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

These documents have been filed as of about lunchtime today in response to Judge Emmett Sullivan’s interesting Motion to Dismiss of the Habeas Corpus petition which I referred to earlier here.

This is an overview of Jack’s reponse–PETITIONER’S RESPONSE IN PART AND REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION. This isn’t the entire document, as I read it through and brought out the main points along with a little commentary. There is more to it, so there will probably be more posts on this, but this is what I have so far.

Overview: The Motion to Dismiss by the US Government is based on unsworn unverified statements by Ori Lev when he’s never been to Afghanistan and doesn’t have any idea what is going on there.

Is Jack Idema still at Pulacharke? Yes. Is he being held there by the Afghans? No. Is he being held by the American government against his will? Yes. And that’s why the habeas corpus petition was filed to begin with; to find out why he is being held there. In response, the American government provides Soviet-style smoke and mirrors.

If Ori Lev’s contentions aren’t enough, US Consul Birsner’s affadavit is another example. Birsner comes out and says that even if Jack Idema was held by the Afghans (which you can see in this affadavit isn’t true), Idema should have been released last year.

Birsner misdirects and misleads the court with this astonishing statement of skullduggery:

“I understand from conversations with various Afghan government officials [unnamed which seems to be the procedure with all Embassy documents] that recently…. an amnesty released all prisoners with sentences of less than five years who have served more than one-quarter or one-half of their sentences.”

The problem with that statement is that it is completely misleading as to the scope of the Amnesty Order, which was for sentences of 5 years and less, for prisoners who’d served 25% of their sentences (Idema’s sentence did not qualify). Idema had already been declared innocent and released; but the US blocked his leaving Pulacharke, even back then. They said that if Brent, Ed and Jack were all released together, it would appear as though they were innocent, and it would cause the US Government problems. Well they WERE and ARE innocent, so what’s the problem? Who are they worrying about that would object to Idema’s release? Osama Bin Laden, who has a price on his head? Or the terrorist-sympathizing media which serves as a propaganda tool for Bin laden? Or Joe Cafasso, the Colonel Who Wasn’t, who served as one of the ’sources’ in the hit pieces on Idema? Or is it more the backlash of truth which has them wringing their hands?

In this response is also a request from Brent Bennett because he has been denied re-entry to Afghanistan to reclaim his property. He was forced to leave Afghanistan in handcuffs with just the clothes on his back, and it appears as though they’re trying to force the same situation with Jack Idema.

In a written Afghan order in January of 2007, Idema was again set “free”. But you will see in the narrative that follows that Idema was and is still being held, not by the Afghans, but by the US Government and their National Security Directorate (NDS) proxies. He is not “free”.

This release was done with full knowledge of what the US Embassy had done in the past (stopped the release), so it was done this time in secret; but Afghans can’t keep a secret and eventually it was leaked to the Embassy.

On March 25, Amrullah Saleh signed an order to release Jack’s property to him, ‘especially his passport’.

Idema had been repeatedly warned that any attempt to cross borders would be a violation of the Patriot Act, even if it was just to come home to the United States. So, it would seem, that Jack Idema, former special forces soldier and Green Beret, is considered a terrorist by his own country. Even though he’s been declared innocent by the Afghans and released, he cannot leave Afghanistan or Pulacharke because of American obstruction of justice on behalf of the Embassy and other American entities.

On March 26, things were set in motion to retrieve Idema’s belongings and passport. The Embassy quickly intervened to stop the retrieval of his property.

The U.S. Government is trying to stop Idema from:

• Ever being in a position to tell his story to Congress and the Senate
• Testifying in person in court about what happened
• Testifying at the Grand Jury that’s been convened for retaliation.
• Removing his lawful and legal property from Afghanistan - which implicates US government’s officials in felony crimes including torture, perjury, withholding evidence, bribery, obstruction of justice, pre-existing knowledge of assassination plans of former allies, etc..

Now we come to Bashir Mamoon’s role in this, which we’ve mentioned at Cao’s blog before (here, here and here). On March 27, 2007, Mamoon came to Pulacharke prison to force Idema to sign documents against former Northern Alliance commanders in order to force their removal from the Karzai government in a quid pro quo move in exchange for Idema’s freedom. Mamoon did the translations between the US Consuls and Afghan courts, which will be exposed in a fantastic documentary that will be released in Afghanistan shortly. It is an Afghan/Bollywood movie, which I hope we have an opportunity to see, because it tells the real story, and includes translations of key conversations which expose the truth.

These translations reveal that the US Embassy demanded Jack Idema and his men were guilty, that they would be given ‘the longest possible sentence’. It was Mamoon who was responsible for the episode at Pulacharke that involved Jack’s kicking over the gas can with his zippo lighter at the ready; Mamoon and the NDS goons were there to force Idema’s removal to Saderat Extreme Interrogation Facility.

And this is “freedom” to the U.S. Government; denial, denial, denial - that any torture occurred and that they were treated “humanely at Saderat. A Canadian News Article on torture at NDS came out on April 23rd, providing background into the veracity of the repeated sworn affidavits filed to the court outlining Idema and Bennett’s torture. An excerpt:

Exclusive investigation
From Canadian custody into cruel hands
Savage beatings, electrocution, whipping and extreme cold: Detainees detail a litany of abuses by Afghan authorities

GRAEME SMITH

From Monday’s Globe and Mail

April 23, 2007 at 1:17 AM EDT

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Afghans detained by Canadian soldiers and sent to Kandahar’s notorious jails say they were beaten, whipped, starved, frozen, choked and subjected to electric shocks during interrogation.

In 30 face-to-face interviews with men recently captured in Kandahar province, a Globe and Mail investigation has uncovered a litany of gruesome stories and a clear pattern of abuse by the Afghan authorities who work closely with Canadian troops, despite Canada’s assurances that the rights of detainees are protected.

Canadian forces regularly hold detainees for a few days of questioning at Kandahar Air Field, then give them to the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s feared intelligence police. Over and over, detainees described how Canadians tied their hands with plastic straps, marking the start of nightmarish journeys through shadowy jails and blood-spattered interrogation rooms.

This is Jack after his injuries had healed somewhat, in a court appearance in the fall of 2004. You can still see his black eyes and bruises. He had detached retinas, torn rotator cuffs, they’d poured boiling water in his lap, played ‘dance with the scorpion’, etc. This wasn’t in the content of the paperwork filed in court today, but this is a point that needs to be made, nevertheless.

These are terrorist propaganda tactics that the Soviets have practiced for years; create a situation where the accused is unable to defend himself and accuse him of those things of which they are guilty. The American government is complicit; working completely in concert with the NDS; which is controlled by the former communist regime previously in Afghanistan. The Afghans serve merely as their orderlies and guards. The former Northern Alliance, our previous allies before we withdrew our support from them (a big mistake), are their targets, and they are arrested for the smallest of transgressions. Jack, under severe personal pressure to renounce our former allies, has refused to do so.

The Embassy is working with NDS, authorizing the NDS to use any form of force deemed necessary against Jack Idema including rockets, weapons and gas, and to take whatever evidence they think might be there.

After the Embassy learned of the secret release and the plan to spirit Jack Idema out of Pulacharke, they quickly showed up at the gates to ‘deliver mail’. This should have left even the Taliban and Al Qaida laughing, as the Embassy has not been “delivering mail” from friends, family or their attorneys, during the entire time they were at Pulacharke except to mention occasionally that they’d accept money or bribes to drop of packages. If this had happened to detainees (real terrorists) like Jose Padilla, there would be legions of lawyers going to his defense. But in Jack’s case, even attorney-client privileged correspondence is stopped. In this unusual “mail delivery” was a federal express package from January, along with a care package from a marine. The marine’s care package was accepted and mailed by the US Postal Service for free under Article 110 of the Geneva Prisoner of War Conventions and the Universal Postal Convention, demonstrating again, as hundreds of times in the past, that the US Postal Service has recognized Idema’s Prisoner of War status based on his 2004 Geneva Convention Tribunal Request for official status.

The Embassy has returned many packages back to the senders at taxpayers’ expense. The only reason the Embassy made the delivery this time was to prevent Idema’s exit from Pulacharke.

Between April 27th and May 1st, 2007, the special advisor to the Vice-President, the advisor to the Minister of Justice, five generals, and several Afghan diplomats have attempted to force the return of Idema’s passport and property from NDS. As of today, the last word was that the United States Embassy has ordered NDS to retain all property and Idema’s passport and block his release “at all costs.” The entire budget of the NDS is administered by the United States government. The NDS is literally at the US Embassy’s beck and call. Until such time as the NDS receives a written order from the United States Ambassador releasing Idema and his property, Jack Idema will remain in Afghanistan as a prisoner of war held by his own country, as a political detainee.

So terrorist fighters are now considered criminals to the American government??? Apparently so, as we’ve seen in the case of Ilario Pantano and the courageous marines of Haditha and others. Even Britain has one; Colonel Jorge Mendonca.

1. Jack Idema has been without power for five weeks now living in the dark.
2. Jack Idema has been without power or lights for more than 170 days in the past two and a half years.
3. Jack Idema has been without running water for just under 3 years. (Water is carried daily by pail from stream water which goes through a storage drum.) He has not had hot water in almost three years, or medical care of any kind in almost three years.
4. Jack Idema, under constant threat of forced transfer to Saderat Interrogation Facility and renewed torture, has been not left his barricade position for 7 months, (with the exceptions in his affidavit).
5. Jack Idema has been without mail for two and half years. An embargo imposed solely by the US Embassy (but just days after this Court’s March Order, the US Embassy delivered to Jack Idema personal mail for the first time in years; the letter and care package from a Marine in the Midwest. We estimate, that more than 4000 letters and care packages were returned to their senders at taxpayer expense, solely for retaliatory and vicious purposes to impose a brutal existence on these men.
6. Jack Idema has been without a single foreign visitor allowed in since the attack on Bennett, because the Pulacharke Gate, outside the prison, at the town, is controlled by forces under the US Embassy’s control. Afghan visitors get in by saying they are visiting their relatives or an officer; then tell the inside prison gates they are visiting Jack, and get right in. Obviously it is NOT the prison or the Ministry of Justice stopping his visitors.
7. Jack Idema lives under daily threat, a very real threat, of being attacked with violent force, by not only the terrorists surrounding him, but by the US Embassy and Karzai controlled factions which answer to the Embassy, and then taken to the NDS Saderat Interrogation facility where, and I don’t think this is exaggeration, nobody will ever hear from him again.
8. Jack Idema and Brent Bennett are being forced through a wide variety of methods, to forfeit all of their property; property which Idema has defended with his life. He is being forced, through the withholding of his passport and continued incarceration, to allow its search and seizure by US officials. Although this might change the dynamics and ADD claims to the habeas corpus claim of wrongful property it CERTAINLY does not defeat the habeas corpus or render it moot, if anything, it makes it clear that the government must be forced to answer and forced quickly.
9. The exculpatory evidence is not just being held anymore, now it is to be permanently forfeited, most likely destroyed or placed in some black hole at the FBI, and forever lost (just like Idema’s passport, which the US government has claimed was lost for 3 years, yet Jack Idema located it within a few days by phone.) Without their exculpatory evidence Jack Idema and Brent Bennett face a long list of possible crimes, all of which would be swiftly defeated with the evidence, and this is not speculation. These are criminal charges which are a real and present threat, as proven by a Grand Jury investigation started just days after this Court issued its opinion. Therefore, not only is the habeas corpus far from moot, because it seeks the return of exculpatory evidence, it is even more important now, and more time sensitive. Idema and Bennett are being prevented from retaining evidence that will clear them of all allegations, past, present, and future. Jack Idema has repeatedly offered to testify at a Grand Jury, and just weeks ago, a letter was presented to the Grand Jury foreman in North Carolina demanding to testify and present evidence, evidence that the government is determined will never see the light of day.
10. The government motion and supporting affidavit is just smoke and mirrors to redirect the court’s attention and make it appear as though Idema is free to go as he pleases. This is simply not the case.

Contrary to Ori Lev’s unsupported, third hand, unsworn, hearsay statements obtained from unknown parties and news reports filed by lying journalists and/or his interpretation of events [to which he was not and has not been present for], the reality is that the United States government imprisoned these men, and to this day are blocking any hope of their truly being free, or their returning to the United States. To this day they are interfering with almost every basic fundamental liberty guaranteed to Americans by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.

In the face of all this, Mr. Lev would have people believe that Jack Idema holds the keys to freedom and simply enjoys Pulacharke Prison too much to leave. So he leads the court to believe Jack Idema prefers to live without water, mail, heat, electricity, eating rice everyday, and under constant threat of assassination by the two thousand terrorists surrounding him.

Ridiculous. Horrifying. Sad. Heartbreaking. Because if this can happen to an American Citizen who’s been fighting terrorists, to the only man on the face of the earth who could kill or capture Osama Bin Laden, then this can happen to anyone on the side of what is good, fair and right.

The American Government should eat crow, admit they’ve done him and the others a severe injustice, and let him go. Let him come home. The officials who are responsible should pay a heavy penalty, this should not be allowed to continue in other instances.

Jack Idema deserves justice, which has been denied him for too long.