The Guardian runs a well researched story on Jonathan Keith “John” Idema getting busted for running a private torture prison in Kabul where among others “three men strapped to the ceiling and hanging by their feet” were found: The man who thinks he’s George Clooney. A story of today’s Kabul
The Guardian presents Idemas quite colorful background and suggests that he was hunting for US rewards on some Al Qaida leaders.
Here are some additional details around that story. Warning: Use your tin foil hat while reading.
Arrested with Idema was Edward Caraballo, a film maker, connected to him through various movie projects. From the bowel of Google we get some introspect on nevergiveupfilms.net (see the Google cached pages), a movie company that was supposed to bring out the The J. Keith Idema Story about smuggling of small atomic devices from the Soviet Union made by producer Gary Scurka and director Edward Caraballo.
Scura and Caraballo are also working for PBN News.tv. They made some “documentary” about a Green Beret Colonel George Marecek who killed his wife, as on other stories Idema investigated. They also distribute the rights of the alleged Al Qaida Training Videos Idema claims to have found in Afghanistan.
PBN News.tv has been in a legal battles with Dreamworks over the copyright of the storyline of the film The Peacemaker. Idema sued Fox News about fees for the Al Qaida training videos: Ex-commando sues Fox News over terror tape . He also had some fight with Geraldo Rivera. As PBN says on their website: “All violations of copyright are prosecuted with vigorous litigation in an ongoing effort to protect the value of the al-Qaida 8mm VideoX Training Tapes.” Conviniently this media company has links to Findlaw and lexisONE on its homepage. The companies motto is “Veritas et Libertas”.
This business outfit and Idema have made quite a round on US media. PBN claims its products have been run by “Inside Edition, Court TV, and/or CBS 48 Hours” and that they have worked with “CBS 60 Minutes, APB News, Inside Edition, MSNBC, and other top name news organizations.” The Green Baret murder story did win a National Press Club award, even though it was turned down by CBS News 60 Minutes and 48 Hours. Idema was active as Waco expert on WorldnetDaily in 1999, but seriously got into the media business only after 9/11.
He ran on
- MSNBC claiming connections between Iraq and Al Qaida
- 60 minutes with Dan Rather about the Al Qaida trainig video
- CNBC Kudlow & Cramer also about the Al Qaida trainig video
- New York Post ran that story “Exclusive”
- Radio outlets like WGN, WNYC and KUNM did go with the story and Idema interviews
- UPI did a story where Idema had found evidence that “Al Qaida may have tried to kill Clinton”
and all of this was of course well reflected in various print and Internet outlets.
When Idema was in Afghanistan in 2001, Scura of PBNnews.tv was also there, supported by the friendly mercenaries of Conterr Group.
Conterr claims they have started in Afghanistan for humanitarian missons, but:
Our non-combatant role changed as the battlefield enivronment changed. Counterr Group personnel became advisors to various factions of the United Front Miltary Forces and began combat operations against Taliban and al-Qaida enemy forces. This is the unique ability Counterr Group brings to the war on terror. Simply put, we will do whatever it takes to defeat terrorism and prevent another 9/11. We will support medical operations, operate on friendly forces in the field, obtain equipment for foreign allies, pay incentives for terrorist intelligence, lead foreign troops against al-Qaida, protect humanitarian aid workers and journalists in combat environments, provide HUMINT to US government activities, and engage terrorists wherever they may be, wherever they may flee, and wherever they may hide.
In case you are interested they do have some employment opportunities and you may reach them in Kabul via Satellite Phone: 873-762-767744. Their website domain is registered by a Thomas R. Bumback.
Some Master Sergant Thomas R. Bumback (Ret.) did write a favorable book review in Soldiers of Fortune about “The Hunt for Bin Laden” by Robin Moore.
As the Amazon reviewer says about the book “This is strictly a heroic portrayal of a military victory and the difficult search for Osama bin Laden, and at times Moore’s writing sounds like copy out of Soldier of Fortune magazine. This bombast may not appeal to all readers,…”
A readers review on Barnes & Nobles says about the book: “Finally, his work is greatly weakened when he includes stories that are not relevant to the story of the Green Berets he’s trying to give justice to. One case in point are the tales of Jack, who is in fact Keith Idema, and not several people as he suggests.”
There are 124 used copies of this books for sale at Amazon right now starting at $2.24.
So why is Ed Caraballo, a professional film maker and Emmy awards winner, in Kabul together with Idema? Is this about hunting US rewards on Al Qaida?
The coverage of the Al Qaida training videos may give some hints. As 60 minutes reports “Recruits shout commands in English – a sign they would like to take scenes like this to the West.”. Strategy Page has some in depth description of the videos: “Role players could be heard begging not to be killed (in ENGLISH). Terrorists practiced commands in ENGLISH also” and “Assassination on a golf course. Target was on the green (at the pin/flag)”. As Idema himself, quoted by 60 minutes, said: “When I looked at these tapes, I said, ‘ My God, this is the same kind of stuff that we did in 1980.'”
Now put your tin foil hat on and combine the video content with the expertise of the Conterr Group Academy Training –
“The training at Counterr Group Academy provides its graduates with the most modern tactics and techniques for armed encounters and for the successful prevention and resolution of acts of terrorism.”
– and throw in the film making/media savvy producer / director / videographer group around Idema, all on location in Afghanistan in 2001/2002, and you may come to the conclusion that the story of the Al Qaida training videos has some strange smell.
And now here we are again: Film maker Ed Caraballo, Keith Idema and Counterr Group together in Kabul. This time there is no Al Qaida training video, but some torture scenes in a privat jail. Any idea what this strange smell is about?
Addendum:
Josh Marshall has also some questions about Keith Idema:
I don’t get that.
Is there money in setting up your own jail? Kicks perhaps, as we’ve seen. But certainly there must be enough bad-acts to go around back in the states, right?
It just seems like someone must have been paying this guy to do something, unless it’s like a blog where you just set up shop and figure that someday a revenue stream might turn up.