U.S. urged to protect Idema's rights

[seemslikeadream]

A U.S. magazine has urged the Bush administration to protect the basic rights of three Americans detained in Afghanistan for hostage-taking and torture.

Their trial is scheduled to begin in a court in Kabul Monday on charges of illegally taking and torturing prisoners in a private jail.

Former Green Beret Jack Idema and his two associates, Ed Caraballo and Brent Bennett, have denied the charges.

In an article set to appear Monday in Soldier of Fortune magazine, the U.S> government is urged to make sure Idema's rights are protected, along with those of the two Americans arrested with him.

According to the article, torture and hostage-taking are international crimes, and the United States is party to the torture and hostage treaties and so is Afghanistan. If a crime has been codified under International Law, the United States can claim concurrent jurisdiction with the country where the incident occurred, the magazine said.

more
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=4a0a174a8bb5bf86

more
Idema role: rogue or U.S. agent?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=737677

[thebigidea]

1. Snicker. Figures they would stick up for him.

[seemslikeadream]

3. Weird, I think Idema knows this woman

GATESVILLE, Texas (Court TV) — Viktoria Robertson knew her punishment was inevitable.

The former stockbroker had been convicted in Texas of fraud and embezzlement and sent to a Gatesville prison to do the time. But when she got there, she didn't expect this: to be kept in a cage eight feet long and six feet wide and sent to work with other inmates called the "hoe squad."

Robertson described to Court TV what she and other women allegedly suffered during her incarceration. She said she was put in the cage not once, not twice, but four times.

"You go in the cage if you're unable to keep up, if you're exhausted, if you happen to get sick," said Robertson, who served three years at Gatesville.

Rather than bury the incident in her past, Robertson returned to the place where she was forced to, among many other things, strip naked for prison staff. Using hidden cameras, Court TV crews watched as several women were put in the cages, locked by metal boxes, after they'd been toiling in 100-degree plus heat.

"I was not provided safety," she said. "Otherwise, I would not have been brutally put into a cage because I couldn't keep up in cutting grass and forced to defecate and urinate in a cage standing up and watered every 90 minutes. ... It's not like you're in a cell where you know they're gonna feed you. You're in a cage. Out in the wilderness. Like an animal."


Calls to Texas Gov. George Bush's office were not returned for comment.


—Valerie Q. Carino

http://www.courttv.com/archive/national/1999/1021/cages_ctv.html

[seemslikeadream]

7. I think she is Viktoria Running Wolf

Idema's wife, who goes by the name Viktoria Running Wolf, says that's preposterous.

Running Wolf says the American government regularly used intelligence gathered by her husband and now wants to abandon him. She says she has evidence to prove it, but she has provided little to substantiate her allegations.

She did show off his command post in an old, red-brick building adjoining her pet hotel.


''He dialed for attention,'' says Running Wolf, who has had her own trouble with the law. She served two stints in a Texas prison - the last ending in 1997 - for forgery and credit card theft. A Texas warrant accusing her of violating her parole has never been served.


more
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Zx_zdHxG9IQJ:www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php%3FTemplate%3Dterrorism%26Story%3D6497361+The+Fayetteville+Observer+Bennett+met+Idema.+&hl=en

[lapfog_1]

2. Uhh, guys... remember - The Secretary will disavow all..

[DulceDecorum]

4. Professional Courtesy

In an article set to appear Monday in SOLDIER OF FORTUNE magazine, the U.S. government is urged to make sure Idema's rights are protected, along with those of the two Americans arrested with him.

According to the article, torture and hostage-taking are international crimes, and the United States is party to the torture and hostage treaties and so is Afghanistan. If a crime has been codified under International Law, the United States can claim concurrent jurisdiction with the country where the incident occurred, the magazine said.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=4a0a174a8bb5bf86

Actually, I rather hope the US does as the mercenaries ask.
That way every nation who has beef with what the US-sponsored dogs of war have done on their turf can cite this case as precedent.

CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Article 2
1.) Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2.) No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3.) An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html

[seemslikeadream]

5. U.S. Bounty Hunter on trial in Afghanistan

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.


http://www.sofmag.com/display.do?id=61

[seemslikeadream]

6. Keith idema and international law.

Dr. Martin Brass

Why are American citizens charged with international crimes being tried in a foreign court, without U.S. officials strongly insisting that due process protections must be implemented. Especially considering the recent U.S. military prison torture scandal.

Some of the most brilliant attorneys or judges I have met, worked with, or trained under, are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and other parts of Asia. Many are trained in the Western Common Law or Civil Law traditions. At this stage the question of the Judge's competence does not raise a flag in my mind.

Afghanistan has a new constitution since January and new guidelines are being drafted by International organizations. The new criminal code has due process protections in its language, "but the implementation is the problem, according to Tiffany.

His concerns are valid. I remember being highly impressed with the flowery language of the U.S.S.R. Constitution when I was studying law in Moscow and St. Petersburg. But the application and interpretation of that constitution was frighteningly arbitrary. The state of Afghan's legal system, from what Tiffany said, is not very encouraging.
more
http://www.sofmag.com/display.do?id=62

[seemslikeadream]

8. he had entered Afghanistan from India

New York Times
July 22, 2004
Ex-G.I., Charged in Kabul, Says He Was on U.S. Mission
By CARLOTTA GALL

The prosecutor told the court that Mr. Idema had said under interrogation that he had no connection with any American governmental department and that he had entered Afghanistan from India without a proper visa. Mr. Idema had admitted detaining men in his house, saying that they were members of the Taliban or Al Qaeda, Mr. Dawari said, and that that he was intending to hand them over to the Afghan or American authorities.

Mr. Bennett had also said he had no formal connection to any American government agency, telling the authorities that he had come to work for the counterterrorism center but only answered to Mr. Idema, the prosecutor told the court.

Mr. Caraballo had told questioners that he was in the country to work on a video documentary on the fight against terrorism there.

more
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/international/asia/22afgh.html