3 Americans arrested in Kabul

[brewmonkey]

Is this the guy I thinking of or is this someone else?

http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/3501884/detail.html

[rubberneck]

Sounds like Keith Idema to me.

[brewmonkey]

I was thinking the same thing but was unable to find anything on a "Jonathan". Even using the name in the search string was bringing up loads of Keith Idema.

[Smokin Joe]

Probably the same guy, using his middle name or an AKA. How many former SF guys named Idema are running around Afghanistan?

I remember there was quit a bit of dicussion on this guy in the SF forum on the other side.

[The Reaper]

J. (or Jack) Keith Edema, he usually goes by.

Wouldn't expect the Afghan police to know that.

TR

[Smokin Joe]

Originally posted by The Reaper
J. (or Jack) Keith Edema, he usually goes by.

Wouldn't expect the Afghan police to know that.

TR

Sounds like the Afghan Police got an "Anonamous" tip.

Maybe someone was tired of him in there AO?

[The Reaper]

I hope they keep him for a while.

TR

[CommoGeek]

Originally posted by The Reaper
I hope they keep him for a while.

TR

There aren't many Americans that should rot in a foreign jail. Idema however, should.

[Max_Tab]

When I was up in Bagram, I saw a wanted poster for this jack-ass hanging up in the chow hall. It said that he was posing as a US Army Major. I'm glad the Afghani's got him and I hope they don't extradite him.

Hope he likes being some haji's bitch.

[The Reaper]

Guess he shouldn't count on TF coming to get him out.

TR

[Kyobanim]

I've done the google thing but found nothing. At the risk of sounding stupid, who is this guy?

[NousDefionsDoc]

MP Wanted poster

[The Reaper]

Originally posted by Kyobanim
I've done the google thing but found nothing. At the risk of sounding stupid, who is this guy?

Well hold onto your hat and strap this search on.

TR

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Jack+Idema

[Kyobanim]

Mi spelin suks

Thanks

Okay, read the first page of links. Other than being a person who talks about himself a lot, I noticed that he was refused re-enlistmen. Is this something that we can talk about here?

[The Reaper]

Do a search at SOCNet. Several people there knew him pretty well.

I met him a few times, he seemed pretty full of himself. At that time, he ran a tactical nylon company named "Idema Combat Systems".

He was convicted of wire fraud and incarcerated, claimed that he was set up.

He also claimed to be able to clear Colonel Maracek of his murder charge.

He went into Afghanistan early on, got with Robin Moore, you should be able to find him ICW that book as well.

Recently, rumors were that he was cruising Afghanistan claiming to be an Army Major. I believe he separated from the Reserves as an SF E-7 or so.

How was that?

TR

[SOGvet]

Not a bad... He was also recently seen attempting to pass himself off (in the sandbox) as an employee of an OGA, as well as surfacing in one or more fire base locations along the NE Afgh-Pk border (uninvited, of course). There's a lot of people in high places who want to ask him a bunch of questions.

No matter how you look at it, the guy is trouble. He may have bitten off more than he can chew this time.

[P36]

Seven arrested over Afghan 'private jail'

Reuters in Kabul
Thursday July 8, 2004
The Guardian

Afghan security forces have arrested three Americans and four Afghans after a shootout in Kabul and accused them of illegally detaining and interrogating locals, security officials said yesterday.
A US embassy spokesman identified one of the Americans as Jonathan K Idema, who the US military says has misrepresented himself in the past as a US official.

Police said small-arms fire had been exchanged during the raid on the illegal jail in the Karteh Parwan district of Kabul on Monday, but there were no injuries.

A senior intelligence Afghan official said the suspects had been using a private house to detain local people. Police said several bearded Afghans, apparently detained by the group, had been found in the house. Members of the group detaining them were wearing military uniforms.

A US embassy spokesman, Roy Glover, said he understood three of the men had identified themselves as Americans, including Mr Idema.

An Afghan journalist working for a US television network said a man he knew as Mr Idema had tried to sell what the American described as al-Qaida training videos to US networks.

The US, which overthrew the former Taliban regime in late 2001, leads a 20,000-strong force in Afghanistan, pursuing Taliban, al-Qaida and allied Islamist militants.

Earlier yesterday the US military said it had completed a review of conditions in its detention centres in the country.

[P36]

IRREGULARS
Afghans Seize 4 Men Claiming to Be With U.S. Special Forces
By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: July 8, 2004


ABUL, Afghanistan, July 7 - Four men claiming to be Americans and posing as Special Forces commandos were arrested Monday by Afghan security agents in a raid on a house here, NATO and Afghan officials said Wednesday. At least eight men being held prisoner in the house and four Afghan interpreters were also detained, the officials said.

The four foreign men had sometimes posed as American soldiers and sometimes as peacekeepers for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, an Afghan police officer said.

A spokesman for the NATO force, Cmdr. Chris Henderson, said that he was aware of the case, and that at least one American was among four foreigners arrested. He said that the men were not connected to United States forces and that he had "no idea" who they were.

The United States Embassy said it was investigating the matter. "We have reports that there are three Americans but we don't have confirmation," an embassy official said. The men did not have documents to prove their identity, he added.

One of the men detained, identified as Jonathan K. Idema, was known to the military and had apparently been under surveillance. He was the subject of a media advisory by the United States military press center several days ago, which warned that he was an imposter pretending to be a member of the American military.

"U.S. citizen Jonathan K. Idema has allegedly represented himself as an American government and/or military official,'' the e-mail notice said. "The public should be aware that Idema does not represent the American government and we do not employ him." A military spokesman, Maj. Jon Siepmann, denied all knowledge of the arrests, but another American official said Mr. Idema was among those arrested.

One foreign military official said the men had tried to pass themselves off as Special Forces troops, or "other agencies," who wear plain clothes and often wear beards and sunglasses. Kabul is brimming with plainclothes agents and former military types working for private security firms. Many drive around in unmarked cars, often armed, and Afghan law enforcement officials usually allow them free passage. United States Special Forces troops also move around unhindered in unmarked cars, sometimes looking like Afghans in Afghan clothes and beards, and sometimes more recognizable as Americans, in uniforms, baseball caps and sunglasses.

But the men detained were being investigated by both the Afghan security forces and the foreign military. Afghan police officers and intelligence agents mounted the raid on Monday, but a foreign military unit had played a part in surveillance, Afghan police officials said. The men lived in a house in central Kabul.

"At least two are saying they are Americans and they give different names each time,'' Commander Henderson said. "There are two other foreigners but it is not clear if they are Americans." he said. The police also found four Kalashnikov rifles and some clothes with blood on them, he said.

All the men are being held by the Afghan intelligence service, the National Security Directorate.

[Kyobanim]

Originally posted by The Reaper
Do a search at SOCNet. Several people there knew him pretty well.

I met him a few times, he seemed pretty full of himself. At that time, he ran a tactical nylon company named "Idema Combat Systems".

He was convicted of wire fraud and incarcerated, claimed that he was set up.

He also claimed to be able to clear Colonel Maracek of his murder charge.

He went into Afghanistan early on, got with Robin Moore, you should be able to find him ICW that book as well.

Recently, rumors were that he was cruising Afghanistan claiming to be an Army Major. I believe he separated from the Reserves as an SF E-7 or so.

How was that?

TR

Great, thanks.

Good or bad, I learn something new on this site everyday. Now you have me searching out info on Colonel Maracek. Interesting case there.

[Smokin Joe]

Originally posted by Kyobanim
Great, thanks.

Good or bad, I learn something new on this site everyday. Now you have me searching out info on Colonel Maracek. Interesting case there.

*Quick Hijack*

That case is very interesting, with all kinds of strange twists.

*End Quick Hijack*

Idema must have really pissed of the wrong people in a bad way. B/C it appears that their are plenty of people roaming around Afghanistan in plain clothes doing whatever they need to do, I would think that most would simply ignore him as a wanna-be and leave it at that. But for them to stop looking for terrorist and divert there attention to Ideama, to include using a foreign military unit to put him under surveillance. I'd say some very powerful people are really pissed at him and he's in real deep shit.

Be interesting to track this and see if he is prosecuted.

Could he be prosecuted under UCMJ or Federal Law?

[rubberneck]

Recently, rumors were that he was cruising Afghanistan claiming to be an Army Major. I believe he separated from the Reserves as an SF E-7 or so.

On SOCNET there is a post from a Vietnam era QP who was in the 5th group the same time Idema was. According to the post he was a parachute rigger and never held an 18 series MOS. Is that correct? or did this guy actually have his long tab? I get more and more confused every time I read something about this guy but I think that speaks more to the BS nature of this guy than it does to my own intelligence, at least I hope it does.

[magician]

Freakin' incredible.

The Law of Karma at work.

You play, you pay.

[Hognose (RIP)]

1. Keith (only name I have ever known him to go by) was on active duty. He did go to SFQC in about 1979/80; I know two men who were in his Phase I. They were not impressed, but he passed. I have heard rumours about him and 5th (bus driver?) but also heard from an officer I trust that at the end of JKI's active duty time, at 10th SFG(A), he was required to be escorted off the base. Why? No idea, but seems like he'd made an impression.

2. He subsequently served in B Co. 1/11th SFG(A) which was at the time in Tappan, New York, near NYC. He left B Co. under a cloud, specifics of which I do not know.

3. Keith is personable and very intelligent. If you meet him, most guys' first reaction is to like him. He is also stubborn and can be devious. I am not a psychiatrist, but I believe his personality is danger close to what the DSM calls "Narcissistic Personality Disorder." He appears to be more self-centered than, er, the usual self-effacing and modest SF guy (grin).

4. Keith is extremely litigious. Due to his ego he represents himself as plaintiff. His record is about 30/70 in these suits that I know of, which any lawyer will tell you is good.

5. Soon after 9/11 Keith began soliciting former associates and associates' associates, claiming that he had been tasked by an unnamed agency to go to Afghanistan and set up an air delivery program to resupply the Northern Alliance. He presented himself to at least two NGOs as someone that could get aid delivered, and got the NGOs to finance his trip to Afghanistan. Those guys that went with him wound up stranded.

6. Keith got in good with one tribal faction of the Jamiats, one of the parties in the NA. He got in good with National Geographic. he appeared on Fox News and in storied by Martin Arostegui of UPI as "Jack," with vaguely OGA associations and, in the UPI story, a claim of ex-CAG. That claim is not true; called on it, UPI changed the online story in their archive but did not isssue a correction. Anyway, exercise extreme caution around Arostegui -- not trustworthy.

7. Associates include Gary Scurka, TV producer, apparent alkie. Scurka was sacked by CBS for involvement in a Keith project, I believe the Marechek thing. Col. Marecek (to digress for a moment) was released, I believe, in 2003. The best that can be said for JKIs participation in the Marecek defense is that he meant well.

8. Robin Moore's book. Ah, now there's a story. That book was finished, was read and approved by those in 5th SFG that did participate in the liberation of Afghanistan, and returned to Robin and his researcher Chris with the papal blessing from the 5th legion. Sometime after that all the "Jack" (Idema) material was added, whether by Robin or Chris nobody knows, but now 5th Group's ODAs were all but bit players and the war was won by "Jack." It murdered the credibility of what had been a good book.

For anybody reading this, mentally subtract all the jack stuff as you read and the book gives you some indications what happened. About 100 SFers and OGAniks won that war... and the guys saying now that the US didn't put in enough troops (I just saw that charge repeated in Moore's movie, what the hell, he was against invading Afghan, now he's for?) need a whack upside the head with a clue by four.

9. I heard that "Jack" has been featured in "Soldier of Fiction" over the past couple years. Anybody read it?

10. Exercise for the reader. Go to www.bop.gov and search for Jonathan Keith Idema.

Keith spent five years inside for wire fraud. He claims to have been set up, that actually he was just letting a couple other guys use some phone lines in his office -- at the time he was running a training site for hire (a la Blackwater) in upstate NY and putting on Special Ops Expos in the Bragg area.

Before that, he had a paintball venue in partnership with another SF soldier but the state (NY in Cuomo era) banned paintball and they lost money.

He also had a company, Idema Systems, that made custom field gear along the lines of Blackhawk or Tactical Tailor, in the early or mid 1980s. the gear was quite high quality and one occasionally sees an old 11th Group dude dragging an Idema Systems gun bag or something.

Keith apparently is from a wealthy family, the wealth centered in land ownership in the suburban NYC area.

I've observed that the comfort standards of Afghan jails are somewhat lacking. So I kind of don't like the idea of him in crowbar motel over there, but he needs to learn to stop impersonating active duty or OGA people -- which he has been doing nonstop since 2001 -- and maybe that will take a stint in pokey. I expect that sooner or later the Embassy will get him out, as long as he is on the next thing smoking for CONUS.

regards

nose

PS I think he peaked as E5 or E6 -- I'll ax around.

[Kyobanim]

Thanks, Hognose, good info.

And welcome aboard.

[Guy]

Originally posted by Hognose
-- at the time he was running a training site for hire (a la Blackwater) in upstate NY and putting on Special Ops Expos in the Bragg area.

?

[P36]

I met him once while at Bragg, when he was arranging the Special Ops Expo. I think it was in 93.

[CommoGeek]

Originally posted by Kyobanim
Thanks, Hognose, good info.

And welcome aboard.

Concur.

Hognose, you wouldn't have been in 1/11 in NY state, would you? I know an old Echo from up there.

[Cazador 01]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- 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 the three had posed as military agents on a self-appointed hunt for terrorists.

The Americans and four Afghans who were detained along with them "formed a group and pretended they were fighting terrorism," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said. "They arrested eight people from across Kabul and put them in their jail."

Another Afghan security official said intelligence and police officials who raided the group's house Monday found the prisoners strung up by their feet.

"They were hanging upside down," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said a report showed the men also were beaten.

Jalali said the Americans had no "legal link" to any Afghan or other authorities.

Still, officials said they were seen regularly around Kabul wearing military uniforms and armed with assault rifles.

Idema, described in media reports as an ex-special forces operative known as "Jack," first appeared in Afghanistan in late 2001, when U.S. and allied Afghan forces routed the Taliban.

He featured prominently in a top-selling book, "The Hunt for Bin Laden," which says he fought for 10 months alongside the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.

He also offered his services to Western television networks, including an apparent al-Qaida training video.

On Thursday, police gave an Associated Press reporter a business card apparently handed out by Idema.

The card bears an Afghan flag with a small Stars-and-Stripes at its center and a Northern Alliance flag. "Special Adviser" is printed on the bottom and "Jack" is scrawled in the Dari language at the top. None of the three phone numbers worked.

In Washington, Boucher confirmed Idema was one of the men in custody and identified another as Brent Bennett. He gave no other details.

One police official said Idema's group appeared to be behind the disappearance of a man in west Kabul three weeks ago.

The missing man was identified as Abdul Latif, and his wife told authorities she believed he had been taken into custody by members of the NATO-led force that patrols the capital, said the police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said three foreigners, dressed in military uniforms, returned to the house earlier this week, where police confronted them.

He said a man called Jack told the officers he had orders to arrest a terrorist before he could blow himself up in a government building. The three said they belonged to "an important network," but gave no other details, the police official said.

Jalali said all eight prisoners found Monday were released. It was not clear how long they had been held.

There was no sign of Latif, however, at his house in a quiet residential street of Kabul's Khoshal Khan district.

Two men who answered the door Thursday said they were refugees who had returned recently from Iran and the previous tenant's wife had recently moved out.

Idema and the two others were seized by Afghan police and intelligence officers in downtown Kabul on Monday. Jalali said the men were operating in Kabul under the guise of working for an export company.

On Thursday, uniformed Afghan intelligence officers refused to admit reporters into the house where the eight prisoners had been found in the city's Kart-e-Parwan district, which was barely visible over a high wall topped with barbed wire.

Residents said foreigners had lived there and they had noticed nothing suspicious.

The U.S. military took the unusual step Monday - before news of his detention was widely known - of distancing itself from Idema, saying in a statement: "The public should be aware that Idema does not represent the American government and we do not employ him."

A spokeswoman would give no details of Idema's activities, insisting Afghan authorities were leading the investigation.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Beth Lee said Thursday the Americans had been visited by U.S. officials, but she had no information on whether the United States had sought to take them into custody.

---

Associated Press Writer Stephen Graham in Kabul contributed to this report.

[SP5IC]

Gentlemen,

The Nose knows. While I have no first hand knowledge of Idema's indescretions, I know several who do...and I trust them. For those of you who are members of the SFA, see The DROP. Keith's latest attorney states that the SFA & other charities, are below Keith's standards., only felons need apply. I wretched when I watched Edema on IMUS months ago. The dude is so full of himself. I missed him at the SFA convention in '02. Pity.

The oldSF

[BMT (RIP)]

http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=news&Story=6446821

BMT

[brownapple]

Mel Smith, head of the Special Forces Association, has almost nothing to say about Idema.

''He's not a member, and he never will be,'' Smith said.


Nope, not much, just everything that needed to be said. LMAO

[Team Sergeant]

Originally posted by oldSF
Gentlemen,

The Nose knows. While I have no first hand knowledge of Idema's indescretions, I know several who do...and I trust them. For those of you who are members of the SFA, see The DROP. Keith's latest attorney states that the SFA & other charities, are below Keith's standards., only felons need apply. I wretched when I watched Edema on IMUS months ago. The dude is so full of himself. I missed him at the SFA convention in '02. Pity.

The oldSF

I read that in the Drop. Thanks for the updates oldSF!

What a friggin loser. For all those non-SF types jack, keith idema is a piece of shit, a 10%'er. He's a head case and a convicted felon. Nuff said. I hope he enjoys the Afgan jail.

TS

[Guru]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/international/asia/11afgh.html?hp

[magician]

Not to step on you, Guru, but here is the full text of the article from the Times for the convenience of those who want it.


July 11, 2004
Portrait of a U.S. Vigilante in Afghanistan
By DAVID ROHDE

ABUL, Afghanistan, July 10 - Journalists remember him as Jack, an eccentric, heavily armed and at times, it seemed, dangerously unbalanced, middle-aged former American Special Forces soldier, who appeared in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001.

Surrounded by armed Afghan guards and rumors that he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, he quickly rose to prominence. In the next two years, he was interviewed by Fox and CBS News, helped write a book called "The Hunt for bin Laden" and said he had discovered evidence in Afghanistan that linked Iraq to Al Qaeda.

This week, Jack, a convicted felon whose real name is Jonathan Keith Idema, was arrested with two other Americans and accused of running his own vigilante antiterrorism campaign in Kabul. Afghan and American officials said that Mr. Idema, 48, and the two other Americans posed as government officials and illegally imprisoned at least eight innocent Afghan men for 10 days or more.

A senior Western diplomat said Saturday that Mr. Idema's campaign appeared to have been an attempt to get American intelligence agencies to take him seriously. American officials have said that Mr. Idema had no ties to the American government. "Perhaps if he did something successful," the diplomat said, "the government would pay attention to him."

In an article about the exploits of Mr. Idema's group sent by e-mail to news organizations in Kabul just before his arrest, a journalist identified as Mohammed Ashimey wrote that a "supersecret group" of "renegade Green Berets" had decided to break up a major terrorist plot in Kabul "without United States support and without government funds."

But local Afghan journalists said they had never heard of Mr. Ashimey, and there was no response to a message sent to the e-mail account from which the article originated.

In breathless prose, the article said the former commandos, frustrated by American government inaction, had dubbed themselves Task Force Saber and had arrested 13 people suspected of terrorism since arriving in Afghanistan three months ago. The article, which sounded like it could have been written by an American, included an accurate description of the illegal arrests that led to Mr. Idema's detention and a fawning description of his work.

"Driving beat up old S.U.V.'s, wearing low-slung holsters like Clint Eastwood, long hair, beards and Afghan scarfs, the Green Berets operated they way they did during the 2001-2002 war, with no rules, no oversight and no plan," the article said. "Changing cities, houses and bases every few days, they seem to appear and disappear at will."

American and Afghan officials are still investigating how many Afghans Mr. Idema detained during his spree, how long it lasted and whether he harmed anyone.

The Western diplomat said bloody clothes had been found at a house in Kabul where the Afghan authorities freed five of the Afghans whom Mr. Idema had been holding prisoner.

Black curtains still hang over two back rooms where prisoners were held in his house in Kabul. Prisoners also appeared to have been tied to chairs in the kitchen and bathroom, Afghan officials said. In an office, there were two clocks on the wall, one showing the time in Kabul and one showing the time at Fort Bragg, the military base used by Special Operations forces in North Carolina. A piece of paper on the wall was titled "Missions to Complete" and listed various tasks. Item No. 2 was "Karzai." Item No. 4 was "pick up laundry."

One of the prisoners, Muhammad Hanif, a 19-year-old mechanic, said in an interview on Saturday that when Mr. Idema's group arrested him, they burst into the house where he was working and fired shots into the ceiling. Local police who arrived at the scene said the armed Americans said they were with the United States military.

When he and seven other prisoners were taken to Mr. Idema's house, they found an Afghan named Sher Ali, who said he had been imprisoned there for six days. The next day, Mr. Ali was gone.

Mr. Hanif said he had been denied food and water for the first three days of his imprisonment and at one point had become so weak that he had lost consciousness. Through 10 days of imprisonment, he said, his hands were tied and a bag was placed over his head. He said that when the prisoners had asked their captors if they could pray, one American had answered: "You are terrorists. Why do you pray and what do you pray for?"

Afghan officials said all the men Mr. Idema arrested appeared to be innocent.

Mr. Idema grew up in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., joined the Army in 1975, and was on active duty for three years before joining a Reserve Special Forces unit in New York, according to The Fayetteville Observer.

In December 2000, he was featured in an article in The New York Times about pet owners who believed animal cloning may eventually be possible.

Mr. Idema, who lived in Fayetteville, N.C., at the time, said he had saved some genetic material from Sarge, a dog he had used while serving as a soldier. Mr. Idema said the dog had parachuted out of planes with him and sniffed bombs.

In 1994, a federal jury in Fayetteville found Mr. Idema guilty of wire fraud, according to court documents. Prosecutors said he faked credit reports and established a false company to obtain roughly $270,000 in merchandise for his troubled military equipment business, Idema Combat Systems. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Ali Ahmed Jalali, the Afghan interior minister, questioned how Mr. Idema was able to operate without being noticed by foreign intelligence agencies. He said that in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Mr. Idema's spree would fuel Afghan suspicions of American forces.

"There are people who are trying to find excuses to blame everything on the Americans," he said. "He was running a prison in Kabul."



I am wondering if kidnapping charges will be conferred against these guys. Hate to wish bad things on anyone, but looks like charges of kidnapping and impersonation of a US official, at minimum, are on the horizon. In my opinion, they will be very, very lucky if they are charged in a US venue. If Lady Luck takes a walk, they just might end up doing time in Afghanistan.

How would that be for justice?

Big boy rules. You play, you fucking pay.

It is just unfortunate that it took this long for the guy to overreach and jam himself up. He has been giving the SF community a bad name for a long, long time. It is incredible to me that he was able to interact with all these news agencies in the past. I mean, Fox News has some real yahoos working as Talking Heads, but this guy? Jesus. Who the hell runs those places, anyway?