concatenation of events

Waging war on journalists who lie. Exposing the truth about Jack Idema, whose story must be told.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Deniable Agent: Undercover In Afghanistan

And so it would seem Jack Idema's tale pulls under the US government's heading of 'plausible deniability', with the release of this blockbuster book which is our version of it here in the UK. You wonder why it is that I am not inclined to be reticent with regard to what happened to Jack Idema and the other Americans who were just collataral damage to the Americans who wanted to destroy him? It's because his story is among those in a long line of men who stood to accomplish a mission at the behest of their country and were betrayed by the very entities that placed them there.

This book gives us the big picture the media leaves out. This is what happened to many in Afghanistan who took this on and made the personal sacrifices to fight terrorism, regardless as to what country they called home. Is not only the American Government which betrayed our allies in the WoT, it is sadly also true of Tony Blair, Parliament and the M16.

Collin Berry's family thought he'd travelled to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban to market low-cost modular housing. The truth of the matter is stranger than fiction; because Berry is a former soldier who'd been recruited by British intelligence to buy back weapons systems from the Mujahideen during their struggle against the Soviets. Berry was involved in reconnaissance missions in remote mountain villages where he witnessed the ravages of decades of war. In Kabul, his attempts to train Afghan locals in the spirit of the M16 and international special forces came to an horrific end when the mission was compromised, many massacred before they could reach their target. Dissilusioned with the work he was doing and concerned for his life, Berry prepared to leave Afghanistan.

Whilst packing his bags, two armed Afghans arrived at his hotel room. A meeting was arranged. By the time it had finished both Afghans were dead and Berry himself was seriously wounded. In "The Deniable Agent", Colin Berry gives us a riveting insight into the covert world of intelligence. He also finally reveals the truth about what happened in the Intercontinental Hotel that night.

Days later in a dingy room he had electrodes attached to his feet. "Admit you're an American spy," snapped the sinister general interrogating him.

"I shouted ‘I'm not... F***!' The pain as the current went through me was excruciating," says Berry. His torture went on for six months during which he was caged in a dark 4ft by 8ft cell with an earth floor and no bed or toilet.

When he attacked an officer and tried to escape, he was kicked to a pulp by other guards and then whipped across the back with a metal cable.

"I don't know how long this beating went on, but I lost consciousness," says Berry. He was so badly beaten he ended up in hospital where, at last, British Embassy officials visited him.

A deal was done with the Afghanistan government and Berry was released. His role has never been acknowledged by MI6.

"I'm not James Bond, but I depended on the people I was working for to come and get me out before things got too bad," says Berry.

"They didn't. The missions were real—but the back-up wasn't. And I paid for it."

First Page:

CHAPTER ONE

A SOLDIER OF THE QUEEN

The first thing you need to know about me is that I'm not James Bond. I was a soldier for the best part of 12 years, I've worked in the public sector, and I've run my own businesses. While I've completed plenty of military courses in OP work (observation) and surveillance, I've never been trained as a spy or a secret agent. I got into that by accident, and I've had a lot of time since then to wish that I hadn't.

And part of the reason for that is that however bad things got for Bond, whether he was about to get his knackers lasered off or be thrown in a shark-filled pool, he knew that someone, somewhere, was looking out for him. In my case, by the time I found myself lying on the operating table in the War Victims Hospital in Kabul, with a surgeon who looked just like the Swedish chef from The Muppet Show scouring out the dead flesh from the bullet wound in my abdomen, I was pretty sure that the people who had got me into that situation weren't going to be crying too many tears of sorrow that it had happened.

At the end of the Bond films, more often than not, when Bond has emerged from the ruins of the villain's secret underground lair, battered but unbowed and clutching hold of the bikini-clad love interest, Felix Leiter and the CIA are there to whisk him away in a boat or helicopter - home in time for tea and medals.

Well, that didn't happen with me either. The American spooks who pulled me out of the hotel room could have taken me to the US Embassy, or to one of the ISAF compounds around Kabul, or even to Bagram Airbase. They knew me well enough: we'd been working together for months. But they didn't. They dumped me at the War Victims Hospital, where they knew the Afghan authorities could get hold of me. And they left me there.

Thanks a fucking bunch, guys. You must feel really proud of that one.
Deniable Agent, published by Mainstream, can be ordered from the Mainstream Publishing for £17.99. Also available through Amazon.co.uk



With thanks to Jo's Cafe, Cao's blog for their trackback parties.

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Sunday, November 12, 2006

Free Jack Idema Blogburst

The Counter Terror Group has their own Free Jack store at Cafe Press. You can find several designs there, and there is certain to be one there to your liking. Buy one for yourself, and and a little t-shirt for your dog! This is sure to get Joe Cafasso's dander up; he wants to be the celebrity. He wants to be the special forces soldier! So pass this is on!

The situation for Jack is pretty much the same since the last time we blogged on this subject, except there was another attempt at 'getting' him out of there to the cell that awaits him at At Tawab Keef prison near the US Embassy in Kabul.

The United States Embassy in Kabul ordered the Afghans to continue holding them after their March 2005 "innocent" verdict. The Afghan Embassy in Washington, D.C. told the women in blue burkas who demonstrated for their release this past September 11th that their continued imprisonment was 'political' and that the American Embassy would be responsible for their release. But the American Embassy had all along been denying them water, denying them attorney-client privileged correspondence, denying them mail to and from their families, and denied them passports when they were requested over a year ago. The American Embassy is treating them as though they're not even citizens; and what's worse; not giving them what is due them according to the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and all the rest.

What's unfortunate is that Brent Bennett and Jack Idema are now 'men without a country'. And those of us involved in watching this story would like to see their passports issued to them, and their rights as citizens restored. All they did was pursue Gulbideen Hekmatyar and his followers, well-known terrorists who were attempting to assassinate some well-known figures in Massoud's United Front.

So we end this with a call to the American state department, the department of justice and the rest, to Free Jack Idema, and restore Brent Bennett's ability to return to the United States.

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 should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
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- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (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.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

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

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

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 (Interested)
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



Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation

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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Free Jack Idema Blogburst

After several, tense, weeks, those of us who’ve been concerned as to the wellbeing of Jack Idema’s right-hand man, Brent Bennett, can finally relax a little.

Brent appeared, via sat-phone, on Jack’s weekly radio broadcast two days ago. In spite of everything he’s been put through, Brent was in good spirits, sharing a joke with Jack about how Nina the dog took a bite out of one of Karzai’s creepy, Taliban-sympathising guards. While it’s certainly good to hear from Brent after nearly a month of silence, however, he is still forced to remain in hiding, and can only say that he’s ’somewhere in the Middle East’. Meanwhile, Jack Idema remains holed-up in Pulacharke Prison, threatened with a move into solitary confinement away from his Northern Alliance guards, and with President Karzai’s goons still hovering nearby.

What makes this situation so intolerable, of course, is that both Jack and Brent were found Not Guilty of all charges against them at an appeal way back in February 2005. Here’s Tawous Noorzai, Deputy Commander of Jack’s block in Pulacharke, writing under oath, explaining why why Jack and Brent are still being criminalised:

I have attended their court hearings and the secret trial that was conducted in the Second Court [Court of Appeals]. I was present during the decision of the Court of Appeals (February 2005 Christian calendar), where all three men were declared innocent by a panel of three Chief Judges and three visiting judges, including the two Religious Judges who called their arrest a terrible crime against justice in Afghanistan. I personally was present in February or March 2005 (Christian calendar), when the Chief Judge, who had just returned from a vacation in America paid for by the American Embassy, said that although they were innocent, he needed to get permission from the US Consul before signing their release order. It was supposed to be done the next day and the judges were to call a press conference and announce their verdict and issue an apology from the Supreme Court. Several days later, I heard the Chief Judge, Ismail Abed, tell Mr. Jack that he could not release them because the American Embassy had “worked behind the curtain” and ordered the Court to stop their release.

Almost two years later, Jack and Brent continue to exist in this state of legal limbo — one imprisoned, the other hounded into hiding — on account of a crime that not even the Karzai government or the U.S. State Department believe they committed.

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 should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
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- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (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.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

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

Senator Steven Saland (Jack’s Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

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 (Interested)
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



Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender’s Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil’s Kitchen
Cao’s Blog
Big Dog’s Weblog
Theodore’s World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don’t Know Jack
Right Wing Nation

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