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From Ted Kavanau: Imprisoned terror fighter Jack Idema served about 4 years ‘hard time’ in prison, after being convicted of a white collar crime. That conviction is constantly mentioned to discredit what Idema did in Afghanistan in thwarting and capturing terrorists. Cao’s article below explains facts about that white collar conviction that have been very rarely disclosed in the general media. Cao mentions a “nuclear smuggling case”. That case is the story of how Jack Idema, while training Lithuanian special police after the fall of Communism, was told by them that the Russian Mafia was smuggling nuclear materials out of the Russian arsenal and selling it to potential American enemies. The Lithuanians warned Idema that if he disclosed their identities they would be killed since the FBI and CIA were infiltrated by Communist spies. Idema told his story about the nuclear material to the Pentagon and was lauded for it by them, but he would not give American intelligence agencies the names of his sources. In the trials related to the while collar crime accusations, Cao explains how the FBI played a sinister behind the scenes role to get Idema convicted and have a whip hand over him to try to force him to divulge his sources for the nuclear material story. The result was continual hard time prisons, often being shifted from one to another (diesel therapy, I understand it’s called) when anyone in the media, including Barry Farber and myself, became interested and broadcast his story. A lot of his punishment for the white collar conviction was spent in solitary confinement, It should be noted that Idema’s story about the Russian Mafia and the sale of nuclear material was brought by journalist Gary Scurka to CBS “60 Minutes” and they won a major national Investigative award for it, though Idema was never mentioned or credited for the information.

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Idema went to jail for refusing to cooperate with the FBI in a nuclear smuggling case, and give up his Russian sources, going to jail to protect their identities. That is indisputable, no one involved has ever denied that fact other than the FBI. It is often said, that there are no coincidences in the spook world. Jack refused to reveal his Soviet sources because he claimed the FBI was compromised by the KGB (Jack stated this in a July 1992 Pentagon briefing to the Assistant Secretary of Defense SO/LIC). In December 1996, Senior FBI Special Agent Earl Edwin Pitts was arrested for espionage, and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for spying on behalf of the KGB. Pitts had been at Jack’s Pentagon briefing, and was later involved in Jack’s case. In March 1998, Robert Phillip Hanssen (FBI Director of the FBI National Security Division - which oversaw Jack’s case) was arrested for espionage. Hanssen was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for his KGB spying. One more “coincidence” - the FBI Lab testified at Jack’s second trial (he acquitted in a hung jury with a 11 to 1 vote in his favor in the first trial). From jail Jack sued the government’s main witness and won a near $1 million dollar federal court judgment (Idema vs. Hambrick, EDNC).

Jack’s assumptions proved true; and there are many more examples of it unrelated to this case.

When Jack got released, he discovered new evidence to clear himself, proved the FBI falsified evidence, introduced falsified evidence, concealed evidence, introduced evidence with knowingly forged signatures (and concealed the fact that a government witness actually forged the document that convicted Jack), and proved that the FBI Lab concealed extensive exculpatory evidence (no surprise there, the same lab people are the subject of an extensive Inspector General Report on misconduct, all during the same time period).

Then he took a government agency to trial, and settled the case in the middle of his testimony as first witness, for somewhere around a half million dollars (a gag order on the settlement keeps him from confirming or denying the actual amount and discussing the case). It was the largest case of its kind ever settled for constitutional rights violations.

He won a $3.8 million dollar judgment (Jury Verdict for $800k actual, $1 million punitive, treble for Unfair & Deceptive Trade Practices) against more people involved in his 1991 federal criminal case (Idema vs Wiggs, et al; NC Superior Court). In that case Wiggs, and others not only worked with the FBI against Jack, but they sold off all of Jack’s possessions, his military awards, and his property, stole his business, and even threw his uniforms with awards in the garbage. Some of Jack’s property was recovered by Special Forces Sergeant John Diggs, and Command Sergeant Major Thomas O’Donnell who testified at trial. Sergeant Diggs, no stranger to Jack’s tenacity and perseverance, told the jury, “I always knew he’d be back for his stuff, so I hung onto it.” The jury was apparently not happy with defendants. The verdict against them was swift and painful.

A FOIA request and subsequent release of related documents to his attorneys post-conviction revealed that a federal investigative agency had Jack under 24 hour surveillance (electronic and otherwise) during the entire time period encompassing the aiding and abetting wire fraud charges time frame. Interesting how the federal agency in question never was able to flag jack’s purported criminal conduct. Also, this Ind was requested by his criminal attorneys prior to trial, and the government denied its existence. It’s quite curious how it appeared years later after Jack was well into his prison term.

The press also writes, as do the weblog sites, that Jack owes $200k in restitution to the government in his criminal case. Jack says he doesn’t owe it because he didn’t do it, and the FBI falsified the evidence. Jack spent $450,000 on his defense, and than $375,000 more to fight a case he could have settled at anytime for a lot less than half of the $200,000. Jack spent (if I’m not mistaken) almost one million dollars to prevent paying one hundred thousand based solely on principle.

Jack’s endeavors have clearly earned him a lot of money over the years– but he still remains technically homeless, having lost his house during his first year fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and donating every dime of his own money to fight the war on terror and support humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. How people can possibly say the horrible things they’ve said about this man being a “fraud”, a “criminal” a “poser” are beyond me. With all of the evidence I’m uncovering to the contrary, it’s quite simply; appalling.

Men of unwavering principle are difficult adversaries- they don’t think of just dollars and cents but honor and justice. We’d be better off if there were more like him.

What the wire fraud charges has to do with his current imprisonment in Afghanistan is beyond me. I suppose the line of thinking is that he’s a “criminal” and deserves to be in “jail”. All Americans working in the war on terrorism (whether active or former military, whether working for Blackwater or not) should be protected by the US Government and agencies–and certainly not villified. What Jack and his men have endured in Afghanistan-first at Saderat and then at Pulacharke should absolutely NOT have happened. Eric Campbell put it like this

As I attempted to explain to you, this was a war zone. Afghanistan had been at war for 23 years. In war zones, particularly Afghanistan, the people you deal with and from whom you glean information are very often mass murderers, rapists, thieves and charlatans who also happen to generals, ministers and governors. On that scale, dealing with someone convicted of business fraud in the US eight years earlier was not something to be unduly shocked by.

When you report wars you work on the assumption that everyone is running some agenda and could be mixing truth with fiction. The job of a journalist is to try to separate the two. This is something people who have never worked in war zones may find hard to comprehend. But its’ the reality you deal with.

Jack’s fraud conviction, as well as his occasionally bizarre behavior, obviously made me and the other journalists working on the story look harder at the authenticity of the tapes. But we established that authenticity beyond doubt. We also established the certainty that Jack was an advisor to the Northern Alliance and that he was qualified to comment on military training techniques. From that point on, Jack’s past business dealings in the US were irrelevant to the story. As in any stories with time constraints, I presented the most important information in the limited time available.

Jack Idema

Colonel Bob Morris

Knightsbridge International