Who is Jack Idema?

Remember a year or so ago when some former special ops soldiers were arrested in Afghanistan for essentially being bounty hunters? Two former soldiers, Jack Idema and Brent Bennett and a video journalist Ed Caraballo, were arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison for running a private prison in Afghanistan.

This is a very interesting case and raises some troubling questions. Was Idema working, as he says, with the full knowledge of the US government? Has the government simply abandoned these men in Afghanistan or do they deserve to be in jail?

To learn about this case, here is a good article from Military.com,
U.S. Bounty Hunter on Trial in Afghanistan
After a Lifetime of Skating on the Edge, Has Keith “Jack” Idema Finally Slid Over?

Robin Moore, author of The Green Berets, intrigued by Idema’s tales, wrote the saga of the Task Force Dagger: The Hunt for bin Laden. This best-selling non-fiction featured Idema as the star in the hunt.

Idema, restless to return to the action, recently showed up again in Afghanistan. He has “been in touch and working with U.S. officials. He corresponds with them and has served as an adviser to Afghan forces through “ongoing contacts with the (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai government,” his defense attorney, John Tiffany of Bloomfield, N.J., said.

Rescue Afghanistan

“He’s been working with their full knowledge and cooperation” Tiffany said.

Idema wanted to “rescue Afghanistan,” Ted Kavanau, former CNN news executive, who was preparing for a journalistic mission to Afghanistan. On 5 July, after three months back on the ground, Idema’s high-profile anti-terrorism adventure came to a grinding halt.

There are a group of bloggers who are trying to rally support for these men and get them out of prison. Check out their site here.

To hear directly from Jack Idema, here is an interview he was allowed to conduct from his Afghanistan prison.

We report, you decide.