Free Republic

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather is teaching an online course in journalism called “finding the truth in the news” at UDemy. Now, he’s taken to Facebook to say that the media, the American people, and the political class has to call out President Trump on his lies. No, this isn’t the Onion.“These are not normal times. These are extraordinary times. And extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures,” wrote Rather. “What can we do? We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation. "A lie, is a lie, is a lie!" And if someone won't say it, those...

Former Special Forces soldier Jonathan "Jack" Keith Idema, who made world headlines when he was sentenced to Afghan prison on torture charges in 2004, is doing battle in Cumberland County court. The fight is over ownership of his former counterterrorism headquarters on Robeson Street in Fayetteville. Court documents batting back-and-forth between Idema and the man trying to take the building, investigator and former bounty hunter Bill Hagler, make claims of fraud, theft and coercion, among others.

Rachel Maddow - Creepy Jack Idema

(CBS) A German resident held by the U.S. for almost five years tells 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that Americans tortured him in many ways - including hanging him from the ceiling for five days early in his captivity when he was in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Even after determining he was not a terrorist, Murat Kurnaz says the torture continued. Kurnaz tells his story for the first time on American television this Sunday, March 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Kurnaz, an ethnic Turk born and raised in Germany, went to Pakistan in late 2001 at age 19 to study Islam and...

A former US soldier jailed for running a private prison in Kabul and torturing Afghans has been freed, officials say. Jack Idema was pardoned by President Karzai in March as part of an amnesty. A senior prisons official said Idema left jail in early June and flew out of the country. He served less than three years of his original 10-year sentence. Idema was jailed with two other US men, also since freed. He said his work was approved by the US and Afghan governments, which denied the claim. The Pentagon said he was a bounty hunter. 'Unknown destination'...

An American citizen imprisoned in Afghanistan for running a private jail for terror suspects has a new passport. His dog has been vaccinated for overseas travel. But two months after being freed by presidential decree, Jack Idema remains in his Afghan cell. The reasons why, like most of Idema's dramatic personal story, are murky and complicated. They include a visa dispute and a compensation claim by one of his victims. They also involve documents that Idema says would finally prove his claim that he was a hired mercenary hunting al-Qaeda suspects on a mission sanctioned by U.S. counterterrorism officials --...

KABUL - An American journalist inmate at an Afghan jail block seized by prisoners said Taliban militants held there threatened on Tuesday to behead him and told him he would die if an attempt were made to end the siege by force. Emmy award-winning documentary maker Edward Caraballo, 44, from New York, was one of three Americans jailed in 2004 after being convicted of running a private jail and illegally detaining and torturing men in a freelance war on terror. Speaking by mobile phone from Pul-i-Charkhi jail on the outskirts of Kabul, Caraballo told Reuters he was barricaded in...

Listen While You Freep! All programs are replayed for 23 hours and again on weekends so tune in when it’s convenient for YOU! Call In Number - 866-884-TALK (8255) Heating the EDGE of a New Media! 1pm EST - "There have been ten generations of Americans since this nation was founded... Each left this nation in a little better condition than they had inherited it from their parents. This is the first generation at risk of doing the opposite. Why? I have come to believe that it is because we failed to acknowledge and discipline ourselves with the spiritual truths...

Tin SoldierAn American Vigilante In Afghanistan, Using the Press for Profit and Glory By Mariah Blake In April 2004, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier named Jonathan Keith Idema started shopping a sizzling story to the media. He claimed terrorists in Afghanistan planned to use bomb-laden taxicabs to kill key U.S. and Afghan officials, and that he himself intended to thwart the attack. Shortly thereafter, he headed to Afghanistan, where he spent the next two months conducting a series of raids with his team, which he called Task Force Saber 7. By late June, he claimed to have captured the...

Afghan forces arrested three Americans, including a purported former Green Beret, after raiding a jail they were allegedly running in the Afghan capital and finding prisoners hanging from their feet, officials said Thursday. The U.S. military, facing a widening inquiry into prisoner abuse, quickly distanced itself from the three, who had been posing as American agents before being detained Monday. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday "the U.S. government does not employ or sponsor these men." Afghan officials also dismissed claims by the apparent ringleader, Jonathan K. Idema, that he was a "special adviser" to their security forces, saying...

Pg 104…to 107 The third team selected to go into the box was 585….on October 25, 2001, the weather cleared and TIGER 03’s ten Special Forces sergeants finally reached their landing zone outside Dasht-e-Qaleh, a village in the upper northeast corner near the Tajikistan border.

The US military today acknowledged it held an Afghan man for a month after receiving him from three American counter-terror vigilantes who have since been arrested on charges of torture at a private jail they ran in the Afghan capital. The American military has tried to distance itself from the group, led by a former American soldier named Jonathan Idema, insisting they were freelancers working outside the law. But spokesman Major Jon Siepmann acknowledged that the military had received a detainee from Idema’s group at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, on May 3. Siepmann said Idema had appeared “questionable”...

In a week in which it was burnt by at least one high-profile source, CBS News is being accused by another of having used and abandoned him. The Observer has learned that CBS News and Dan Rather made use of Jonathan (Jack) Idema, a former Green Beret, mercenary and rogue soldier, who was tried and sentenced on Sept. 15 to 10 years in an Afghan prison for operating a private jail and torturing civilians he claimed were Al Qaeda operatives. Mr. Idema is now accusing CBS News of abandoning him after having what appears to have been an ad hoc...

Americans Sentenced in Afghan Torture By STEPHEN GRAHAM Associated Press Writer Three Americans - led by a former Green Beret who boasted he had Pentagon support - were found guilty Wednesday of torturing Afghans in a private jail and were sentenced to prison. After a 7 1/2-hour session in a stuffy Kabul courtroom, the three-judge panel was unanimous in convicting the former soldier, Jonathan Idema, and his right-hand man, Brent Bennett, on charges of entering Afghanistan illegally, making illegal arrests, establishing a private jail and torturing their captives. They were sentenced to 10 years. Edward Caraballo, a cameraman who said...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An American on trial for allegedly torturing Afghan terror suspects in a private jail claimed Saturday in his first interview from custody that he was hot on the heels of Osama bin Laden and other militant leaders when he was arrested on July 5. Jonathan Idema told The Associated Press he had official sanction from Afghans and Americans to hunt down terrorists and said he has been prevented from showing the evidence in court. Prosecutors say Idema was waging a private war, and he faces up to 20 years in a crumbling Afghan prison if convicted....

Recently I have plunged into the whole John Idema story, also known as “Jack”. He was featured in the book “The Hunt for Bin Laden”, and he reportedly was a renegade soldier with no ties at all to U.S. military or government. He is a former Green Beret and he ran an organization that consists of him and I believe to be seven others of who I do not know. This organization he says was committed to stopping terrorism and Idema claims that he was close to capturing Bin Laden himself. In the mean time he had caught various expected...

THREE American vigilantes who ran their own counter-terror campaign in Afghanistan yesterday denied charges of torturing prisoners in a private jail and were given a week to bolster their defence with documents returned by the FBI.The group’s leader, Jonathan Idema, accused the United States authorities of withholding hundreds of documents, photos and videos which he claimed proved his contacts with the CIA, FBI and the US department of defence. Idema, Brett Bennett and Edward Caraballo were arrested when Afghan security forces raided their makeshift prison in a house in Kabul on 5 July. They face charges including hostage-taking and "mental...

KABUL (Reuters) - Three Americans standing trial in Afghanistan Monday for imprisoning and torturing Afghans were given a week to provide evidence, which they say was withheld by U.S. authorities, proving that they had official clearance. The leader of the group, ex-soldier Jonathan "Jack" Idema, said his group hunted "terrorists," but was disowned by the U.S. government after their arrest because their case followed in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq. Wearing khaki fatigues, combat boots and dark glasses, and speaking through an interpreter, the bearded Idema told Judge Abdul Basit Bakhtyari that "political motives"...

Three Americans charged with running a private counter-terrorism operation in Afghanistan (news - web sites) are set to reappear in court to face charges they jailed and tortured eight Afghan citizens. Jonathan Idema claims that he and two other Americans and a group of Afghan employees were working with the full knowledge of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to hunt down terrorists in Afghanistan. Both the US and Afghan governments have disavowed any ties with Idema and his two co-defendants Brent Bennett and Edward Caraballo. The case has shone a spotlight on the shadowy world of security and counter-terrorism in...

The lawyer for Jonathan Keith ''Jack'' Idema said Tuesday that he doesn't think Idema can get a fair trial in an Afghan court. Idema, who is from Fayetteville, has been held in an Afghan jail since his July 5 arrest on charges of kidnapping and torturing Afghan citizens. Two other Americans, Brent Bennett of Fayetteville and Ed Caraballo of New York, are being held with him. Idema has been identified as the leader of the group. He has said he and the others were hunting down terrorists. A hearing in a Kabul court for the three men was set to...