Check out Captain’s Quarters for details.
Sounds to me as though we’re still recruiting, so if you haven’t done it already, go over to Captain’s quarters and sign on with the regiment!
Too bad I’m into this minimal design that doesn’t allow adding buttons. Been there, though, already and it slows down the loading time of the page.
This renders the ‘chickenhawk’ argument useless, lol!
WE EAT CHICKENS FOR LUNCH!
K. Suryanarayan, an Indian engineer was abducted and subsequently killed/beheaded by the Taliban, according to a report from Reuters.
Suryanarayan, according to Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf, was shot dead on Saturday while trying to escape. His beheaded body was found near the main road between Qalat, the Zabul provincial capital, and Ghazni to the north, about 300 km (200 miles) southwest of Kabul.
When is Reuters going to stop relying on terrorists for their sources on things? I just have to wonder why more people don’t complain about it. They said “Taleban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone…” Which means they’re in at least phone contact with members of the Taliban! It’s horrendous, isn’t it? It’s just about unimaginable when I read these reports of journalists talking with these terrorists as though they’re valuable sources.
India confirmed the murder and said it would not be swayed from supporting Afghanistan.
Relatives, friends and the public gathered to protest against this inhuman act.
Condemning the killing, protestors shouted slogans against the Taliban militia.
If people from other countries are denouncing the Taliban and expecting their government to protect their people working abroad as India is, then why is it that the American government is helping Karzai to give amnesty to them?
This is the news that is travelling through Afghanistan. Reportedly, that’s what the stupid journalists are reporting….I’ll be watching CNN, etc., to see if they actually report the truth.
On Afghan television, they showed Jack and his men walking out of Pulacharke. How did they do that when they haven’t left Pulacharke and are still there? They must have showed some old footage.
The fact is, Ed Caraballo is now on his way home….
But Jack and his men were offered “amnesty” by Karzai and his Taliban loving government and they will not take it. Karzai has been giving ‘amnesty’ to terrorists, the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Jack and his men are innocent, they’re not terrorists, they’re not ‘mercenaries’ and they were declared innocent in a second trial - and ordered released.
This is a BS offer and they have not signed it. They are still at Pulacharke, except for Ed Caraballo, who is on his way home.
KABUL, Afghanistan - An American jailed for two years in Afghanistan on charges of torturing alleged terrorists in a makeshift jail was freed two months early on Sunday after a government decree.
Edward Caraballo, 44, from New York, waved to reporters at Kabul’s international airport as he arrived in the back of a four-wheel drive vehicle accompanied by heavily armed American security personnel.
A U.S. Embassy official said an American consular officer accompanied Caraballo to the airport from the Pol-i-Charki prison, where he had been held since July 2004. He later caught a flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on his way back to the United States.
“I feel jubilant and happy. I am still worried that something could happen to me as I leave but I am optimistic that I will get home safely,” Caraballo told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his cell before his release.
He said he was freed two months early under a decree issued by the Afghan government for prisoners with less than 12 months left on their sentences.
The U.S. Embassy declined to comment.
Oh. I wonder why they would ‘decline to comment’.
ahhh this part is absolutely priceless:
He said he was freed two months early under a decree issued by the Afghan government for prisoners with less than 12 months left on their sentences.
The decree covers only robbery, rape and horrible crimes. If everyone was released under this decree, why was he the only one?
Even under his reduced sentence he has more than two months left on his sentence.
This is a spin to make the Americans look guilty.
Caraballo is a four-time Emmy award-winning journalist. That one is true. But listen to this one:
He has consistently denied being an active member of Idema’s group and said he believed he was chronicling a legitimate counterterrorism operation when he was arrested.
Love that. “Denied being an active member of Idema’s group”. See how they’re spinning this? “he believed he was chronicling a legitimate counterterrorism operation when he was arrested”.
Nice spin you got there, guys.
Here’s about the only factual statement I’ve seen on this thus far:
Caraballo alleges that American military officials facilitated his “embedding” with Idema’s team and helped make contacts with Afghan officials while in Afghanistan.
It appears to me as though the AP, Reuters and the rest are using Caraballo’s release to remind everyone about what a horrible criminal and con artist Jack Idema is, regardless of what the truth is. Disgusting.
From the Superpatriots’ website:
Details Are Sketchy: This is what we know- Four-time Emmy Award winning journalist Edward Caraballo was released Sunday afternoon, April 30. He was ordered released several days ago, packed up, and waiting for a ride to the airport when the US Embassy interceded and stopped the release. Over the next two days Afghan officials worked to free him, and finally ignored the US Ambassador’s demands to hold him. According to a top-ranking General in the Ministry of Justice, Caraballo walked out of Pulacharke Sunday around 3pm. The US Embassy then detained him and sent back to New York on the next plane out. Interestingly enough it comes just 4 days before a hearing in the US Federal Court in Washington on the rendition of the four men by the American FBI. There is little doubt that the US State Dept will use this to spin a defense that Caraballo’s release proves the US Govt. is not behind their illegal conviction. The press is reporting that it was Karzai’s early release order, but if you read that order it specifically excludes the crimes Caraballo was charged with. And, if it was Karzai’s early release order then why was Caraballo the ONLY prisoner released today? For those that say they were “convicted” in a “court of law,” just respond with this: No sworn witnesses, no evidence presented, only newspapers articles used as evidence against them, no cross-examination, a trial which was barely translated with always incorrect translation, the defense statement was stopped after ten minutes, both defense attorneys were threatened with arrest if they tried to present evidence of actual innocence or complain about the lack of legal rights, Afghan lawyers for Bennett and Banderas were threatened with arrest and death if they attempted to defend their clients, and only one person in the trial gave a statement under oath (on the Koran), and that was Jack Idema. Yet lawyers against Idema in US civil cases are saying they were convicted by a fair trial. We find that disgusting from anyone, no less “American” lawyers.
Sunday 6pm, Ariana National Television announces that all Americans were released and all the Afghans on Task Force Saber released with them.
Not true– here is what we know. Parliament had signed a release order for Task Force Saber, all of them, but Karzai required that Jack sign a similar Amnesty agreement as they had offered him three times before. Jack refused (imagine that). Then Parliament decided to just release them on Mujahadeen Day (April 28th), the day of Afghan Holy Warriors. The US Embassy promptly stepped in and started lodging “informal” objections to a declaration of innocence. Then the Ministry of Justice ordered them all released Sunday morning. So far it is only confirmed that Caraballo has left by airplane to Dubai. Meanwhile, everyone in Afghanistan thinks Jack has been released because by 7pm it was on every channel in Southwest Asia. Last we heard they were still at Pulacharke. This is going to get interesting. Especially since TOLO TV reported Jack at a local bar celebrating an hour ago.
The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used by Cao’s Blog with written copyright permission and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US
This post will probably be updated throughout the day. There is no telling what’s going to happen as time goes on in this goofy story.
It’s Sunday, folks, say a prayer for the American POWs in Afghanistan, that they’ll be kept safe and alive until that one day soon when they’re released.
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This is my second videoblog, and I think I’m getting the hang of it! What I’m covering here is the Left’s attack on the military (including Jack Idema) in this one, hope you enjoy it.
I mention Euphoric Reality’s coverage of a couple of key stories in this vblog. Here are the links to their incredible work:
Chapter 1: Introduction
The first in a ten-part series about jealousy, truth, and honor between men who fought in Vietnam.
Chapter 2: Ambush in the Ruong Ruong
The mission begins. A 12-man ‘hunter/killer’ team is inserted into the mountainous rainforest of the Ruong Roung.
Chapter 3: Nowhere To Go
Expecting a reaction force that never comes, the LRPs linger in the kill-zone while the NVA stealthily surround their perimeter. Pounded for hours by a firefight, they face disaster.
Chapter 4: The Absence of All Hope
Is there anyone left alive after the explosion?
Chapter 5: To Save Our Brothers
Even though they were doing their best to stay alive, the LRPs of Team 24 knew they were dead men. What they didn’t know was that their brothers were trying to save them.
Chapter 6: The Legacy of 20 November 1968
The aftermath of the battle on the little knoll has reached farther than any of us can imagine.
Chapter 7: The Accusations, Pt. 1
After the hell endured by the men of Team 24 in the Ruong Ruong Valley, they have come under fire by a fellow veteran and his wife who say the men have engaged in a cover-up of what really happened: the murder of unarmed rice carriers.
Chapter 8: The Accusations, Pt. 2
More debunked accusations, this time aimed at Gary Linderer personally.
Chapter 9: The Present-Day War
The question at this point is certainly “Why?” What would drive a fellow Vietnam veteran to make these accusations of murder and fake medals against his brother?
Chapter 10: Hope For Future Peace
More than thirty years after one bloody day on a hill in Vietnam, the men of Team 24 go on with their lives.
“When a man who is honestly mistaken, hears the truth, he will either cease being mistaken or cease being honest.” - Anonymous
UPDATED: Brother Against Brother: Don & Annette Halls’ Rebuttal
Our Final Word.
Neverending…
Books authored by the men of the Brother Against Brother series
Ilario Pantano
When I’m talking about my ‘otherwise known as name’ some people might not understand what I’m making fun of. Or that I’m actually making fun at all….
But some will. 
Thanks to Basil’s blog, The Uncooperative Blogger, Church and State, Stuck on Stupid, Woman Honor Thyself, The Liberal Wrong, Linkfest Haven
As an example of the desperate war the left has waged on our military, Jay at Stop the ACLU has a post up about vandals and their attack this past Wednesday on the buildings used by the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill, echoing similar assaults on three Triangle recruiting stations last month.
For me, all I have to do when questioning how the anti-war movement is affecting our troops– is look in my son’s face when he comes back from Iraq. Spend some time with him as he’s walking through the airport carrying his gear with his uniform on and notice the reaction to him from the people around him. This has happened a good heartbreaking 6 times so far. And in the meantime, I cling to news coming out of Iraq, looking for news of success and accomplishments, realizing that most of the reports are lies and trash. But listening to the doom and gloom from the lamestream media still doesn’t help a mother’s heart.
I think I’ve made my sentiments pretty clear on the Left’s ridiculous alliance with radical organizations such as communist International ANSWER, Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, and all the rest of the commie organizations that–as my dad has said–are treating us like frogs in a frying pan.
So many of my buddies in Iraq and Afghanistan hate the message of the Anti-war protesters; it’s incredibly demoralizing and it’s an in-your-face betrayal.
This soldier wants and needs to be a VOICE. He asks that his words (and those of his platoon mates) be copied, forwarded, and widely disseminated. That is the very least we can do.
So, if you’re another blogger - no matter how big or small your blog, no matter if you’re liberal* or conservative - please copy this soldier’s letter and post it at your own place. If you’re a reader, email the letter or print it out and share it with others. It’s the very least you can do, too.
Tip o’ me tam to Heidi at Euphoric Reality
___________________________________________
Preface from Sgt. Hook: I received an email from a mother whose son is currently fighting in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. He and his platoon have penned a message to the American public that is a little different from the message we are getting via the MSM. He asked his mom to help get this message out and she asked me. Here it is from the soldiers on the ground…
Mom,
Be my voice. I want this message heard. It is mine and my platoon’s to the country. A man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in another company in our batallion. I can no longer be silent after watching the sacrifices made by Iraqis and Americans everyday. Send it to a congressman if you have to. Send it to FOX news if you have to. Let this message be heard please…
My fellow Americans, I have a task for those with the courage and fortitude to take it. I have a message that needs not fall on deaf ears. A vision the blind need to see. I am not a political man nor one with great wisdom. I am just a soldier who finds himself helping rebuild a country that he helped liberate a couple years ago.
I have watched on television how the American public questions why their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are fighting and dying in a country 9000 miles away from their own soil. Take the word of a soldier, for that is all I am, that our cause is a noble one. The reason we are here is one worth fighting for. A cause that has been the most costly and sought after cause in our small span of existence on our little planet. Bought in blood and paid for by those brave enough to give the ultimate sacrifice to obtain it. A right that is given to every man, woman, and child I believe by God. I am talking of freedom.
Freedom. One word but yet countless words could never capture it’s true meaning or power. “For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know.” I read that once and it couldn’t be more true. It’s not the average American’s fault that he or she is “blind and deaf” to the taste of freedom. Most Americans are born into their God-given right so it is all they ever know. I was once one of them. I would even dare to say that it isn’t surprising that they take for granted what they have had all their life. My experiences in the military however opened my eyes to the truth.
Ironically you will find the biggest outcries of opposition to our cause from those who have had no military experience and haven’t had to fight for freedom. I challenge all of those who are daring enough to question such a noble cause to come here for just a month and see it first hand. I have a feeling that many voices would be silenced.
I watched Cindy Sheehan sit on the President’s lawn and say that America isn’t worth dying for. Later she corrected herself and said Iraq isn’t worth dying for. She badmouthed all that her son had fought and died for. I bet he is rolling over in his grave.
Ladies and gentleman I ask you this. What if you lived in a country that wasn’t free? What if someone told you when you could have heat, electricity, and water? What if you had no sewage systems so human waste flowed into the streets? What if someone would kill you for bad-mouthing your government? What if you weren’t allowed to watch TV, connect to the internet, or have cell phones unless under extreme censorship? What if you couldn’t put shoes on your child’s feet?
You need not have a great understanding of the world but rather common sense to realize that it is our duty as HUMAN BEINGS to free the oppressed. If you lived that way would you not want someone to help you????
The Iraqis pour into the streets to wave at us and when we liberated the cities during the war they gathered in the thousands to cheer, hug and kiss us. It was what the soldiers in WW2 experienced, yet no one questioned their cause!! Saddam was no better than Hitler! He tortured and killed thousands of innocent people. We are heroes over here, yet Americans badmouth our President for having us here.
Every police station here has a dozen or more memorials for officers that were murdered trying to ensure that their people live free. These are husbands, fathers, and sons killed every day. What if it were your country? What would your choice be? Everything we fight for is worth the blood that may be shed. The media never reports the true HEROISM I witness everyday in the Iraqis. Yes, there are bad one’s here, but I assure you they are a minuscule percent. Yet they are a number big enough to cause worry in this country’s future.
I have watched brave souls give their all and lose their lives and limbs for this cause. I will no longer stand silent and let the “deaf and blind” be the only voice shouting. Stonewall Jackson once said, “All that I have, all that I am is at the service of the country.” For these brave souls who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including your son Cindy Sheehan, I will shout till I can no longer. These men and women are heroes. Their spirit lives on in their military and they will never be forgotten. They did not die in vain but rather for a cause that is larger than all of us.
My fellow countrymen and women, we are not overseas for our country alone but also another. We are here to spread democracy and freedom to those who KNOW the true taste of it because they fight for it everyday. You can see the desire in their eyes and I am honored to fight alongside them as an Infantryman in the 101st Airborne.
Freedom is not free, but yet it is everyone’s right to have. Ironic, isn’t it? That is why we are here. Though you will always have the skeptics, I know that most of our military will agree with this message. Please, at the request of this soldier spread this message to all you know. We are in Operation Iraqi Freedom and that is our goal. It is a cause that I and thousands of others stand ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice for because, Cindy Sheehan, freedom is worth dying for, no matter what country it is! And after the world is free only then can we hope to have peace.
SGT XXX and 1st Platoon
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
H/T: Sgt Hook
* If you are a liberal reading this, and one who subscribes to the oxymoron “I support the troops, but not the war”, I wonder if you have enough intestinal fortitude to read this sergeant’s words, understand them, and pass them on, as per his request. If you really support the troops - will you perform this one small request from one of them?
If you have your own blog, you now have the chance to show your support for the troops in a very small way that costs you NOTHING. Can you…and will you do it? I really want to know, so I await your reply.
If I left this in your OTB, would you do this soldier the favor of pulling his letter up from trackbacks and into its own post? Thanks!
Thanks to Stop the ACLU, Outside the Beltway, Mudville
TGIF!
Thank God I’m FREE! Thanks to guys like Jack Idema.
C’mon and trackback! Put up a post that you think deserves some special attention from this past week.
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Many of us find it disturbing to hear the sympathetic apologists defend the ACLU’s work to protect pedophiles over our children. We watch the ACLU fight for sex offenders to live next to Elementary schools, and playgrounds. We watched in horror as the ACLU defended NAMBLA, under the banner of free speech, to plan and talk about how to rape young boys. It doubles the anger to hear the apologists defend the ACLU with some twisted talk perverting the Constitution.
In Mississippi, billboards of sex offenders and child molesters are being errected, but of course the ACLU oppose this. Of course all of these things we hear excused away by liberal apologists, but lets take a deeper look at the ACLU’s agenda. Let’s take a deeper look at the industry that the ACLU wants to defend here.
“It would be a mistake to think that all the children who are being exploited sexually are kidnapped by “kid porn” operators. Many of the children are being sold to people by their parents. In some cases, the parents have agreed to perform incest with their children. Gonorrhea of the throat in infants as young as nine and eighteen months has been reported”.source
This is as sick as it gets folks. But the ACLU believes it is a freedom being denied to people. And before liberals start to ask. Yes, the ACLU has a current policy advocating the legalization of child porn distribution and possession.
“Students of liberty, from John Stuart Mill to Thomas Emerson, have all intentionally excluded children from their formula for freedom. The ACLU does not. Not even when the subject is pornography.Quote from Twilight Of Liberty
In 1982, the ACLU, in an amicus role, lost in a unanimous decision in the Supreme Court to legalize the sale and distribution of child pornography.”
The case is…: New York Vs Ferber, 458 U.S. 747
It can be found here.
The ACLU’s position is this: criminalize the production but legalize the sale and distribution of child pornography. This is the kind of lawyerly distinction that no one on the Supreme Court found convincing. And with good reason: as long as a free market in child pornography exists, there will always be some producers willing to risk prosecution. Beyond this, there is also the matter of how the sale of child pornography relates either to free speech or the ends of good government. But most important, the central issue is whether a free society should legalize transactions that involve the wholesale sexploitation of children for profit.”
The ACLU objects to the idea that porn movie producers be required to maintain records of ages of its performers; this would be ” a gross violation of privacy.”Quotes from Twilight Of Liberty
I don’t think that any other ACLU stance evokes more anger from me, than this one. I mean, how sick can you get? Do these people not have a conscience at all, or are they just plain EVIL? How can one argue this sick, twisted view in the name of “protecting civil liberties?” Please, some liberal out there that loves defending this evil organization…explain this to us. No wonder the ACLU doesn’t want the public to have access to its policy guide!
Since the ACLU thinks that child pornography should be legal, it is not surprising to read that it is against making it a felony to advertise, sell, purchase, barter, exchange, give, or receive child pornography. It is particularly distressed about the prohibition on advertisement, arguing that “the law cannot expect every publisher to decode every advertisment for some hidden and sinister meaning,” as if it took a technician-armed with a special decoding device-to ferret out pictures of children ludely exhibiting their genitals.Quote from Twilight Of Liberty
As legislative counsel for the ACLU in 1985, Barry Lynn told the U.S. Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography (of which Focus on the Family President Dr. James C. Dobson was a member) that child pornography was protected by the First Amendment. While production of child porn could be prevented by law, he argued, its distribution could not be. A few years later (1988), Lynn told the Senate Judiciary Committee that even requiring porn producers to maintain records of their performers’ ages was impermissible.
“If there is no federal record-keeping requirement for the people portrayed in Road and Track or Star Wars,” he said, “there can be no such requirement for Hustler or Debbie Does Dallas.”Quoted Reference
Is the ACLU completely retarded? I would love to think there was some kind of saving grace for an organization that says it is about protecting civil liberties, but with positions like this…which you KNOW are against the will of the people, I don’t know if there is. My head is about to explode just typing this stuff!
Let’s take a deeper look at the industry that the ACLU wants to defend here.
“It would be a mistake to think that all the children who are being exploited sexually are kidnapped by “kid porn” operators. Many of the children are being sold to people by their parents. In some cases, the parents have agreed to perform incest with their children. Gonorrhea of the throat in infants as young as nine and eighteen months has been reported”. source
This is as sick as it gets folks. But the ACLU believes it is a freedom being denied to people. And before liberals start to ask. Yes, the ACLU has a current policy advocating the legalization of child porn distribution and possession. Yes, the ACLU still currently defends pedophile organization’s.
“Mere possession should not be a crime,” said John Roberts, executive director of the Boston branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.”
Quoted Reference
They are a radically, out of control organization that consistently goes too far, and they must be stopped, before they destroy our Nation. And as for those who support the ACLU, this is the kind of crap your money goes to. As a parent of a 5 year old child, and as a citizen of this great nation, I am outraged! Help us stop this insane organization!
STAND UP! TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO SUPPORT THE PUBLIC EXPRESSION OF RELIGION ACT OF 2005
Sign The Petition To Get The ACLU Off The Taxpayer’s Dole
This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay or Gribbit. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 180 blogs already on-board
Cheers to Wednesday–what some folks call “hump day” because once you’ve reached the afternoon, you’re over the hump on the way to the weekend!
Trackback with one of your posts that you think deserves some special attention from this past week.
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Some of this bears repeating, so…
Here’s Jack’s bruised face, the result of the torture they received when they were first arrested, which the MSM didn’t report a single word about, even though Carlotta Gall had a front row seat.
Once again, here we are. We know that Jack and his men were declared innocent in a second trial, which the MSM did not cover, and are being held for some inexplicable reason -at the behest of the American government. Their ID’s actually say ‘political prisoner’ on them. Now if they were guilty of torture and running a private prison, then why would their ID’s say ‘political prisoner’?
In the convoluted case of Jack Idema, Jack and his men, according to Kim Barker of the Chicago Tribune, the biggest challenge isn’t the Taliban or Al Qaeda who are imprisoned at Pulacharke; instead the biggest challenge the Afghans face is the three Americans.
That’s a pretty ridiculous statement, wouldn’t you say? Al Qaeda isn’t the challenge, no, even the Taliban aren’t a challenge–no, the challenge for the Afghans at Pulacharke is the three Americans!
And then she goes on to quote Mawlawi Sidiq (the title of Mawlawi was stripped from him long ago, but the media continues to call him by that moniker). I find it so interesting that journalists like Barker go over to Afghanistan, can’t get an audience with Idema and his men, and continue to report in this slanted kind of way.
She says Caraballo is due to be released in July, Bennett in July 2007 and Idema in July 2009, citing no sources for this information, and not acknowledging that the Americans were declared innocent in a second trial.
My sources say that Idema is due to be released in the upcoming weeks, but it appears as though the MSM is intent on spinning the conditions under which that will happen. Two other points that seemed to me to be equally ridiculous that Barker made in her article were that they were
were arrested in July 2004 on charges of running a private jail and torturing prisoners in their own war on terrorism.
Oh. I see, Idema and his men were hunting Bin Laden, and captured Ghulumsaki with a night letter from Mullah Omar and a letter from his brother-a terrorist incarcerated at Gitmo, but she says ‘their own war on terrorism’.
So if I’m to understand this correctly, there is no war on terrorism? It’s quite apparent how the war with the Taliban has changed, since Karzai is now asking them to participate in government, Mullah Omar was also ‘forgiven’ and taken off the most wanted terrorist list, and I guess we’re all supposed to cry buckets of tears for Ghulumsaki’s brother at Gitmo. Terrorists at Gitmo get a habeas corpus hearing within 30 days (which they’re not entitled to), Idema and his men waited for over a year just to get their case HEARD, because it was buried, and the response was incomprehensible excuses and mumbo jumbo! It’s inexecusable. It would seem that the American government and the courts are favoring terrorists’ rights over those of people who were legitimately and honestly fighting the war on terror.
They said they were hunting terrorists in a U.S.-sanctioned operation but were convicted in a bizarre trial that seemed to overwhelm Afghanistan’s fledgling legal system.
That’s right, a Taliban court did not follow the rule of law under the new system, so that’s why there was a second trial! But sadly, these facts are ignored by the MSM.
There is no reason that they are being held, there is no reason these men are not free, except that the American government switched sides mid-stream and is now appeasing terrorists instead of fighting them, and the media is playing along with this betrayal of our fighting forces, and I find it abominable.
They were not ‘found guilty’ under Afghan law, they were railroaded by a Taliban court! And the accomplices have lost their jobs and titles and some have fled the country.
We will continue to blog about this until their release, and I have some definite questions to ask the American government and the people involved, how this could have ever have happened to Americans in a foreign country to begin with.
The most important thing we should push for is a CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION.
So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I’d urge everyone to do this, as we’re still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao’s Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There’s also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack’s story.
You can also contact the following people and make your feelings known:
Secret US EMBASSY Fax: – 301-560-5729 (Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180
US Consul Russell Brown – 011-93-70201908 (Fired)
US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908 (denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving)
US Embassy Translator Wahid – new – 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Translator Bashir Momman– 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend of Jack’s Now fired) Dawn Schrepel– 011-93-70201908
Embassy of Afghanistan (Good guys, Northern Alliance)
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Ph: 202-483-6410, Fax: no. 202-483-6488
Ambassador Massoud Khalili (wounded with Massoud)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
New Delhi, India
H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (+1-202) 483 6414
Fax: (+1-202) 483 9523
Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (+1-212) 972 2276 or 972 2277
Fax: (+1-212) 972 9046
Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E880
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Ph: (703) 692-7100
Fax: (703) 697-9080
Lt General William Boykin
Deputy Undersecretary
of Defense for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E836
Washington, DC 20301
Ph: (703) 697-0170
Private Fax: (703) 697-9080
Stephen Cambone
Principle Deputy Secretary for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E
Washington, DC 20310-0100
General Peter J. Shoomaker
Chief of Staff, Department of the Army
200 Army Pentagon – Room # 3E528
Washington, DC 20310-0200
Ph: (703) 695-2077 / Fax: (703) 614-5268
The Honorable John D. Negroponte
Director National Intelligence
New Executive Office Building
725 17th Street, N.W., Room 4203
Washington, DC 20503
The Committee
On Homeland Security
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: (202) 225-4121 / Fax: (202) 225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040
M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18
Email
Senator Steven Saland (Jack’s Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack’s Rep)
United States Senate
310 New Bern Avenue, Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Fax: 919.856.4053
Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack’s Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100
Senator Richard Burr (of Interest)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154 / Fax: (202) 228-2981
Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack’s Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165
Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett’s Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841
Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack’s Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2731 / Fax (202) 225-5773
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633
Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US
jack idema
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Acts of Aggression
“Every new sweeping tax law Congress enacts -— always called a ‘reform’ —- makes the job even more complicated and, if possible, more confusing. And the tax code longer. But we’re all supposed to swear, on penalty of perjury, that we’ve done our best to find it… Is tax reform the answer? It’s more like the problem, since every reform tends to complicate tax law only more. And the longer and worse the tax code gets, the less chance there is of really reforming the thing. What to do? Don’t mend it, end it. Abolish the tax code and start all over. Think about it: Would anybody starting from scratch come up with a system as indecipherable and counterproductive as the one we’ve got? So why not opt for a clean break with the past? Abolish the Internal Revenue Code and begin anew.” —Paul Greenberg
“[The tax code] is a monstrosity and there’s only one thing to do with it. Scrap it, kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it and hope it never rises again to terrorize the American people.” -Steve Forbes
I can think of not one single person who thinks that the income tax is not broken. As Paul Greenberg asks above, “Would anyone starting from scratch come up with a system as indecipherable and counterproductive as the one we’ve got?” Not hardly. The only question is, what do we replace it with? This week we’re going to keep it short and simple, because you have a homework assignment.
We can argue till the cows come home about the relative benefits of the Fair Tax, the Flat Tax, and the Income Tax (are there benefits to the Income Tax?), but “the proof is in the pudding”, as they say.
Please take the time you might spend reading a longer post, and visit The FairTax Calculator. There are eight (8) fields to complete, you’ll probably need your income tax return and a current paycheck for yourself and your spouse (if you’re married). After doing that, click “Submit” to get your results. Don’t forget to read the note at the bottom of the screen regarding your FICA (Social Security) taxes!
Then comment on this blog regarding the results. Would you like to see the FairTax implemented? I’m betting the answer will be a resounding Yes!
The FairTax Blogburst is jointly produced by Terry of The Right Track Blog and Jonathan of Publius Rendezvous. If you would like to join us, please e-mail Terry or Jonathan. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll.
I will continue blogging about this until…kingdom come, apparently, because Kerry has moved on to other things…like vacationing in France or flitting around the world to their 6 homes
John Kerry covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners perhaps hundreds were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending treaty was signed in January 1973.
The Massachusetts senator carried out this subterfuge a little over a decade ago - shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee’s final report when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs.
Kerry defended the shredding by saying the documents weren’t originals, only copies—but the staff’s fear was that with the destruction of the copies, the information would never get into the public domain, which it didn’t. Kerry had promised the staff that all documents acquired and prepared by the committee would be turned over to the National Archives at the committee’s expiration. This didn’t happen. Both the staff and independent researchers reported that many critical documents were withheld.
* Another protest memo from the staff reported: “An internal Department of Defense Memorandum identifies Frances Zwenig [Kerry’s staff director] as the conduit to the Department of Defense for the acquisition of sensitive and restricted information from this Committee . . . lines of investigation have been seriously compromised by leaks” to the Pentagon and “other agencies of the executive branch.” It also said the Zwenig leaks were “endangering the lives and livelihood of two witnesses.”
* A number of staffers became increasingly upset about Kerry’s close relationship with the Department of Defense, which was supposed to be under examination. (Dick Cheney was then defense secretary.) It had become clear that Kerry, Zwenig, and others close to the chairman, such as Senator John McCain of Arizona, a dominant committee member, had gotten cozy with the officials and agencies supposedly being probed for obscuring P.O.W. information over the years. Committee hearings, for example, were being orchestrated to suit the examinees, who were receiving lists of potential questions in advance. Another internal memo from the period, by a staffer who requested anonymity, said: “Speaking for the other investigators, I can say we are sick and tired of this investigation being controlled by those we are supposedly investigating.”
* The Kerry investigative technique was equally soft in many other critical ways. He rejected all suggestions that the committee require former presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush to testify. All were in the Oval Office during the Vietnam era and its aftermath. They had information critical to the committee, for each president was carefully and regularly briefed by his national security adviser and others about P.O.W. developments. It was a huge issue at that time.
* Kerry also refused to subpoena the Nixon office tapes (yes, the Watergate tapes) from the early months of 1973 when the P.O.W.’s were an intense subject because of the peace talks and the prisoner return that followed. (Nixon had rejected committee requests to provide the tapes voluntarily.) Information had seeped out for years that during the Paris talks and afterward, Nixon had been briefed in detail by then national security advisor Brent Scowcroft and others about the existence of P.O.W.’s whom Hanoi was not admitting to. Nixon, distracted by Watergate, apparently decided it was crucial to get out of the Vietnam mess immediately, even if it cost those lives. Maybe he thought there would be other chances down the road to bring these men back. So he approved the peace treaty and on March 29, 1973, the day the last of the 591 acknowledged prisoners were released in Hanoi, Nixon announced on national television: “All of our American P.O.W.’s are on their way home.”
The Kerry committee’s final report, issued in January 1993, delivered the ultimate insult to history. The 1,223-page document said there was “no compelling evidence that proves” there is anyone still in captivity. As for the primary investigative question —what happened to the men left behind in 1973—the report conceded only that there is “evidence . . . that indicates the possibility of survival, at least for a small number” of prisoners 31 years ago, after Hanoi released the 591 P.O.W.’s it had admitted to.
With these word games, the committee report buried the issue—and the men.
We know that Kerry promised on the Tim Russert Show to release his records, and there are still a lot of questions about his military record that remain unanswered. I still think that the American public deserves to get those answers, considering all the damage he has done thus far.
He actually DID sign the form and release SOMETHING–to his biographer, but that’s not exactly what the American people were waiting for…we were looking for the answers (that it appears we won’t get). That is why I continue to point out that he hasn’t made good on that promise.
Join the blogbursts to help FREE Kerry’s 180 every Tuesday!
We’ve formed a blogburst group and here are the bloggers who are contributing so far. If you want to join the blogroll for Free Kerry’s 180, click here to email me, include the url for your blog. The blogburst is every Tuesday, so don’t forget to blog about it. All you have to do is encourage Kerry to set his 180 FREE, I’ll send you the code for the blogroll.
The more people we have, the merrier!
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
Holocaust Day (Yom HaShoah in Hebrew) falls this year on Tuesday, April 25. Holocaust Day commemorates the martyrs and heroes who died under the Nazis.
The State of Israel will take time out Monday evening to remember the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, marking the start of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The annual state ceremony will begin in Israel at 8 p.m. at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.
Make sure you visit Atlas Shrugs and take a look at some of the horrifying pictures and take a few moments to remember all those who were lost.
Norbert Friedman, an 84-year-old Krakow native who survived 11 concentration and death camps, said yesterday that promises to prevent future holocausts are “only empty words unless they’re followed up with deeds.”
I’ve been spending some time this evening going over some of the stories of holocaust survivors about their ordeal…in addition to some of the many photographs of mass graves, etc.. It is difficult to imagine how people could stand for these things going on in their midst…how could anyone treat someone else in this way?
..and how on earth can people deny that this happened?
And let us not forget the Jew-hating alliance that went on between Hitler and the Mufti…when the Mufti wanted Hitler’s help in extending the Nazi extermination program to the Arab world.
Islamofascists are called ‘fascists’ for a reason, you know. Hitler hated Christians just as much as the Jews, and embraced Islam. As a matter of fact, there were muslim factions in the SS. I see very little difference between Islamofascism and Hitler’s brand…we’re fighting the same ideology today in the war on terror–except without a German accent, and today, they wear black turbans and behead their victims and film it- instead of lining them up in front of mass graves while filming.
It appears as though Clinton Taylor and Debbie Bookstaber’s Nail Yale initiative is yielding results. Kudos to them!
In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, John Fund writes: “The continued outrage over the news that an unrepentant former official of a criminal regime whose remnants are still killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan is part of the Ivy League is catching up with him. Yale is about to establish tougher standards for the program under which he is applying to become a degree-status sophomore next fall, and the consensus is that Mr. Hashemi won’t measure up.”
Fund further explains that Hashemi is enjoying admission to Yale under it’s “Special Student Program”, which consists of two parts:
The first, under which Hashemi was admitted last year, allows “nontraditional” students to attend classes for credit they can use at other colleges, but it doesn’t lead to a Yale degree. The second serves older students who are seeking a Yale degree.
Hashemi, who was the Taliban’s “ambassador-at-large,” (aka a terrorist) has applied for admission in the fall under that program, even though he has only a fourth-grade education and a high school equivalency certificate.
Mind boggling how terrorists are using our own system to work in their favor, isn’t it?
Last week, Yale’s president Richard Levin issued a statement saying that a review had “raised questions whether the admissions practices of the non-degree Special Student Program have been consistent with the published criteria, let alone the standard that should prevail.”
Now it appears as though Yale is not fully confronting the error of their decision to admit Hashemi, but is now cleverly laying the groundwork to reject him.
But we should still be keeping an eye on Yale (and all the Ivy League Universities), because…
Yale may soon hire Juan Cole, a history professor at the University of Michigan, as a professor of contemporary Middle East studies.
Cole has called Israel “the most dangerous regime in the Middle East,” and argues that the Israeli lobby effectively controls Congress and much of U.S. foreign policy.
In February, Cole told the Detroit Metro Times that the federal government should close Fox Cable News, saying Fox “is polluting the information environment.”
That’s right, the views of totalitarians are that there should only be one news and information source; one that they control.
By Heidi at Euphoric Reality
Facts are a funny thing. They are conveniently forgotten if they don’t uphold one’s point-of-view, and they’re easily overlooked if they are randomly scattered about. But when solid facts are brought together in one place, the pattern is difficult to ignore. The facts I’m about to provide below are just such a case. People may be able to overlook a single fact, but the weight of their significance cannot be denied when they come together in one place. That is the purpose of this week’s Blogburst - to look at some hard facts.
I think it’s important to study the problems of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas as instructive for the rest of the states. It may be that others can write off the doom of California by saying, “Well, that’s just California, a loony state of fruits and nuts - that would never happen here.” But while California is tipping head-first into ruin, it is highly indicative of the chain of events the rest of us are blindly bumbling through. Arizona and New Mexico have declared official states of emergency because they are completely unable to handle the burden of the influx of illegals into their communities. Texas is not far behind with mass hospital closings, an overwhelmed and declining school system, and a climbing crime rate. Just because one lives in Idaho or Nebraska or Maine does not mean that it won’t happen to you! You’re just a few years behind the curve.
The following 10 facts have been pulled from the LA Times. We’ve posted them all at one time or another at ER or in the Blogburst.
1. L.A. County has 10 million people. 40% of all workers in L.A. County are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card.
2. Of the 10 million people in L.A. County, 5.1 million people speak English. 3.9 million speak only Spanish.
3. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
4. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.
5. Over two-thirds of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers.
6. Nearly 25% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.
7. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
8. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
9. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.
10. 21 radio stations in L.A. are Spanish language only.
We need to look at the experience of California as inevitable for the rest of us - if we don’t, we’re only burying our heads in the sand and bequeathing that future to our children! After all, if we keep merrily careening down the road to California, we can’t be dumbfounded when we actually end up in California, can we?!
Here are a few more facts on a national scale:
1. Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 36% are on welfare.
2. Over 70% of the United States annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida, and New York) results from immigration.
3. The United States receives more immigrants every year than the rest of the world combined.
4. The cost of immigration to the American taxpayer in 1997 was a NET (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) $70 BILLION a year [Professor Donald Huddle, Rice University].
5. The lifetime fiscal impact (taxes paid minus services used) for the average adult Mexican immigrant is a NEGATIVE.
6. 29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.
The problems of illegal immigration are not solely “border state” problems. They impact everyone. California and Texas are the two biggest economic engines in the United States - and they are teetering on bankruptcy on a catastrophic scale. If they go bust, guess who picks up the pieces? Indiana, New Hampshire, South Dakota, West Virginia, and all the rest. Illegal immigration is not - I repeat, NOT - a border state problem. It’s a burden we’re all bearing and a risk we’re all sharing.
We are way past the point of half-way measures and temporary fixes. As a nation, we must demand a definitive, decisive, no-nonsense solution. We cannot be placated by smarmy speeches from self-interested politicians, or fooled by spin semantics (”it’s a guest worker program - not amnesty”), or lulled into apathy by the drone of our everyday lives.
We cannot leave this crisis to our children. Do something! Get out of your comfort zone and get involved. There are bigger issues at stake than the price of lettuce! The time is critical. And it’s NOW.
This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.
Justin has a picture of the memo that proves it.
It was already pretty clear from their pictures in Vanity Fair, and what was widely known on the Washington DC cocktail circuit–but Justin presents additional evidence.
Their claims about being ‘outed’ by someone else are totally sunk.
Update: The New York Times’ James Risen and Eric Lichtblau and The Washington Post’s Dana Priest recently were awarded Pulitzer Prizes for their work publicly disclosing the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic surveillance program and the CIA’s alleged use of secret interrogation sites across the globe.
Risen and Lichtblau won the Pulitzer for “national reporting” for their work uncovering the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic surveillance program. Priest won the Pulitzer for “beat reporting” for her series of articles uncovering the CIA’s alleged use of secret interrogation sites around the world.
And guess what organization awards Pulitzers for these amazing feats of journalism?
Why it’s Columbia University!!! The formal announcement of the prizes, made each April, states that the awards are made by the president of Columbia University on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize board. This formulation is derived from the Pulitzer will, which established Columbia as the seat of the administration of the prizes. Today, in fact, the independent board makes all the decisions relative to the prizes. In his will Pulitzer bestowed an endowment on Columbia of $2,000,000 for the establishment of a School of Journalism, one-fourth of which was to be “applied to prizes or scholarships for the encouragement of public, service, public morals, American literature, and the advancement of education.”
bwahahahaha! What a joke.
Cheers to Andrew Whitehead of Anti-Cair! Cair’s Anti-Defemation suit against him was dismissed by the court, with prejudice.
Daniel Pipes wrote about it in this piece “CAIR Backs Down from Anti-CAIR” at Frontpage magazine, noting in part:
CAIR had complained about Whitehead calling it a “terrorist supporting front organization … founded by Hamas supporters” that aims “to make radical Islam the dominant religion in the United States.” It also objected to being described as “dedicated to the overthrow of the United States Constitution and the installation of an Islamic theocracy in America.”
Most of the piece is devoted to how this thing played out in court, how CAIR went after Whitehead for considerable sums of money who early on said he didn’t have any, pointing out that it appeared as though CAIR entered into this legal action to steamroll Whitehead, whom CAIR may have perceived as an easy target, and thereby intimidate its critics.
What may have come as a complete surprise to them was Daniel Pipe’s article, “Why Is CAIR Suing Anti-CAIR?” published just a week after CAIR’s initial filing, brought this important case to Reed Rubinstein’s attention and led to Greenberg Traurig LLP’s serving as Whitehead’s wonderfully capable, pro-bono legal counsel.
With a wonderfully capable lawyer at the helm, Whitehead was no longer at a disadvantage. CAIR was then in serious trouble because there is a lot of public information available that connects CAIR directly to HAMAS, and it now appears as though CAIR preferred the ignominy of walking away from the case it initiated rather than open to public scrutiny its finances, its list of supporters, and the beliefs and intentions of its key leaders.
Pipes closes the piece with announcement of opening another Jihad Watch type of website that he has named “Islamist Watch”.
With CAIR’s hopes of defeating its opponents in the legal arena at least temporarily defeated, the next step for those of us in North America unwilling to live under Islamic law is to thwart the organization’s social and political ambitions. I am doing my part by announcing today the establishment of “Islamist Watch,” a new project to combat the ideas and institutions of nonviolent, radical Islam in the United States and other Western countries.
My first videoblog, talking about Horowitz’s book “The Professors”, Columbia University, et al.
Click here to see the public url if the video isn’t playing for you.
I want to thank Terry Dillard from Right Track blog for helping me with the technical aspects of this. And Terry, you were right about the firewire.
Thanks to: Mudville, Basil’s Blog, Outside the Beltway, Stop the ACLU, Rhymes with Right, Publius Rendezvous, The Uncooperative Blogger, TMH’s Bacon Bits, Blue Star Chronicles, Church and State, Stuck On Stupid, The Liberal Wrong Wing, Cigar Intelligence Agency, Third World County, Bullwinkle Blog, 123 Beta, Voteswagon
That was a very revealing statement coming from Floyd Abrams’ law office, that Columbia University’s law firm wants Jack and his men to remain in prison and ‘rot’. And what would they be tried for in the US? Fighting terrorists? Arresting the Taliban? Maybe you should put the entire military on trial, then. That has been a pretty popular thing to do when our military guys have killed terrorists, then they go on trial for murder instead of coming home as heroes.
Fort Bragg Soldier pleads “not guilty” in abuse case: Private First Class Damien M. Corsetti, who was with the 519th M-I Battalion at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is accused of hitting and sitting on and threatening to sexually assault detainees. interestingly, the charges hinge on the word of an accused terrorist who’s held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Corsetti is the fourth soldier from Fort Bragg to face a judge in the prisoner abuse case prompted after two detainees died at the detention center in December 2002…all because of the allegations from lying terrorist scumbags…using the American justice system against the American military, as spelled out in (the al-Qaida’s) training manual.
And that doesn’t include the examples of soldiers who have ‘fragged’ their superior officers, exactly in the manner that Ward Churchill describes. I suppose Abrams’ office would be in support of Ward Churchill’s freedom of speech too, heh?
Or the case of Ilario Pantano.
It just illustrates even further what Rocco DiPippo talked about at Frontpage Magazine when he referred to “The Left’s War Against the Military at Home”.
Ok, back to the subject at hand. Here is some of Afghan law that applied during the Idema case. I don’t know of a single one that’s listed here that was not completely ignored in that first Taliban-led kangaroo trial that ended with a ‘guilty’ verdict brought about by allegations of known terrorists. Yet, the judge who delivered the verdict in Jack’s case got an all expense paid trip to the United States afterwards.
Afghan Laws:
RIGHT TO HAVE AN ATTORNEY PRESENT WHEN BEING QUESTIONED.
Att. 38 Interim Criminal Code for Courts (Defence Counsel Presence)
1. The defence counsel has the right to be present at all times during the interrogation of the suspect.
2. The suspect and the defence counsel have the right to be present during searches, confrontations, line-up procedures and expert examinations as well as during the trial.
3. In the investigation phase the Saranwal and the judicial police shall notify the suspect and his defence counsel of searches, confrontations, line-up procedures and expert examinations in order to allow them to be present. This duty can be waived only when there is an urgent need to conduct the said operations, which is defined as when it is a flrgrante delicto crime or there is a fear of the loss of evidential facts.
This most certainly was denied them, because their attorneys didn’t show up until mid-August and they were detained on July 6.
RIGHT TO ABSTAIN FROM MAKING INCRIMINATING STATEMENTS.
Art. 30 Afghan Constitution (Chatper 2, Art. 9) para. 21: Confession to a crime is: a voluntary confession before an authorised court by an accused in a sound state of mind; Art. 5 Interim Criminal Code for Courts (Suspect and Accused):
Art. 30 Afghan Constitution (Chatper 2, Art. 9) para 6. The suspect and the accused have the right to abstain from making any statement even when they are questioned by the relevant police or judicial authorities;
They were tortured in order to extract self-incriminating statements, so this was denied them, also.
RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT.
7. The police, the Saranwal and the Court are duty bound to clearly inform the suspect and the accused before interrogation and at the time of arrest about his or her right to remain silent, right to representation at all times by defense counsel, and right to be present during searches, line-ups, expert examinations and trial;
Art. 53 Interim Criminal Code for Courts, Item 3g: g. The accused can testify if he does not avail himself of the right to remain silent and the accused or his defense counsel can ask questions to the witnesses and the experts;
This was denied them, ask anyone who listened to Ezmerai’s screams on the streets of Kabul as he was being electrocuted.
RIGHT TO COUNSEL.
Art. 31 Afghan Constitution (Chapter 2, Art. 10) para. 1: Every person upon arrest can seek an advocate to defend his rights or to defend his case for which he is accused under the law. para. 2: the accusation and to be summoned to the court within the limits determined by law. para. 3: In criminal cases, the state shall appoint an advocate for a destitute.
Art. 11 Law on the Structure and Competencies of Courts: Every person upon arrest has the right to appoint a defence counsel to defend himself in regard of the accusation and evidence against him. In criminal cases a defense counsel shall be appoint3ed for destitute persons according to the provision on law;
Bennett’s attorney was threatened to be killed if she went ahead and represented him; etc.
RIGHT TO DEFENDANT/ATTORNEY CONFIDENTIALITY.
Art. 31 Afghan Constitution (Chatper 2, Art. 10) para. 4: The confidentiality of oral, written or telephonic communications between an advocate and his accused client are immune from invasion.
This one is a laugh, since the mail embargo, etc..
RIGHT TO HAVE COUNSEL APPOINTED IF UNABLE TO PAY.
Art 19 Interim Criminal for Courts (Legal Aid) 1. The suspect or the accused financiallly unable to appoint a defense attorney is entitled to have a free defence attorney appointed for him or her in the following manner: a. The investigatin Saranwal or the Court adjudicating the case, on the petition of the person, appoints a defence attorney for the destitute person from amongst the lawyers officially permitted to wok as defence attorney. b. The person for whom an attorney has been appointed reserves the right not to accept the appointed defence attorney and to defend himself in person. c. The fees of the aforesaid attorney shall be paid from the State budget and its extenet shall be fixed by regulation.
RIGHT TO HAVE IMPROPERLY COLLECTED TESTIMONY OR EVIDENCE INVALIDATED.
Article 29 of Afghan Constitution, Para. 1: Any statement, testimony, or confession obtained form an accused or of another person by means of compulsion, is invalid; para 2: Confession to a crime is: a voluntary confession before an authorized court by an accused in a sound state of mind; Interim Criminal Code for Courts, article 5: Their (Suspect and Accused) statements shall be made in condition of absolute moral freedom;
This didn’t happen…
RIGHT TO LAWFUL HANDLING AND COLLECTION OF EVIDENCE.
Art. 7 Interim Criminal Code for Courts; The evidence which has been collected without respect of the legal requirements indicated in the law is considered invalid, and the Court cannot base its judgment on it; Art. 30 Afghan Constitution (Chapter 2, Art. 9) para. 1: Any statement, testimony, or confession obtained from an accused or of another person by means of compulsion, is invalid;
The evidence was stolen from the evidence room and at one point, part of it was returned -destroyed and edited–in front of the MSM and the court, yet nobody reported a word of this.
RIGHT TO TIMELY NOTIFICATION OF CHARGES.
Art 42. Interim Criminal Code for Courts (Preparation of the Trial) 2. The deed concerning the commencement of trial shall fcontain the name of the accused and the indication of the alleged crime with its factual circumstances in reference to the related law provisions and shall be served in the accused and his defence counsel; the victim and the Saranwal at least five days in advance;
Perhaps the charges were told to them when they were playing ‘dance with the scorpion’.
RIGHT TO ACCESS EVIDENCE.
Art 43. Interim Criminal Code for Courts (Access of the Accused to the Findings of the Investigation) 1. The accused and his defence counsel are eneitled to examine the documents contained int he file mentioned in the last paragraph of article 39 (act of indictment, file containing all the deeds formed during the investigations) and the objects under seizure.
Again, this one is a joke considering the house in Kabul was completely cleared out of computers, tapes, and film that could have been used as evidence to support their defense.
RIGHT TO BE PRESENT AT ALL CASE HEARINGS.
Art. 53 Interim Criminal Code for Courts (Conduct of the Hearing) Item 2. The accused and his defence counsel have the right to be present.
3. The Court proceedings are conducted according to following order; a. At the opening of the hearing the Court reads out the act of indictment; (…) g. The accused can testify if he does not avail himself to the right to remain silent and the accused or his defence counsel can ask questions to the witnesses and experts; i. The primary Saranwal and the defence lawyer can ask questions of the accused.
Didn’t happen.
RIGHT TO ADEQUATE TIME TO PREPARE DEFENCE.
Art. 56 Interim Criminal Code for Courts (Concurrent Crimes and Circumstances) 1. If from the deeds of the investigations or during the trial it results that there are alleged additional crimes and/or facts contributing as aggravating circumstances which have not been incluced in the act of indictment, the Court, at the request of the Primary Saranwal, makes the related accusation to the accused and/or to his defence counsel, when present, giving them adequate time to prepare the defence.
Didn’t happen…they were scrambling to put their case together when their evidence was stolen, and the lawyers showed up over a month after their arrest.
RIGHT TO CALL WITNESSES.
Art 51 Interim Code for Courts (Admission of Witnesses and Experts) 1. The Primary Saranwal submits to the Court the list of the witnesses and experts he wants to be heard together with the act of indictment, indicating the reasons of the relevance of their testimony and exams. 2. The accused and/or his defence counsel have
