One of the things worth stressing about the case of Jack Idema and Brent Bennett, the two US Special Forces soldiers held illegally in Afghanistan, is the reason they wound up in the country to begin with. Here's Jack speaking on this subject:

9/11 happens, I’m in Los Angeles. They called at 5:00 in the morning said turn the tv on. I thought it was a prank call. I hung up on the guy. He calls me back a minute later–he says, Jack I’m telling you please turn on the t.v. I turn on the tv, I see the second plane hit. That was it for me. I was like, ok, I can’t believe this is happening. I’m from New York. What do you expect a New Yorker to do? I got pretty pissed off.

I went back to the army, said, look. I had a long relationship in Afghanistan, with Massoud, with the United Front Military Forces, which journalists call the northern alliance, but it’s not really. It’s an alliance of anti-communist, anti-Taliban, anti-terrorist forces that have been around for 15-20 years; lead by Commander Ahmed Shah Massoud who was assassinated on September 9th -two days before- because Bin Laden said "there can be no victory while this man is alive".

So he was killed on September 9. Now anybody that does not think these two things were interrelated–that Massoud was killed on the 9th, to break apart the United Front which held only the northern 10% of the country-anybody that does not think that’s related to 9/11 is insane.

The December prior to that, Massoud had given a speech to the US and said, if you don’t stop Al Qaeda and the Taliban now, if you don’t give me the resources and the money, I can guarantee you they will attack your cities, and New York will be first. Massoud was right. This is documented on film.

It really is worth quoting Jack at length here. What he has to say gives us an insight not only into his own desire to avenge the 3000 people murdered on 9/11, but also the way in which Al Qaeda and the Taliban viewed the Northern Alliance as their greatest enemies within Afghanistan.

Understanding how these two plots -- 9/11 and the assassination of Massoud -- were linked in terrorists' minds should have given the US State Department a clear picture of how to proceed with the reconstruction of Afghanistan. See, the Northern Alliance have always been the most pro-Western of the country's factions, and more, have been consistent in delivering freedom for the Afghan people while refusing to tolerate Islamofascism. This was why, when they arrived in Afghanistan in 2001, US and British Special Forces troops, Jack Idema among them, hooked up with the NA. It's also why, throughout 2001-02, Jack Idema continued protecting those members of the NA who entered Afghan politics -- Men like Yunis Qanooni, whose stint as Minister of Interior saw a huge reduction in terror-related bombings, and whose move to the Ministry of Education saw more schools built in the country than at any time in Afghan history.

Qanooni is now Afghanistan's first democratically-elected Chief of Parliament, but it was during his stint as Chief of the National Security Council and Presidential candidate running against Karzai that Jack Idema's team foiled an attempt by terrorists to assassinate Qanooni and other leading NA figures.

It was as a result of this investigation, which had the potential to both embarrass Karzai and derail the State Department's efforts at appeasing 'former' members of the Taliban, that Jack and his men were first arrested. In a week in which we recall the high-watermark of Al Qaeda's brutality in both the US and Afghanistan, it's worth reflecting on the men like Jack, Brent and Yunis Qanooni who continue to risk their lives in the fight to make sure the events of five years ago are never repeated.

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.

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.

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 and You Don't Know Jack.

Technorati tags: jack idema, afghanistan and Technorati Search for Jack Idema.

Category: (Military) POW's.
- posted by Rosemary Welch@12:29 AM