I am pleased to have with me today Jim Morris, a well-published author and SF to the nth power–whose history with Jack Idema goes way back in time. Excuse me, Sir, but it’s been over 20 years, hasn’t it?

Morris is the author of the best seller War Story, published only four years after the fall of Saigon.

Jim Morris is now a retired professional soldier who began military school at eleven, and eventually joined the Army and Special Forces where later he rose to the rank of major. Three tours in Vietnam, four Purple Hearts, four Bronze Stars among numerous other decorations were among his accomplishments serving in SF before a medical discharge for wounds cut his career short. After Vietnam and graduate school Morris traveled to Cambodia, to cover the war for Rolling Stone. Besides four novels Morris has also written The Devil’s Secret Name and Fighting Men. Operation Dumbo Drop, a Disney movie starring Ray Liotta and Danny Glover, is based on a story Morris published in Soldier of Fortune magazine in 1980.

Sir, it is an honor to have you with us. I’d like to ask you a few questions about Jack Idema, from the perspective of someone who’s known him a long time.

# How long have you known Jack, and what kind of history do the two of you have together?

Truth is I’ve known Jack for so long that it’s hard for me to remember how we met. Ah, it’s coming back. In the early 80s I was editing a magazine called EAGLE. Jack was running some great counter-terror courses then, and called me. He also sent me some great pix of his training. All he wanted was credit if we used them. I was fine with that. Later, when my friend Ken Kelsch, formerly XO the the Recon CO of CCN (SOG-Vietnam), now a very fine cinematographer, (Medium, the TV show) was shooting some stuff in Fayetteville, I suggested he look Jack up, and they became friends.

The first time I met him in person was around 91 or 2, when I was shooting a video history of SF. Ken was DP on that project, and we went to see Jack at the Counterr Group HQ in F-ville. It was during his second wire fraud trial, and he was confined to his building, wearing a cuff. He explained the whole Lithuania/ex-KGB suitcase nuke smuggling thing, and about his relationship with the FBI, and their bogus wire fraud investigation.

As that progressed I did a series of stories about him and his difficulties with the FBI for Soldier of Fortune.

# Why, in your opinion, is Jack is innocent of wire fraud?

Here’s why I’m so sure he was innocent of those charges. Knowing that my stories had the potential to generate several huge libel suits if they were untrue, I wrote them exactly the way I wanted to, and sent them to SOF’s managing editor at that time. I cautioned him to have them carefully vetted by their attorney, and I’d rewrite them based on his critique. This editor (I just wrote a whole string of nasty things, then thought the better of it and cut them.) published them without ever showing them to the lawyer at all. In those pieces I accused an FBI agent of perjury, by name, and named the person I believed had actually done the wire fraud, by name. My God we were open to lawsuit if anything I said was false. We never even got a nasty phone call.

So, that’s how I learned a law enforcement technique. If they want to nail your ass, you don’t have to have actually committed a crime. You just have to know someone who has committed a crime. They nail that person, and get them to swear you did it if they let you go. Simple.

That reason wouldn’t stand up in a court of law. But I’m not a court of law, and that experience convinced me that Jack is innocent.

# What kind of a man do you think he is?

Well, gee, that’s kind of a mixed bag. He IS a true patriot. He is a genius at commando operations on the level of Wm. O. Darby or Otto Skorzeny. He is, as I have said before on your blog, SF to the third power, and with a rocket up his ass. Downside, well, here is a guy who BOASTS of having totaled six Corvettes. If he ever gives up commando operations and counterrevolutionary warfare, I would not suggest he seek employment in the area of public relations. Jack does not just call a spade a spade; he calls it a nasty, evil, shit-covered shovel.

One of his proudest boasts is that he was the youngest guy to make it through SF Training Group. This is true, but I think he would have been better served to have spent a couple of years in a TO&E infantry outfit before coming to SF. SF, at least at that time, had a tradition of running roughshod over any regulation that got in the way of the mission. We were true wheeler-dealers. But, if you had a little time in the regular army you had a better sense of when that was a good thing and when it wasn’t. You had a better sense of when it was time to suck it up and make it look “regulation”, and when it was time to let it roll.

My feeling is that, with that background, instead of pissing the FBI off he could have played them like a harmonica.

# You mentioned that you didn’t think he was guilty of the wire fraud charges. Can you share with me your thoughts on this?

Okay, this is somebody else’s story. Gary Scurka, another friend of Jack’s, and a very high-profile TV reporter tells me that he is absolutely convinced that Jack is innocent for an entirely other reason, also circumstantial.

Jack was married at the time of his arrest and trial. The Fan-belt Inspectors approached his wife and offered her a deal if she would roll over on Jack. She invited them to defecate in their chapeaux. As a result SHE went to jail for 15 months. She was stand-up through all that time, but when she hit the halfway house, well, she likes guys and found one. Pretty soon she was married to an E-5 in the 82d. Jack was pissed and said and did some things that kind of soured her remaining feelings for him. The last time Scurka talked to her she flat hated Jack’s guts, and had plenty of reason to say anything that would put him in a bad light. Plus, she had already done her time, so it would have cost her nothing to confess. “Listen,” she told Scurka.

“I hate the sonofabitch, but he’s not lying about that. We didn’t do any of that stuff.”

So now you know why I believe it, and why Gary Scurka believes it.

# Do you think he’s innocent of torturing those Afghans–you’ve heard the allegations, I’m sure–pouring boiling water on them, hanging them from the ceiling of a (non-existent basement) for 18 days, burning them with cigarettes, etc.?

As to Jack torturing the Afghans. I’ve never been to Afghanistan, so my conclusions can only be based on a knowledge of Jack’s general character. He is not a sadistic person. I’ve never really discussed interrogation with him, per se, but I do know his level of knowledge of most military topics, and must assume he knows just as much about interrogation. Torture is not a good interrogation technique, because the subject will tell you whatever you want to hear to make you stop. My guess would be that Jack would be far more likely to give him a cigarette and a cup of coffee, and just sit there and shoot the breeze with the guy until he had given it all away.

# Do you believe the media has engaged in a smear campaign against Jack and his men?

I would not say that the media has engaged in a smear campaign so much as simply indulged it’s normal prejudices. Almost none of these guys, and gals, have ever served in the military, and their general mindset is individualistic and iconoclastic. They have the normal human tendency to like people who are like them, and to dislike people who are unlike them, which includes almost all government employees, and especially the disciplined, tightly-wrapped, single-minded military. They have no interest in heroes whatsoever (Except heroes of the media, like Edward R. Murrow, who was a genuine hero, but was not like them at all.) and are on the hunt for villains, or anyone who might be a villain, or who can be presented or interpreted as a villain.

I have two degrees in journalism, and have made my living as a journalist off and on since 1960, including being a military Public Affairs Officer, freelance magazine writer, magazine editor, author of non-fiction books, and television producer. As such I have had many contacts with the major media, and have liked and admired many of the people I know, such as Haney Howell, Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace, of CBS, Mike Herr, author of my nominee of the best non-fiction Vietnam book, Dispatches, Joe Galloway of We Were Soldiers fame, and many others. These are some of the most courageous and honest people I know. But their work is subject to distortion at the editorial level, and most of these guys are better than the average of their peers.

Over the years I can say that the common run of reporters have their stories written in their minds before they cover them, and only go to where they’re happening to fill in the blanks. Those stories have what might be charitably termed a “progressive” slant. As information for informed citizens they are virtually useless or counterproductive.

Objective journalism is a myth, and deserves to be on George Carlin’s list of oxymorons. I respect journalists like yourself, who blythly announce their prejudices up front, and let the reader/viewer for his or her own conclusions.

So, as charitably as I can put it, I do not think they set out to smear Jack, but the effect is the same.

Most people know me from War Story, which has the most bang-bang of any of my books. But I’ve written a whole book on my experiences with this, and you might enjoy it. It’s called The Devil’s Secret Name, and its in print from St. Martin’s. Amazon has it.

# Thanks for mentioning that, I mentioned it in my introduction, but I had no idea as to the subject matter. I’m sure I WILL enjoy it, I’m certainly enjoying this! *smile* So…what are your thoughts on how the American military is supporting our boys in the field?

I believe there are two types of information, personal observation and propaganda. So, I can only comment on that in a very general way. SOF has become a bureaucracy, and bureaucracies loathe initiative.

# What are your thoughts specifically on how the American military is supporting our SF in the field?

My feeling is that we’ve lost many high-value targets because nobody gets to move before they get approval from higher. Standard guerrilla tactics in my day were to move every three days. I think OBL & Co. do it quicker than that. In other words, if a team spots an HVT they oughta move right then. Higher is now so nervous in the service that they won’t move until they have something that doesn’t exist, a course of action with no possible downside.

I love what you’re doing. Keep it up. Folks like you are making the major media obsolete.

Thank you, Sir. It’s totally a labor of love for me; I see it as a mission, but it’s also a passion. Thank you for your service, and the kind words. I look forward to reading your book The Devil’s Secret Name (and I’ll probably get more than just one, War Hero comes highly recommended by my readers and I’m embarrassed I haven’t read it yet). It’s hearing things like that from people like you that motivates me to move ahead when the going gets tough and I am fed up or want to quit. Thank you for your time.

If you’re looking for pieces on Jack Idema and his team, please click on this link.

Thanks to Mudville, Outside the Beltway, MacStanbury.org, Wizbang, Stop the ACLU, Publius Rendezvous, MVRWC, The Political Teen, The Junction, The Indepundit, Soldier’s Angel, Jo’s Cafe, Conservative Cat Floating Ping Festival, NIF, Adam’s Blog, Bloggin’ Out Loud, BRight and Early, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Right on the Right, Templar Pundit, GM’s Corner, Euphoric Reality,

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

More blogs about task force sabre 7.