Reply #28: Kabul bounty hunters search for bin Laden

[seemslikeadream]

12.07.2004

Afghan soldiers guard the Kabul home of Americans under arrest on suspicion of interrogating locals. Picture / Reuter
It was a discovery startling, and disturbing, even by the standards of Afghanistan's anarchic violence.
Prisoners hanging upside down in a private prison, tortured by heavily armed soldiers of fortune seeking the millions of dollars in bounty offered by the Americans.
The arrest of Jack Idema and two companions after a shootout in Kabul gave a glimpse of a savage and largely unreported war taking place in the shadow of the Iraq conflict, and the assortment - mercenaries and misfits, fortune-seekers and fantasists - who have come to take part.
Idema, now in the custody of the notorious Afghan security chief, Baba Jan, in many ways epitomises these latter-day men who would be king in this part of the "Wild East".
His is a colourful background across three continents: author, adventurer and convict.
more
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3577...

Pride, prison shadow Idema

By Greg Barnes
Staff writer
snip
Idema was about to go to prison when at least three high-ranking military officials fought to have him released until his sentencing.
''Keith is an honest, hard-working American vet of the highest order who deserves the trust of those who are appointed to enforce constitutional rights and laws of the American public,'' Army Master Sgt. Peter L. Conners wrote to U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle on May 18, 1994. ''I would like to add to the list of those asking for his presentencing release on appeal.''
That list included Timothy G. Connolly, then the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense.
''While others may find occasion to call his character into question, my experience with him over the last 10 years leads me to a different conclusion,'' Connolly wrote to Boyle. ''Keith Idema may be one of the last individuals for whom the phrase 'I give you my word' still has meaning. To Keith, honor is everything.''
more
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=news&S...
from
JudiLyn

This story linked in seemslikeadream's collection was never aired before
I'm SURE I've never heard it, but first of all, it's from UPI, so I guess it matters what the date was when Rev. Moon bought UPI, doesn't it? It used to be reputable.

Al Qaida may have tried to kill Clinton
By Martin Arostegui
Published 10/18/2002 6:34 PM


The following story is a re-release of an article that United Press International originally published by on Feb. 6, 2002.


KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Al Qaida may have tried to kill former President Clinton, apparently while he was in office, and perhaps planned further attempts on world leaders, United Press International has learned.

Specific references to Clinton were found among handwritten notes and sketches of U.S. Secret Service protective methods recovered from the Shomali compound near Kabul where al Qaida members received specialized training in assassination and hostage taking.

"We have attempted to kill Clinton, but failed," documents in Arabic released exclusively to United Press International Monday state. Although the text indicates the attack was planned around some high-level conference or international summit, it does not mention an exact date. Analysts in Kabul believe the attempt was planned about two years ago.

Nor does the text reveal whether the plan was abandoned or had failed in some other way.

Security experts in Kabul believe Osama bin Laden's group may have been thinking of a second attack on the former president, this time during a golf tournament.

"The documents clearly list how presidential protective details are structured, what they do and what vulnerabilities to look for," said J. Keith Idema, an American civilian adviser to the Afghan United Front, also known as the Northern Alliance, one of the members of the Afghan Interim Administration. Idema has analyzed captured al Qaida records, including graphic terrorist training video tapes recently aired on CBS' "60 Minutes" television program.
(snip)
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=04022002-082828-84 ...

Idema sounds unhinged, actually. But WHO KNEW this plotting was going on about Clinton by anyone other than our own right wing? Hmmmmmmmm.

Makes you wonder why he didn't decide he was going to try to take over the world, just like little Dubya in mock revenge, doesn't it?

Thanks JudiLyn

Bad company: 'Jack' Idema and the bounty hunters of Kabul
US payouts for Taliban and al-Qa'ida captures are attracting strange and dangerous adventurers to the 'Wild East'
By Kim Sengupta and Paul Lashmar and Nick Meo in Kabul
11 July 2004
The arrest of Jack Idema and two companions after a shootout in Kabul gave a glimpse of a savage and largely unreported war taking place in the shadow of the Iraq conflict, and the assortment - mercenaries and misfits, fortune-seekers and fantasists - who have come to take part. Idema, now in custody of the notorious Afghan security chief, Baba Jan, in many ways epitomises these latter-day men who would be king in this part of the "Wild East". His is a colourful background across three continents: author, adventurer and convict.
Some of us first met "Jack" in 2001, when the Taliban had retreated from Kabul, victorious Northern Alliance fighters were parading in the streets, and US and British forces were pouring into Bagram airbase. A dapper man in a black T-shirt and combat trousers, a Glock pistol strapped in his shoulder holster, Idema gave a graphic account of his supposed experiences as a former US army Green Beret who had trained with the SAS and, as an adviser to the Tajik and Uzbek militias, had helped plan the operation to take the Afghan capital.
Some operating in this murky world do indeed have official connections. David Passaro, a former Green Beret who arrived on a CIA security contract, is currently under arrest, accused of beating a 28-year-old Afghan detainee to death. US federal prosecutors have filed a protective order seeking to restrict the use of classified material at his trial.
The war on terror is lavishly funded when it comes to bounties. The US State Department is offering $340m in bounties for information leading the capture or killing of 30 top suspects worldwide. The reward for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qa'ida commander believed to be a leading player in the Iraqi insurgency, was recently doubled to $25m, the same as Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden. So far, $56m has been paid out internationally. Small wonder, then, that all kinds of adventurers are now buzzing round this honeypot.

more
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?stor...


Ex-soldiers blur Afghan security


By Andrew North
BBC correspondent in Kabul

It's becoming harder to spot genuine troops like this American
...........
Often they are private contractors.
Phil Halton of Anso, an organisation that provides security advice to aid agencies, admits there may be a "perception" problem now.
He points out that it is well known that the US government uses many private contractors.
For instance, a private US security firm is guarding President Hamid Karzai.
Contractors have also been used by the CIA to interrogate detainees in Afghanistan.
That makes it harder for the US authorities to convince people that they are not involved with people like Jonathan Idema.

The Kabul house where Idema and two other Americans were held
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3881317.stm
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Private Prisons for America
The Community Web Log on Media, Government, and Politics in Midland, Texas
Home of George & Laura Bush, General Tommy Franks....AND Wahoo McDaniel
AN EMPTY PRISON? GASP! WE CAN'T HAVE THAT!
If there was ever any doubt that the prison system has become big business, that fact should be readily apparent now.
"For several months, more than 500 of the beds in the detention center have remained empty. That's because the federal government's Bureau of Prisons (BOP) hasn't given them the inmates they need. This has leading to a financial catastrophe for the county."
Yet more evidence that government is too big and bloated. It now has a vested interest in keeping inmate population numbers high. And how might they accomplish that, you ask?
By making everything a felony, that's how.
In recent years, the number of misdemeanor crimes that have been reclassified as felonies is frightening. On top of that, a good portion of them carry mandatory minimum sentences, especially repeat possession offenses. Even some traffic offenses have been given felony status in Texas, including evading and -- get this -- drag racing.
Meanwhile, almost every small town in America either has its own prison or is vying for one to help boost its local economy. In the words of S.O.D., "They're trying to build a prison -- for you and me to live in."more.....if you can take it!
http://www.jessicaswell.com/MT/archives/000938.html


Lisa
The dark side of glorifying rule-breakers
Last summer, Robert Kaplan did a piece which urged the US to emphasize special-ops efforts which would have a lot of autonomy and even work in clandestine ways. He's compared this to the techniques used by the British and Roman empires (the type of person that Kipling's "Stalky" evolves into) -- and uses the American character in "A Bell for Adano" as his ideal -- a tough military-trained guy who doesn't always follow military procedures. At the time, I felt this was highly optimistic, and that this kind of situation could encourage people who were basically being mercenaries to set themselves up as warlords and kingpins. And even if they had good intentions at first, they could easily end up like Kurtz in "Heart of Darkness".
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/07/kaplan.htm