Reply #5: U.S. Bounty Hunter on trial in Afghanistan

[seemslikeadream]

SOLDIER OF FORTUNE - September 2004
U.S. Bounty Hunter on trial in Afghanistan
Dr. Martin Brass

After A Lifetime of Skating On The Edge, Has Keith "Jack Idema Finally Slid Over?

The bad lands of Afghanistan have become a magnet for adventure-seeking "soldiers of fortune", private contractors, self-proclaimed counter-terrorism experts, and/or security guards.

Bounty hunters and fortune seekers, fed up with low-paying, boring grunt work, arm themselves, preparing for a wild chase with high financial rewards. Some hope to capture the ultimate prize-Osama bin Laden-for the $25 million bounty, placed on his head by the United States.

This new breed of non-uniformed warrior has replaced men in uniform, in roles traditionally reserved for the military.

"You'd see them speeding around in SUVs with tinted windows, sipping tea with Afghan warlords and commanders, barrel-chested men in their thirties and forties with short-cropped hair and accents from the South and Midwest. Ask them who they were, or what they were up to, and you'd get a broad, insolent grin.


OPINION POLL

Should J. Keith Idema, former Green Beret, free lance operative in Afghanistan arrested in July, be returned with his two U.S. co-defendants to the U. S. for trial? The three are charged with hostage taking, torture, and having a personal jail.
Their trial should continue in Afghanistan
Their trials should be here in the United States
They should simply be released and deported.


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