.

We've become monsters.

[tom_paine]

20. Sadly, that's what the Busheviks have in store for us

However, I am not as unconfident that the System of Checks and Balances, worn out and brutalized as it is, can still purge this sewage from our national character.

More of us be willing to accept monstrous things, but perhaps the tide isturning.

[Scurrilous]

9. The Future is here.

"Everything will be all right. You are in my hands. I am here to protect you."

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

12. Where is that photo from?

Is that from Kafka's "The Trial"?

[Scurrilous]

14. THX 1138

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066434/

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

11. Padilla's case will become a legal precedent for decades to come.

It bears very close scrutiny...

MKJ

edited to add: Here's the heart of the matter...

But, Mr. Patel said in his affidavit, his client is nonetheless mistrustful. “Mr. Padilla remains unsure if I and the other attorneys working on his case are actually his attorneys or another component of the government’s interrogation scheme,” Mr. Patel said.

Mr. do Campo said that Mr. Padilla was not incommunicative, and that he expressed curiosity about what was going on in the world, liked to talk about sports and demonstrated particularly keen interest in the Chicago Bears.

But the defense lawyers’ questions often echo the questions interrogators have asked Mr. Padilla, and when that happens, he gets jumpy and shuts down, the lawyers said.

Dr. Hegarty said Mr. Padilla refuses to review the video recordings of his interrogations, which have been released to his lawyers but remain classified.

He is especially reluctant to discuss what happened in the brig, fearful that he will be returned there some day, Mr. Patel said in his affidavit.

MKJ

[riderinthestorm]

33. I'm afraid the next step for Padilla is a psych hospital, indefinitely.

Shades of the Soviet Union.

Whether this is a manufactured mental illness - a ploy by his defense to try to get his torture out in the open for media scrutiny, or Padilla has really been mentally incapacitated by the US, shipping him off to a psych unit is awfully conveeeenient isn't it? :sarcasm:


There's no good ending for this and you are right, this is going to be legal precedent for decades to come. Any which way you look at it, he is going to be incarcerated for a long time.

[mcg]

36. The movie 'Murder in the First' deals with a prisoner

at Alcatraz who went mad from solitary and sensory deprivation.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113870/

I doubt his mental illness is a ploy, I think few people could
stay sane in those conditions.

[mcg]

37. PSYCHOLOGICAL DEATH ROW

http://www.danenet.org/amnesty/supermax.html

'... Other common findings by Dr. Grassian's of inmates in isolation conditions are:

* hearing voices - even whispers,
* panic attacks,
* difficulty in concentration and with memory (example: inmates stated they could not concentrate to read) which can lead to disorientation,
* mind wanders,
* aggressive fantasies of revenge, torture and/or mutilation of the guards,
* paranoia and other fears,
* authorities trying to "break them down,"
* doubt oneself and troubles in determining what is real, and
* problems with controlling impulses - sometimes with random violence.
...

Here in Wisconsin, we currently do not have a state death penalty or a death row. However, we have what one of our supermax prisoners at Boscobel calls a PSYCHOLOGICAL DEATH ROW. ...'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation

' In 1986 United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture listed "sensory deprivation" among the techniques constituting torture<5>. Other groups, such as the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights<6>, for example, lists sensory deprivation as a type of "mental torture"<7>. '

Break Them Down - Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by US Forces
http://www.phrusa.org/research/torture/pdf/psych_torture.pdf

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

13. K & R. An American Citizen who was publicly labeled as a "dirty bomber enemy combatant"

and had the limits of "legally sanctioned" torture visited upon him.

MKJ

:kick:

[PSPS]

16. But impeachment is "off the table?"

[pettypace]

17. extremely disconcerting

All these years of having Mr Padilla in the headlines and yet I still cannot grasp what nefarious acts the man is purported to have committed. Again, huzzah to the Times for illuminating the public of the continuing transgressions of our unrestrained oligarchy.

[newyawker99]

28. Hi pettypace!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ninkasi]

30. Welcome to DU

Apparently, American citizens can be tortured, held without trial, and have all of their rights stripped from them on Bush's say-so. He doesn't think he owes anybody explanations, or reasons. He's the Decider, the Chimp-in-Chief.

[mogster]

18. A shame

A democracy does not do this to people. eom

[Disturbed]

19. Most Americans believe that this could never happen

to them.

[tom_paine]

21. Now, LEGALLY, it an be done to all of us

While the results of the November election are heartening, we must never forget two things:

a) everything Hitler did was "legal"

b) the Busheviks have created a legal similarity to Nazi Germany in the way our Alternate Justice System (aka The Gulags) functions

[leveymg]

22. Wiped his memories clean = destruction of evidence.

That's one way of insuring that no one will ever really be able to reconstruct what really happened in cases such as Padilla's, KSM's and Ramzi bin al Shibh's.

No reporter or independent investigator will ever be able to learn anything useful from any of these guys. Waterboarding cuts off oxygen to the brain, destroyng memory, permanently.

That cuts off an important line of inquiry. However, in each of these cases, along with several UK terrorism plots, there's a line of evidence that leads us back to safehouses in Lahore Pakistan and madrasas in Afghanistan. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if some of the folks running those establishments were double-agents, working for one or more western intel agencies. A particularly valuable resource is MILNET Brief, Pakistani Export of Militant Islamic Jihadists, July 2, 2005 http://www.milnet.com/Pakistan-Mil Jihad.html+Padilla+Afghanistan+madrasa&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3&ie=UTF-8


Another group known to London officials is Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LT). After the collapse of the Taliban, LJ members became active in aiding other terrorists with safehouses, false identities, and protection in Pakistani cities, including Karachi, Peshawar, and Rawalpindi. Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, is the armed wing of the Pakistan- based religious organization, Markaz-ud-Dawa- wal-Irshad (MDI)--a Sunni anti-US missionary organization formed in 1989. Based in Muridke (near Lahore) and Muzaffarabad. 6 Accused Dirty Bomb terrorist Jose Padilla is known to have gone to Lahore, Pakistan to learn about bomb making. Benjamin Ahmed Mohammed, an accomplice of Padilla was taken into custody in Pakistan after Padilla left there on a flight where U.S. agents on board watched him closely before his arrest upon arrival in the U.S. 8 http://www.milnet.com/Pakistan-Mil-Jihad.html+Padilla+Afghanistan+madrasa&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3&ie=UTF-8

The irony of Padilla's case, is that no one really believed that he was capable of carrying off the terrorist operation he had talked about, a plot to explode radiological dirty bombs. This is clear from the statement of James Comey, the U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case: http://www.usdoj.gov/dag/speech/2004/dag6104.htm+Lahore+Pakistan+Khalid+Sheikh+Mohammed&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3&ie=UTF-8

Padilla admits that after this specialized explosives training, he spent much of September of 2001, including after the attacks of September 11th, staying with Mohammed Atef at Atef's safe house near Kandahar. That was the same safe house were Atef was killed by American forces after it was bombed in November of 2001 in a military raid. Padilla's life was spared only because he happened that night to be staying at the safe house run by his explosives teacher. But he returned and dug his mentor Atef's body out of the rubble.

And then, according to Padilla, a decision was made that all Arab fighters had to be moved out of Afghanistan because the Americans were coming. Padilla, armed with his assault rifle, joined many other armed al Qaeda fighters in moving to the Pakistan border to escape the American forces. At that border, Padilla met Abu Zubaydah. Abu Zubaydah, one of the most important and powerful members of al Qaeda, was in charge at that border of sorting the fighters into two groups: those who should continue on and be relocated to Pakistan, and those who should be sent back into Afghanistan.

Padilla admits that after crossing into Pakistan he met Zubaydah again at a safe house in Lahore, Pakistan, and then met with him yet again at another house in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Padilla says it was at the place in Fasialabad that he and a new accomplice, a new partner, approached Abu Zubaydah with an operation in which they proposed to travel to the United States to detonate a nuclear improvised bomb that they had learned to make from research on the Internet. Padilla says that Zubaydah was skeptical about the idea of them building and deploying a nuclear bomb, but nonetheless, told them he would send them on to see Khalid Sheik Mohammed, also known as KSM, the operational leader of al Qaeda and the mastermind behind September the 11th.

We know separately that Zubaydah did think the nuclear bomb idea was not feasible, but he did think, as well, that another kind of radiological device was very feasible -- uranium wrapped with explosives to create a dirty bomb.

Zubaydah believed this was feasible, and encouraged Padilla and his accomplice to pursue it. He warned them, though, that it would not be as easy as they might think, but they seemed convinced that they could do it without getting caught.

Zubaydah's plan was to use Padilla and his accomplice for Zubaydah's own operations in the future. But they were so eager, so intent on carrying out an operation in the United States that in March of 2002 he sent them to see Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, even going so far as to write a reference letter to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed about Padilla, giving Padilla and his accomplice money, and urging them to seek out KSM about the dirty bomb plot. Zubaydah separately called Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, told him about the dirty bomb project, and also told him he didn't think it was practical, but he wanted Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to check it out himself and to evaluate it. He told Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that he was free to use Padilla in his operations in the United States if he wished.

Mohammed did meet with Padilla and his accomplice, and he was, as Zubaydah was, skeptical about the dirty bomb plot. Instead, he suggested to Padilla and his accomplice that they undertake the apartment building operation that had originally been conceived by the now-dead Mohammed Atef, the former military leader of al Qaeda. KSM suggested that they enter the United States by way of Mexico or by way of Puerto Rico, and that once in the country they locate high-rise apartment buildings that had natural gas supplied to all floors, that they rent two apartments in each building, seal those apartments, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate and destroy the buildings simultaneously at a later time. This was precisely the mission that Padilla and Jafar had trained for, and now Padilla had a new accomplice.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gave Padilla full authority to conduct an operation if he and his partner succeeded in entering the United States. I should note that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was not himself sure which operation Padilla intended to carry out. By that I mean in Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's mind, it was still possible that Padilla was going to pursue the dirty bomb plot. What KSM knew for sure, however, was that he had authorized this explosives-trained al Qaeda operative to mount an attack in the United States.

A recently released videotape showed Mohamed Atef present at a meeting at which which Osama bin Laden and Ramzi bin al-Shibh discuss plans for the 9/11 attack. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/09/07/alqaeda.911/index.html

The so-called UK Liquid Bomb Plot, notorious for its complicating air travel this past summer, also features a conspiracy involving naive western Muslims who travelled to Pakistan, one or more double-agents who directed their actions, and a plot that involved technologies that most experts determined would never have worked. See, www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/17/174059/211

[seemslikeadream]

27. This and Litvinenko has got me thinking of Idema

DEBKAfile reporting a truck bomb at US Embassy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=785378
Rivals Gang Up on Karzai, Seek a Champion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=783719
'Petroleum lures dogs of war to Africa'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=775315
US vigilante says saved Bagram from bomb attack
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=770521
Man accused of running private Afghan jail had U.S. letter
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=769011
UN rights expert berates US on Afghan detentions
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=768135
Man arrested by FBI : "I was close to capturing bin Laden"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=767678
Round two for Kabul's trial of year
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=753506
Americans on trial in Afghanistan get FBI files
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=755211
U.S. urged to protect Idema's rights
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=752727
Tables turn on US conman waging his own weird war on terror
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=745167
Idema role: rogue or U.S. agent?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=737677
9-11 attacks spurred Idema to action
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=737670
Crusader confronts a world of trouble
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=735851
Wild-card charged in Afghan imprisonments has murky history with media, go
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=732951
Family seeking info on Fortuna man arrested in Afghanistan
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=726667
Rumsfeld knew all about me, says American 'jailer' held in Kabul
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=701568
Outsourcing War Crimes
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=707269
The Case of Keith Idema
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=703839
Dispatch From Afghanistan
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=704670
Americans accused of torturing Afghans in private jail go on trial
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=699570
Pride, prison shadow Idema
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=677019
'Freelance' US fighter identified
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=673846
Americans Arrested in Kabul Abused Prisoners in Private Jail, Officials Say
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=673337


Green Beret J. K. Idema
Posted by seemslikeadream on Fri Jul-09-04 03:40 PM

Green Beret J. K. Idema -- Just who the hell is this guy


At the heart of their investigation is a former American special forces soldier, Jona than Keith "Jack" Idema, who is alleged to have run the private jail and was being questioned on Thursday night.
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118432


FBI Agent Philip Hanssen Was Involved in the Idema Case.
FBI Agent, and Soviet Spy Philip Hanssen was involved in the Idema case. The American Green Beret claimed the CIA and FBI were compromised by the KGB. In 1993, the former Special Forces NCO, Idema, refused to give up the names of his agents in the Soviet Union, claiming the FBI and CIA were compromised, and his agents would be killed. Idema specifically named the Soviet Spies' FBI positions.

Green Beret J. K. Idema
in El Salvador 1984

Idema had pinpointed Soviet agents in the FBI and CIA in early 1994 conversations with former CNN Vice-president Ted Kavanau. Subsequently Aldrich Ames was arrested, and two years later, Earl Edwin Pitts. Idema has steadfastly insisted that there were other Soviet agents in the FBI, and specifically named them as formerly assigned to the New York Counter-intelligence Office - Team I-8. Now Philip Hanssen has been arrested. Yet the FBI and Clinton administration consistently prevented Idema from testifying in front of Congress- WHY? what were they hiding?

Hanssen had access to Idema's case information, and worked in New York Counter-intelligence. During the height of the Idema incident, Hanssen worked out of the Washington Field Office 1994), which directly dealt with Idema's information, he then went to the NSD in December 1994 (where he had continued access to Idema's case and his information.

PBN News is working to FOIA the documents linking Hanssen to Idema and the FBI's botched investigation of the nuclear smuggling incidents. Other news agencies are encouraged to pursue FOIA requests for documents linking Hanssen to the 1993-1996 Russian nuclear smuggling investigations
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:36_oZcH_I3cJ:www.nev ...

Any Lesser Man - A Keith Idema documentary about Soviet nuclear smuggling, KGB Double agents in the FBI and CIA, and how one US Army Green Beret went to prison for trying to expose it.
http://newswire.fathermag.com/dir/Society/Issues/War,_W ...


January 1, 2001 Update!
After dozens of radio interviews about the documentary in progress, Idema & Scurka temporarily put interviews on hold in order to devote their time to working with famed author Robin Moore on the Idema book, tentatively titled "NEVER GIVE UP".

Last fall Idema broke the story on the April 1993 secret meeting Janet Reno had, during which US Army Delta Force personnel warned Reno about taking action at Waco, saying they feared an ill-prepared FBI assault would take innocent lives. Read World Net Daily's Mail Archives. These incredible revelations, along with secret documents, proved that Reno and Freeh lied to the American people during their congressional testimony. Idema also spoke out about the real story behind Yosef Bodansky's White House press release claiming Osama bin Laden has suitcase nuclear weapons, to use against America for terrorist attacks. See Smuggling and Black Markets.

Additionally, Idema and Scurka were engaged in a special project for the last year resulted in uncovering massive amounts of exculpatory evidence in a national murder case. That project also delayed completion of Scurka's documentary until late 2001. Idema and Scurka, along with a special team of Green Berets, were successful in uncovering additional former Soviet/communist spies in the American government, and the resulting story on a Green Beret Colonel, wrongfully accused of murder, can be seen at www.pbnews.tv

Last year Barry Farber, a national talk radio host, dedicated a special two hour program to the Idema story.

In a rare in-studio interview, authors Robin Moore and Jim Morris, who were in New York to pitch their own new books, joined Farber to talk about the Idema story. Also on the show were Ted Kavanau, the man who started CNN’s news bureau, and there to talk about the movie, was Producer Gary Scurka.
Update 12/2001
America's War on Terror, again, has put Scurka's documentary on hold. Scurka was wounded by al-Qaida and Taliban forces in Northern Afghanistan in November 2001, and Idema is currently engaged in supporting America's War on Terror in an undisclosed role.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:36_oZcH_I3cJ:www.nev ...


Keith Idema says it was by making collect pay telephone calls to the Barry Farber talk radio show that he was able to tell the world he had uncovered evidence that Russians had smuggled nuclear material and weapons out of their country.

Idema also used the Barry Farber show to say he was being imprisoned on phony wire fraud charges because he refused to give the FBI and CIA the names of the secret sources who had fingered the Russians for him. Idema says he refused to divulge his sources because he was told spies had penetrated both the FBI and CIA and so feared for his contacts' lives. Today's WorldNetDaily Waco exclusive is just the latest example of the intersection of talk radio and the Internet -- of New Media in action, the theme of WorldNetDaily's first-ever conference to be held Sept. 17-19 in Los Angeles.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp ?...


'Freelance' US fighter identified

Idema may have been acting beyond the control of US troops
Three foreigners arrested in Kabul this week were on a freelance counter-terrorism mission, the Afghan government says.
They include at least one US national, Jonathan K Idema, a purported former US special services soldier who says he helped fight the Taleban in 2001.

The men were detained for illegally holding Afghans in a private prison.

The Interior Minister, Ali Ahmad Jalali, said their activities had no legal standing.

US officials say Mr Idema had tried to pass himself off as an American government or military official.
more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3876601.stm


'Keith Idema'

Stupid Victims or a Dire Threat?
Barry Farber
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2002

Through the Lithuanian KGB, now free to be anti-Russian as well as anti-Soviet, Idema learned that virtual Niagaras of Soviet weapons-grade nuclear material were being sold out of Russia into the hands of the international terrorist underground.

Idema returned to America and was the star of a Pentagon briefing in 1992. Afterward, two gentlemen came up to him, congratulated him on his intelligence coup, introduced themselves as representatives of the FBI and CIA, and said they were ready to take a list of his sources from him to continue his excellent work.

"Nothing doing," said Sgt. Idema. "I had to promise my Lithuanian sources I would reveal nothing to the FBI or the CIA. They say you're full of moles and full of holes and I should disclose my information only to the Defense Department or a representative of the president of the United States."

The two agents were displeased. They had Idema indicted and convicted on charges of something called wire fraud, giving false business references, or something like that.

Idema still says he's innocent, but the interesting thing is that, even if guilty, the sentence should have been six months. They kept shuffling Keith from one federal prison to another for over six years, giving the impression he was going to stay in until he played ball with the FBI and the CIA.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/2/27/2357 ...


July 08, 2004 -- 04:10 PM EDT // link // print)
Weird, weird, weird ... Late reports out of Afghanistan say that an American named Jonathan Idema was arrested with others for conducting a "self-appointed counterterrorism mission

that included abusing eight inmates in a private jail by hanging them by their feet."

Jonathan Idema is apparently the same guy as 'Keith Idema' who was a short-term commando celeb in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 appearing on various TV networks. He also turns up in various jails or suing Steven Spielberg et al. for stealing ideas for a movie script he and others allegedly wrote.

The US military has gone to great lengths to disassociate itself from Idema since he was apparently putting himself forward as some sort of US special forces operator or contractor. A statement from the US military said "the public should be aware that Idema does not represent the American government and we do not employ him."

Indeed, "security sources" tell the BBC that the "US military circulated warning notices about Mr Idema some time ago, describing him as armed and dangerous and accusing him
more
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com


Heart Of Darkness

"When I looked at these tapes, I said, ‘ My God, this is the same kind of stuff that we did in 1980.'"
Keith Idema, a former member of the U.S. special forces

60 Minutes II obtained these tapes from Keith Idema, a former member of the U.S. special forces. He is a Green Beret. He says he went to Afghanistan as a civilian military adviser to the Northern Alliance and was with them as they pushed towards Kabul.

“When they came across the Shomali Plain to this compound,” Idema says, “they found a lot of documents. They had gotten the tapes right away but they were scared to bring the tapes forward. And they were scared to tell anybody they had them.”

Although Northern Alliance soldiers had described the trining tapes to him, Idema says he was surprised when he finally took a look.

“When I looked at these tapes, I said, ‘My God, this is the same kind of stuff that we did in 1980,” he says referring to the United States’ elite military units. “So are their skills as good as ours? As good as the U.S. special operations community? The answer is no. Clearly, man for man, we’d wipe them out. But they’re not coming against us; they’re coming against regular civilians and that’s clear in their training. They don’t use military tactics. Their training is not as sophisticated as ours, but it’s not designed to be.”

more
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/16/60II/main3245 ...

Spielberg Spies on White House?
Has America's most beloved filmmaker committed espionage against the United States? Green Berets Keith Idema and Jim Morris, along with Investigative Producer Gary Scurka and his wife Kathy Wolff, a network news anchor, have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Spielberg and a half dozen others, including a former White House Official. The Complaint alleges that Spielberg and others, engaged in a conspiratorial enterprise for the purpose of stealing Idema’s story to produce The Peacemaker film using materials Plaintiffs had submitted to Amblin, Spielberg’s production company.

Spielberg is charged with receiving classified nuclear smuggling information and documents illegally removed from the White House by former NSC staffer Jessica Stern. Several defendants are accused of criminal violations of Federal laws. Fantastic as it sounds, there appears to be proof that DreamWorks derived the information for George Clooney's THE PEACEMAKER by accessing NSC Nuclear Smuggling Group information and materials.
more
http://www.pbnnews.tv/stealberg.htm


'Blast from the past' - ICS (Idema Combat Systems) Vest

Shown here more for 'historical purposes', this is an ICS vest that Keith Idema (U.S. Army SF, ret.) made at Bragg in the early-mid 80's (according to J.S, who kindly included this vest along with the Paraclete RACK above). When I hear the name 'Idema', I somehow associate it with controversy (unjustly imprisoned) or paintball. If I remember correctly, Idema also made paintball vests for a time. Although the design and construction is dated by today's standards, it has interesting features that weren't seen on vests at that time. The front of the vest consists of two large velrco patches for modular pouches. The main body of the vest is made of large-weave mesh fabric, which is quite soft. On the right shoulder is a suede pad to provide a non-slip surface for a rifle butt. Below that is what looks like a shotshell/utility pouch. The left chest has a pouch which will hold two handgun mags, with a small compass/FFD pouch above that on the left shoulder. On the left hip is a radio pouch with a wire retaining tab on the left shoulder above the compass pouch. There's a utility pouch on the right hip as well. Inside the vest are two velcro-closed map pockets. The vest is not adjustable for height, but is adjusted for girth by four elastic tabs that interface with horizontal velcro strips on the lower back. The upper back of the vest has a expanding backpack with velcro closure.
The modular panels come in a few different configurations: triple M4 mag panel, 5 MP5 mag panel, shotshell panel (holds 24 shells), and a utility panel with two large pockets for which I'm unclear of the use. The mag pouches all have elastic retention and velcro lids. All in all, it was a pretty innovative vest for its time. I'd have been thrilled to have one in the early 80's, as I remember how excited I was to get my first vest - an Eagle TAC vest sometime in the late 80's.



http://www.militarymorons.com/equipment/equipment.2.htm ...

Al-Qaida tapes detail killing skills
Teams shown learning how to shoot, kidnap
Boston Globe
Last Updated: Jan. 14, 2002

Unlike other al-Qaida training videos that have been found, which show members receiving basic military training like running through obstacle courses, these tapes focus on the group's plans on using hostage-taking tactics and assassination as part of their activities.

The tapes were recently discovered in the possession of Northern Alliance forces by J. Keith Idema, a former U.S. Army Special Forces non-commissioned officer and counterterrorism specialist who now advises the Afghan military. Idema, who is called Jack in Afghanistan, said he decided to make the tapes public to underscore the threat al-Qaida still poses. "These videos put a face on al-Qaida," he said recently. "I think every American should see these tapes."

The Globe, along with other select news organizations, including CBS and the BBC, was allowed to see the tapes. The tapes are expected to be aired by CBS on Wednesday.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/attack/jan02/12503.asp

By: oda324
Date/Time: 5/26/2004 5:07:05 PM
Message:
Anyone who has questions regarding Keith Idema and his active
army service in the 1970's may email me at oda324<-at->yahoo.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Lloyd V Evans, ll
Date/Time: 5/25/2004 5:05:30 PM
Message:
I just sent this to Post Cmdr Fred:
Hi Fred, I feel that I've been down this road before, but is membership open to the members of this associaiton that have received, from the MND/ROC on Taiwan, the Honor Medal for 823 Bombardment (1958) and/ot the US-ROC Mutual Defense Comemortive Badge (1955-1979)? Most meet VFW (AFEM) acceptance and many not (as they have no AFEM)but all have one or both of the aforementioned honoraria.

If so, is theiran application you can email me; what are dues and how does one get them to you?
Get back to me (A review of www.taiwanvets.com ) will evidence who we are. We number 5,000 to date.
LLOYD Evans (25MAY04)
823 Badge of Honor Assoc.USA
--------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Mel Painter
Date/Time: 5/24/2004 6:39:16 AM
Message:
There is always JD & Coke for any member that passes through Basra, Iraq. Just call me at cell 780-100-7907 or 202-216-6295 x206 (Washington DC phone that rings in Basra, Iraq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Mac Thompson
Date/Time: 5/22/2004 8:54:21 PMMessage:
The SKY BBS is up and running again, now that the A-hole who sort of hijacked it has been banned. Take a look at: http://www.gilhooleyssaloon.com / and click on SKY BBS
Mac
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim Luke
Date/Time: 5/19/2004 9:50:13 AM
Message:
If you’ll Google this guy you’ll find all manner of info on him from congressional hearings to designing LBE. Lotsa stuff on the Fringe Right “news sites”.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Sam Stapleton
Date/Time: 5/18/2004 4:18:17 AM
Message:
To: Jim McClain
Sorry for the intrusion on your list. I'm a humanitarian ops working in Afghanistan and am also trying to find out who this Keith Idema is, but so far not succeeding. I came across your post online. Journalists are asking me who this is - saying he is in Afghanistan (or was) trying to find him. Some folks I know at Bagram told me to stay away from the guy. I don't know. . . .
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim McClain
Date/Time: 5/9/2004 1:44:02 PM
Message:
As posted before, my/our intent is not to create any animosity or conflict, but to discover where the supposed 'stories' are coming from and to protect our families reputations. If anyone can offer any insight, it'd be appreciated. PS Went to SunNFun, didn't see any Ravens around the O-1 park, but a few were for sale. We've got 4 O-2s and an L-19 where I am. Give a call if you're in town. Banzai Sends
---------------------------------------------------------------------By: Jim McClain
Date/Time: 5/6/2004 5:16:16 PM
Message:
Anyone in-country or at home know of a Keith Idema, supposed counter-terr expert, trainer, and SF grad? He is targeting vets and humanitarian orgs who seem to be questioning his bonafides. He has a support group that gives him intel on real world ops as well as news contacts for photo ops. I, and several other Desert One vets, were identified as being 'wannabes' on one of his friends internet sites with the result that we have received hate mail/calls/email. Our only desire is to ask this person where he gets his facts. We were told he was on the "MC130 that blew up due to a CIA time bomb, and not the helo impact", but we did not see him on our plane as we were there nor do we remember the 'bomb' being on the cargo manifest. Our inquiries so far have resulted in an attorney threatening to sue us for questioning his authenticity. Any ideas or info would be appreciated as we are just poor church mice retired Air Commandos on disability. Thanks. Jim "Banzai" McClain..we go home
By: oda324
Date/Time: 5/26/2004 5:07:05 PM
Message:
nyone who has questions regarding Keith Idema and his active
army service in the 1970's may email me at oda324<-at->yahoo.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Lloyd V Evans, ll
Date/Time: 5/25/2004 5:05:30 PM
Message:
I just sent this to Post Cmdr Fred:
Hi Fred, I feel that I've been down this road before, but is membership open to the members of this associaiton that have received, from the MND/ROC on Taiwan, the Honor Medal for 823 Bombardment (1958) and/ot the US-ROC Mutual Defense Comemortive Badge (1955-1979)? Most meet VFW (AFEM) acceptance and many not (as they have no AFEM)but all have one or both of the aforementioned honoraria.

If so, is theiran application you can email me; what are dues and how does one get them to you?
Get back to me (A review of www.taiwanvets.com ) will evidence who we are. We number 5,000 to date.
LLOYD Evans (25MAY04)
823 Badge of Honor Assoc.USA
---------------------------------------------------------------------By: Mel Painter
Date/Time: 5/24/2004 6:39:16 AM
Message:
There is always JD & Coke for any member that passes through Basra, Iraq. Just call me at cell 780-100-7907 or 202-216-6295 x206 (Washington DC phone that rings in Basra, Iraq.
------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Mac Thompson
Date/Time: 5/22/2004 8:54:21 PM
Message:
The SKY BBS is up and running again, now that the A-hole who sort of hijacked it has been banned. Take a look at: http://www.gilhooleyssaloon.com / and click on SKY BBS
Mac
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim Luke
Date/Time: 5/19/2004 9:50:13 AM
Message:
If you’ll Google this guy you’ll find all manner of info on him from congressional hearings to designing LBE. Lotsa stuff on the Fringe Right “news sites”.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Sam Stapleton
Date/Time: 5/18/2004 4:18:17 AM
Message:
To: Jim McClain
Sorry for the intrusion on your list. I'm a humanitarian ops working in Afghanistan and am also trying to find out who this Keith Idema is, but so far not succeeding. I came across your post online. Journalists are asking me who this is - saying he is in Afghanistan (or was) trying to find him. Some folks I know at Bagram told me to stay away from the guy. I don't know. . . .
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim McClain
Date/Time: 5/9/2004 1:44:02 PM
Message:
As posted before, my/our intent is not to create any animosity or conflict, but to discover where the supposed 'stories' are coming from and to protect our families reputations. If anyone can offer any insight, it'd be appreciated. PS Went to SunNFun, didn't see any Ravens around the O-1 park, but a few were for sale. We've got 4 O-2s and an L-19 where I am. Give a call if you're in town. Banzai Sends
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim McClain
Date/Time: 5/6/2004 5:16:16 PM
Message:
Anyone in-country or at home know of a Keith Idema, supposed counter-terr expert, trainer, and SF grad? He is targeting vets and humanitarian orgs who seem to be questioning his bonafides. He has a support group that gives him intel on real world ops as well as news contacts for photo ops. I, and several other Desert One vets, were identified as being 'wannabes' on one of his friends internet sites with the result that we have received hate mail/calls/email. Our only desire is to ask this person where he gets his facts. We were told he was on the "MC130 that blew up due to a CIA time bomb, and not the helo impact", but we did not see him on our plane as we were there nor do we remember the 'bomb' being on the cargo manifest. Our inquiries so far have resulted in an attorney threatening to sue us for questioning his authenticity. Any ideas or info would be appreciated as we are just poor church mice retired Air Commandos on disability. Thanks. Jim "Banzai" McClain..we go home
more
http://www.chinapost1.org/guestbook.asp


J. Keith Idema, an American civilian adviser to the Afghan United Front,

Security experts in Kabul believe Osama bin Laden's group may have been thinking of a second attack on the former president, this time during a golf tournament.

"The documents clearly list how presidential protective details are structured, what they do and what vulnerabilities to look for," said J. Keith Idema, an American civilian adviser to the Afghan United Front, also known as the Northern Alliance, one of the members of the Afghan Interim Administration. Idema has analyzed captured al Qaida records, including graphic terrorist training video tapes recently aired on CBS' "60 Minutes" television program.

"Al Qaida studied the strong points and weak points of Secret Service protection, concluding that streets and open areas are the best locations for a presidential assassination," added the former member of the U.S. Army's elite special forces. An al Qaida assassination manual includes a study of U.S. presidential protection.

"Bodyguards always watch the crowd around the principal, instead of watching him," said one passage that concluded a relaxed, open setting would be the ideal environment for an attack. Another part of the text analyzes the sequence of vehicles in presidential motorcades, noting the heavily armed reaction teams go behind the presidential limousine.
more
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=04022002-082828-84 ...

A highly decorated spokesman for both the U.S. Ranger Association and the 75th Ranger Association, flatly stated that General Shinseki's action is an insult, as well as a collective and official slap in the face, to everyone who ever volunteered for an Airborne, Ranger, or Special Forces unit and completed the arduous training. A former Ranger writing to the editors of USA Today stated that General Shinseki's dictum "steps on the graves of every Ranger who gave his life for his country." Keith Idema, in a letter to the editor of the Fayetteville Observer, astutely observed that, to carry his theory to its logical conclusion, General Shinseki should "issue every single soldier a Congressional Medal of Honor," complete with an appropriate ceremony, then, when each was "instantaneously transformed into an All-American ... hero," we could reduce the Army to 10,000 super-warriors, thereby "saving a ton of money."
http://www.rangerblackberet.com/sof.php3

A reviewer, someone who was there, December 29, 2003,
Good true tales but disappointing tangents
Moore writes a readable and often engaging true yarn of America’s best soldiers. The book usually reads like eyewitness accounts based on his on-the-ground research. Moore is supremely qualified for this and delivers an excellent story especially regarding key battles in Afghanistan like Tora Bora. However, this tale is best read with a fair degree of objectiveness. He strays into rightwing political dogma based on few facts (the Clinton administration hardly left the military hallow and the CIA’s clandestine service was in fact on a recruiting drive in the late 1990s). He unfairly berates all non-Special Forces soldiers (although not without a point). Finally, his work is greatly weakened when he includes stories that are not relevant to the story of the Green Berets he’s trying to give justice to. One case in point are the tales of Jack, who is in fact Keith Idema, and not several people as he suggests.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry ...

Team House Guestbook 2004

All should know. That Keith Edema was NEVER a SGM, or a member of Delta. Selection, which was alive and well at Dawson for those folks, would have chewed his punk a-- up and spit it out because this is a test of performance and not conning anyone, and he would have been found wanting, this pitiful Bite.
Jake
USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 23:06:35 (EDT)

Mr. W. Hunter. The folks at Socnet.com (http://www.socnetcentral.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threa ... ) have it wrong. idema was not a rigger, though he did go into that business later after his enlistment. idema, did go into the gear/kit producing business. This led to him to be able to go on and obtain his felony ('s). idema did go to the 10th when it was still at Ft. Devens, I think as a 12B (now 18C), because he couldn't handle the 05B, (18E) training regimen. I think that he was soon put off of Team and relegated to a Support role there, and got on out when able.
Jake
USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 20:17:57 (EDT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you mean to tell me that Edema is a real person? And all this time I had thought that he was a figment of his own imagination. BTW: The next time he says he was a Sergeant Major, you are authorized to call him a bald-faced liar.
Wannabee Hunter
Down East, NC USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 19:11:19 (EDT)
---------------------------------------------------------------------...to continue...Edema would have been "peered out" in my opinion. He is a convicted felon, Search www.google.com . Keith Idema, felon. His rap is that the USGov. planted these charges. Reality is that he was convicted of defrauding east coast business associates. I wouldn't let this guy near my dog, much less feed her...much less do business with him in any way. This sorry individual was and does remain a blight on the SF Community in my opinion. Regards, Jake
Jake
USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 19:07:09 (EDT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As relates to subject Idema...I knew him when going through training group. He was an a--hole, a Buddy and Team F--ker. It's as simple as that. If I remember correctly, was kicked out of TG, but re-instated because his dad was a NY power broker who had some pull with their local Congresscritters. Too bad this guy went through TG before there was Selection because he would have surely been
Jake
USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 18:47:00 (EDT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To address the person(s)asking about J. Keith Idema, SF. To date, there is much online about his past SF exploits as well as his present SF enterprises. He is reported to have gone to Afghanistan in 2001 with a humanitarian org, then reappeared as a combatant leading freedom fighters. He has supposedly sued CNN for nonpayment of a video from there as well as Spielberg for an adaptation of the Peacemaker movie which was supposed to be based on his exploits. He is supposed to be on the ground in Iraq now working for an agency interrogating prisoners. Independently, he has several news agencies as well as LEOs trying to question him but has a legal defense that does not allow access to him. If one does try to confront him or print anything (such as this posting)even mildly about him, they will find themselves receiving legal threats, hate email, hate phone calls. I, for one, along with several other SF, Ranger, and Air Commandos, have been accused indirectly by members of Idema support groups of being wannabes or worse. I am USAF Ret, member of Air Force Assoc, Air Commando Assoc, Special Ops Assoc, DAV, Kiwanis, and presently sqdn command for a Civil Air Patrol Sq. I am mentioned in No Room For Error by Carney/Schemmer, The Guts To Try and Air Commando by Phil Chinnery. I assist disabled veterans at no expense with claims as well as documenting their experiences in photostories. I am known at SOCOM and AFSOC units to this date and my son carries on as a third generation Air Commando. I was the loadmaster on the aircraft that was destroyed at Desert One Iran on 24 April 1980, which his supporters say I was not as he was there on the same plane, as well as in country months before and also training Delta supposedly elsewhere. Truth or not, doesn't matter to me. What does matter is that before accusing someone, get the facts first. There are several fine retirees/vets who have been hurt by Idema's supporters. In any event, I do not feel I have to be defensive, outraged, or foaming at the mouth. I would hope that anyone caught in a similar situation keep their perspective, sense of humor, and mostly not feel sorry for people who feel they have to prove themselves at the expense of others. As in most situations...those who have been there are the Quiet Professionals.
jim mcclain <[e-mail] >
cape coral, fl USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 09:45:40 (EDT)
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:hwVa6O0yhmwJ:teamhou ...


JudiLyn
This story linked in seemslikeadream's collection was never aired before

I'm SURE I've never heard it, but first of all, it's from UPI, so I guess it matters what the date was when Rev. Moon bought UPI, doesn't it? It used to be reputable.

Al Qaida may have tried to kill Clinton
By Martin Arostegui
Published 10/18/2002 6:34 PM


The following story is a re-release of an article that United Press International originally published by on Feb. 6, 2002.


KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Al Qaida may have tried to kill former President Clinton, apparently while he was in office, and perhaps planned further attempts on world leaders, United Press International has learned.

Specific references to Clinton were found among handwritten notes and sketches of U.S. Secret Service protective methods recovered from the Shomali compound near Kabul where al Qaida members received specialized training in assassination and hostage taking.

"We have attempted to kill Clinton, but failed," documents in Arabic released exclusively to United Press International Monday state. Although the text indicates the attack was planned around some high-level conference or international summit, it does not mention an exact date. Analysts in Kabul believe the attempt was planned about two years ago.

Nor does the text reveal whether the plan was abandoned or had failed in some other way.

Security experts in Kabul believe Osama bin Laden's group may have been thinking of a second attack on the former president, this time during a golf tournament.

"The documents clearly list how presidential protective details are structured, what they do and what vulnerabilities to look for," said J. Keith Idema, an American civilian adviser to the Afghan United Front, also known as the Northern Alliance, one of the members of the Afghan Interim Administration. Idema has analyzed captured al Qaida records, including graphic terrorist training video tapes recently aired on CBS' "60 Minutes" television program.
(snip)
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=04022002-082828-84 ...

Idema sounds unhinged, actually. But WHO KNEW this plotting was going on about Clinton by anyone other than our own right wing? Hmmmmmmmm.

Makes you wonder why he didn't decide he was going to try to take over the world, just like little Dubya in mock revenge, doesn't it?


The man who thinks he's George Clooney. A story of today's Kabul

Duncan Campbell and Kitty Logan in Kabul
Friday July 9, 2004
The Guardian

In the meantime, he had become something of a media security pundit, popping up on television programmes to comment on security matters.

During the war in Afghanistan in 2001, Mr Idema and a number of other former US military members linked up with the Northern Alliance rebel group, who were fighting the Taliban. He offered his services to the media and appeared on American television news programmes after having supposedly found al-Qaida training camp footage in Kabul.

When Fox News showed the footage, Mr Idema launched another civil action, seeking $2m damages for supposedly showing the footage without his permission.

He also threatened to punch Geraldo Rivera, the controversial Fox News commentator, who, Mr Idema claimed, had messed up the operations of the Northern Alliance by irresponsible reporting.

Mr Idema, who has a reputation in Kabul for volatility, is also the source of much internet gossip on sites used by ex-members of the US special forces, not all of whom would describe themselves as admirers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1257 ...


Defense Department Operational Update Briefing

United States Department of Defense.
News Transcript

Thursday, July 8, 2004 3:12 p.m. EDT

Q Larry, Afghanistan, the three Americans who were arrested. One of them is named Idema. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right. But he's supposed to be former Army Special Forces. Do you have any information about his background?

MR. DIRITA: Not much. I do understand that there appears to be some former military -- he has a military background, but I don't know to what extent, how long he was in the service. I don't have those details. It's -- there have been a handful of people scooped up, and he's one of them. But beyond that, I don't think we have much detail.

(To General Rodriguez) Do you have anything?

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: No, we do not.
Q He's not presently in the military?GEN. RODRIGUEZ: No, he's not presently in the military.

Q How recent, do you know -- (inaudible) --

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: No, I don't know how recent, no.

Q -- or what type of service he had?

MR. DIRITA: We don't have a lot of detail, just other than it appears it has been confirmed that he had some military service.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

Ex-local man, 2 others allegedly imprisoned Afghans
By Nik Bonopartis
Poughkeepsie Journal

A former Poughkeepsie man is being held by Afghan authorities for allegedly operating as a mercenary, ''arresting'' eight Afghans and imprisoning them in a Kabul home where he allegedly had them hanging by their feet.
Jonathan Keith Idema, 48, is being held along with two other American men by Afghan security officials after they were arrested and detained Monday in the Kabul home where they allegedly kept their prisoners, said Brenda Greenberg, a State Department spokeswoman.

Idema, the former owner of a Hyde Park ammunition and gun shop who claims he is a former Green Beret, has been in Afghanistan for about three months, fighting terrorism and serving as an adviser to Afghan forces through ''extensive contacts with the (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai government,'' said his lawyer, John Tiffany of Bloomfield, N.J.

''He's been tracking terrorists,'' said Tiffany, who said he was retained by Idema after ''wanted'' signs with his name and photo began appearing in the Afghan capital.

Military and national records officials could not confirm Idema's purported former military service. The State Department said Idema does not currently serve with the military
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/localnews/stor ...

Bogus commandos held
Afghans say 4 posed as Special Forces unit


KABUL Four men claiming to be Americans and posing as Special Forces commandos were arrested by Afghan security agents in a raid on a house here, NATO and Afghan officials said. At least eight men being held prisoner in the house and four interpreters were also detained, the officials said.

A spokesman for the NATO force, Commander Chris Henderson, said that he was aware of the case, and that at least one American was among four foreigners arrested Monday. He said that the men were not connected to U.S. forces and that he had "no idea" who they were.

The U.S. Embassy said it was investigating the matter. "We have reports that there are three Americans, but we don't have confirmation," an embassy official said. The men did not have documents to prove their identity, he added.

One of the men detained, identified as Jonathan Idema, was known to the military and had apparently been under surveillance. He was the subject of a media advisory by the U.S. military press center several days ago, which warned that he was an impostor pretending to be a member of the U.S. military.

The mine hit a pickup truck on a road in Khogyani district of Nangarhar province, 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, east of Kabul, said Faizan ul-Haq, a provincial government spokesman.

A UN spokesman said the driver was seriously hurt and had been flown to Kabul for treatment. Afghans say 4 posed as Special Forces unit
more
http://www.iht.com/articles/528562.html

At the heart of their investigation is a former American special forces soldier, Jona than Keith "Jack" Idema, who is alleged to have run the private jail and was being questioned on Thursday night.

Idema, who is said to be always heavily armed, is far from the only ex-military man to be making a living in Kabul, which has an atmosphere redolent of The Third Man, Graham Greene's thriller about postwar Vienna.

Many of the private security guards attached to embassies and commercial companies have military histories, either real or imagined. Typically, they can be seen in dark glasses and camouflage gear, sub-machine guns slung over their shoulders as they ride through the city. They are often to be seen at the Mustafa hotel, one of the few bars that sell alcohol to ex-pats, who gather for the hotel's popular roof-top barbecues.

Idema, it emerged on Thursday, has a colourful past. A volatile former Green Beret with a criminal record in the US, he describes himself as a security adviser. He also claims that he is the person on whom George Clooney's part in the Hollywood film The Peacemaker was based.

While there has been no official explanation of what sort of operation he was running, there are large rewards on offer for the capture of al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan, which has led to a boom in the private security business.

The biggest reward of all -- $25-million -- remains on offer for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden.
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118432

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact

The people assigned to the program worked by the book, the former intelligence official told me. They created code words, and recruited, after careful screening, highly trained commandos and operatives from America’s élite forces—Navy seals, the Army’s Delta Force, and the C.I.A.’s paramilitary experts. They also asked some basic questions: “Do the people working the problem have to use aliases? Yes. Do we need dead drops for the mail? Yes. No traceability and no budget. And some special-access programs are never fully briefed to Congress.”

In theory, the operation enabled the Bush Administration to respond immediately to time-sensitive intelligence: commandos crossed borders without visas and could interrogate terrorism suspects deemed too important for transfer to the military’s facilities at Guantánamo, Cuba. They carried out instant interrogations—using force if necessary—at secret C.I.A. detention centers scattered around the world. The intelligence would be relayed to the sap command center in the Pentagon in real time, and sifted for those pieces of information critical to the “white,” or overt, world.


Ex-local man, 2 others allegedly imprisoned Afghans

Idema and his colleagues rented the house near Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, and told neighbors that they were operating an export company that traded Afghan rugs, the Afghan official said.

The Americans were mainly detaining men with long beards on the outskirts of Kabul who they suspected -- based on their appearance -- to be members of al Qaeda, the interior ministry official said.

The official said the story would "definitely have a negative impact on the image of Americans" among Afghans
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/07/09/afghan .... /

Idema, the former owner of a Hyde Park ammunition and gun shop who claims he is a former Green Beret, has been in Afghanistan for about three months, fighting terrorism and serving as an adviser to Afghan forces through ''extensive contacts with the (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai government,'' said his lawyer, John Tiffany of Bloomfield, N.J.

''He's been tracking terrorists,'' said Tiffany, who said he was retained by Idema after ''wanted'' signs with his name and photo began appearing in the Afghan capital.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/localnews/stor ...


Ex-soldiers blur Afghan security
By Andrew North
BBC correspondent in Kabul


It's becoming harder to spot genuine troops like this American

...........

Often they are private contractors.

Phil Halton of Anso, an organisation that provides security advice to aid agencies, admits there may be a "perception" problem now.

He points out that it is well known that the US government uses many private contractors.

For instance, a private US security firm is guarding President Hamid Karzai.

Contractors have also been used by the CIA to interrogate detainees in Afghanistan.

That makes it harder for the US authorities to convince people that they are not involved with people like Jonathan Idema.


The Kabul house where Idema and two other Americans were held

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3881317.stm


Bogus Agents Said to Be Antiterrorist Vigilantes

By DAVID ROHDE
Published: July 9, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 8 - Four men arrested for falsely posing as American government officials and illegally detaining Afghans were conducting their own self-styled antiterrorism campaign, Afghan and American officials said Thursday.

The four men, three of them Americans, illegally held eight Afghans for 12 days in the basement of a house where they had set up a fake export company, the officials said.


"Three foreigners made up their own group and pretended they were against those who conduct terrorist operations," Ali Ahmed Jalali, Afghanistan's interior minister, said Thursday at a news conference. "They were actually outlaws."

Three of the Afghans who were detained were brothers who had past ties to the political party of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a pro-Taliban commander, but officials said none of them were involved in terrorism and were, in fact, now employees of Afghanistan's new government. One works for the Afghan Supreme Court and another for the Ministry of Education, officials said.

more
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/international/asia/09 ...


more here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...


Afghans arrest fake US contractors

Eight Afghans were released from the illegal group's hideout.

Thursday 08 July 2004, 12:52 Makka Time, 9:52 GMT

Three men claiming to be US nationals have been arrested in Kabul for allegedly waging their own private war in Afghanistan.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DBD17E60-C85F-44 ...


Fake Mercenaries?


thebigidea

Coppery green, isn't it.

Edited on Fri Jul-09-04 12:18 AM by thebigidea
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact

The people assigned to the program worked by the book, the former intelligence official told me. They created code words, and recruited, after careful screening, highly trained commandos and operatives from America’s élite forces—Navy seals, the Army’s Delta Force, and the C.I.A.’s paramilitary experts. They also asked some basic questions: “Do the people working the problem have to use aliases? Yes. Do we need dead drops for the mail? Yes. No traceability and no budget. And some special-access programs are never fully briefed to Congress.”

In theory, the operation enabled the Bush Administration to respond immediately to time-sensitive intelligence: commandos crossed borders without visas and could interrogate terrorism suspects deemed too important for transfer to the military’s facilities at Guantánamo, Cuba. They carried out instant interrogations—using force if necessary—at secret C.I.A. detention centers scattered around the world. The intelligence would be relayed to the sap command center in the Pentagon in real time, and sifted for those pieces of information critical to the “white,” or overt, world.


could this be his partner?
Vice Adm. Brent Bennett maybe not the same guy?

In 1978, Welch was at a point where he wasn't sure whether or not to stay Navy, when he reported to the commander of naval air forces for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Va. With a year to go, "I was riding the fence." He worked with now retired Vice Adm. Brent Bennett when he was selected as a flag writer.

He credits his decision to stay Navy to Adm. "Gus"Kinnear, with whom he also worked. "If not for his confidence in my abilities, I would have gotten out. It was a milestone for me."
http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/trident/7_20/local_news /...

KABUL: An explosion at an illegal bomb factory in the Afghan capital wounded at least six people, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force said on Sunday. The blast in Kabul’s Afshah neighbourhood on Saturday hurt three children, two women and a man, Commander Chris Henderson told reporters. He said police had arrested three men. “It is believed that the explosion occurred as the three men were assembling bombs.” Police said they were holding the father of the family, who had brought the bomb-making material from neighbouring Pakistan. “It is actually fortunate that the people assembling these explosive devices met with misadventure as their intended actions could easily have killed many innocent people,” Henderson said. The incident underscored the continuing risk of violence in Kabul despite patrols by more than 6,000 foreign peacekeepers two and a half years after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for some attacks, but officials also suspect its al Qaeda allies and forces of an allied renegade warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. reuters
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_5-7 ...

Kabul bounty hunters search for bin Laden
Posted by seemslikeadream on Sun Jul-11-04 05:37 PM


12.07.2004

Afghan soldiers guard the Kabul home of Americans under arrest on suspicion of interrogating locals. Picture / Reuter
It was a discovery startling, and disturbing, even by the standards of Afghanistan's anarchic violence.
Prisoners hanging upside down in a private prison, tortured by heavily armed soldiers of fortune seeking the millions of dollars in bounty offered by the Americans.
The arrest of Jack Idema and two companions after a shootout in Kabul gave a glimpse of a savage and largely unreported war taking place in the shadow of the Iraq conflict, and the assortment - mercenaries and misfits, fortune-seekers and fantasists - who have come to take part.
Idema, now in the custody of the notorious Afghan security chief, Baba Jan, in many ways epitomises these latter-day men who would be king in this part of the "Wild East".
His is a colourful background across three continents: author, adventurer and convict.
more
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3577 ...

Pride, prison shadow Idema

By Greg Barnes
Staff writer
snip
Idema was about to go to prison when at least three high-ranking military officials fought to have him released until his sentencing.
''Keith is an honest, hard-working American vet of the highest order who deserves the trust of those who are appointed to enforce constitutional rights and laws of the American public,'' Army Master Sgt. Peter L. Conners wrote to U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle on May 18, 1994. ''I would like to add to the list of those asking for his presentencing release on appeal.''
That list included Timothy G. Connolly, then the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense.
''While others may find occasion to call his character into question, my experience with him over the last 10 years leads me to a different conclusion,'' Connolly wrote to Boyle. ''Keith Idema may be one of the last individuals for whom the phrase 'I give you my word' still has meaning. To Keith, honor is everything.''
more
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=news&S ...
from
JudiLyn

This story linked in seemslikeadream's collection was never aired before
I'm SURE I've never heard it, but first of all, it's from UPI, so I guess it matters what the date was when Rev. Moon bought UPI, doesn't it? It used to be reputable.

Al Qaida may have tried to kill Clinton
By Martin Arostegui
Published 10/18/2002 6:34 PM


The following story is a re-release of an article that United Press International originally published by on Feb. 6, 2002.


KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Al Qaida may have tried to kill former President Clinton, apparently while he was in office, and perhaps planned further attempts on world leaders, United Press International has learned.

Specific references to Clinton were found among handwritten notes and sketches of U.S. Secret Service protective methods recovered from the Shomali compound near Kabul where al Qaida members received specialized training in assassination and hostage taking.

"We have attempted to kill Clinton, but failed," documents in Arabic released exclusively to United Press International Monday state. Although the text indicates the attack was planned around some high-level conference or international summit, it does not mention an exact date. Analysts in Kabul believe the attempt was planned about two years ago.

Nor does the text reveal whether the plan was abandoned or had failed in some other way.

Security experts in Kabul believe Osama bin Laden's group may have been thinking of a second attack on the former president, this time during a golf tournament.

"The documents clearly list how presidential protective details are structured, what they do and what vulnerabilities to look for," said J. Keith Idema, an American civilian adviser to the Afghan United Front, also known as the Northern Alliance, one of the members of the Afghan Interim Administration. Idema has analyzed captured al Qaida records, including graphic terrorist training video tapes recently aired on CBS' "60 Minutes" television program.
(snip)
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=04022002-082828-84 ...

Idema sounds unhinged, actually. But WHO KNEW this plotting was going on about Clinton by anyone other than our own right wing? Hmmmmmmmm.

Makes you wonder why he didn't decide he was going to try to take over the world, just like little Dubya in mock revenge, doesn't it?

Thanks JudiLyn

Bad company: 'Jack' Idema and the bounty hunters of Kabul
US payouts for Taliban and al-Qa'ida captures are attracting strange and dangerous adventurers to the 'Wild East'
By Kim Sengupta and Paul Lashmar and Nick Meo in Kabul
11 July 2004
The arrest of Jack Idema and two companions after a shootout in Kabul gave a glimpse of a savage and largely unreported war taking place in the shadow of the Iraq conflict, and the assortment - mercenaries and misfits, fortune-seekers and fantasists - who have come to take part. Idema, now in custody of the notorious Afghan security chief, Baba Jan, in many ways epitomises these latter-day men who would be king in this part of the "Wild East". His is a colourful background across three continents: author, adventurer and convict.
Some of us first met "Jack" in 2001, when the Taliban had retreated from Kabul, victorious Northern Alliance fighters were parading in the streets, and US and British forces were pouring into Bagram airbase. A dapper man in a black T-shirt and combat trousers, a Glock pistol strapped in his shoulder holster, Idema gave a graphic account of his supposed experiences as a former US army Green Beret who had trained with the SAS and, as an adviser to the Tajik and Uzbek militias, had helped plan the operation to take the Afghan capital.
Some operating in this murky world do indeed have official connections. David Passaro, a former Green Beret who arrived on a CIA security contract, is currently under arrest, accused of beating a 28-year-old Afghan detainee to death. US federal prosecutors have filed a protective order seeking to restrict the use of classified material at his trial.
The war on terror is lavishly funded when it comes to bounties. The US State Department is offering $340m in bounties for information leading the capture or killing of 30 top suspects worldwide. The reward for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qa'ida commander believed to be a leading player in the Iraqi insurgency, was recently doubled to $25m, the same as Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden. So far, $56m has been paid out internationally. Small wonder, then, that all kinds of adventurers are now buzzing round this honeypot.

more
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?stor ...


Ex-soldiers blur Afghan security


By Andrew North
BBC correspondent in Kabul

It's becoming harder to spot genuine troops like this American
...........
Often they are private contractors.
Phil Halton of Anso, an organisation that provides security advice to aid agencies, admits there may be a "perception" problem now.
He points out that it is well known that the US government uses many private contractors.
For instance, a private US security firm is guarding President Hamid Karzai.
Contractors have also been used by the CIA to interrogate detainees in Afghanistan.
That makes it harder for the US authorities to convince people that they are not involved with people like Jonathan Idema.

The Kabul house where Idema and two other Americans were held
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3881317.stm
�@
0007
Private Prisons for America
The Community Web Log on Media, Government, and Politics in Midland, Texas
Home of George & Laura Bush, General Tommy Franks....AND Wahoo McDaniel
AN EMPTY PRISON? GASP! WE CAN'T HAVE THAT!
If there was ever any doubt that the prison system has become big business, that fact should be readily apparent now.
"For several months, more than 500 of the beds in the detention center have remained empty. That's because the federal government's Bureau of Prisons (BOP) hasn't given them the inmates they need. This has leading to a financial catastrophe for the county."
Yet more evidence that government is too big and bloated. It now has a vested interest in keeping inmate population numbers high. And how might they accomplish that, you ask?
By making everything a felony, that's how.
In recent years, the number of misdemeanor crimes that have been reclassified as felonies is frightening. On top of that, a good portion of them carry mandatory minimum sentences, especially repeat possession offenses. Even some traffic offenses have been given felony status in Texas, including evading and -- get this -- drag racing.
Meanwhile, almost every small town in America either has its own prison or is vying for one to help boost its local economy. In the words of S.O.D., "They're trying to build a prison -- for you and me to live in."more.....if you can take it!
http://www.jessicaswell.com/MT/archives/000938.html


Lisa
The dark side of glorifying rule-breakers
Last summer, Robert Kaplan did a piece which urged the US to emphasize special-ops efforts which would have a lot of autonomy and even work in clandestine ways. He's compared this to the techniques used by the British and Roman empires (the type of person that Kipling's "Stalky" evolves into) -- and uses the American character in "A Bell for Adano" as his ideal -- a tough military-trained guy who doesn't always follow military procedures. At the time, I felt this was highly optimistic, and that this kind of situation could encourage people who were basically being mercenaries to set themselves up as warlords and kingpins. And even if they had good intentions at first, they could easily end up like Kurtz in "Heart of Darkness".
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/07/kaplan.htm

[mod mom]

26. I only hope those responsible will be served justice. This is beyond despicable!

[WinkyDink]

32. For THIS ALONE, Bush should be IMPEACHED. He TORTURED

a U.S. CITIZEN!

[The Stranger]

34. The "Terrorism" Lie is used by the State to Destroy Citizens' Minds.

Yet the Proles Slumber. Slumber, they do.

[Joanne98]

35. This is sick.