GANGSTERS & OUTLAWS > COPS & OTHER CHARACTERS

Jonathan Idema: Our Man in Kabul

September 2001

To really grasp Jack Idema, you need to start at the beginning.

The way Moore describes it in his book; Idema's long trek to an Afghan prison began the morning of September 11, when he rolled over to face his wife, and said to her, "You know I'm going, don't you?" As Kelch recalled, a few days after the attack, Idema "went to Ground Zero, wept uncontrollably and promised that he would enact his revenge."

By September 26, 2001, he was on the ground in Afghanistan under the aegis of a not-for-profit humanitarian group. According to several published reports, Idema spent little time on humanitarian causes during his early days in the country, and reportedly offered his services as a "consultant" to various news people, often suggesting, while not claiming outright, that he had links to American Special Forces in the country.

Idema later told Stuff that his first stint in the war-ravaged country was in response to what he believed was George W. Bush's call to arms. "President Bush got on TV and he said all Americans are now soldiers in the war on terror," Idema told Stuff in June. "He hasn't rescinded that, and until he...rescinds his authority, I'm going to continue to operate. The Pentagon knows that. That's why they let me operate."

Jonathan "Jack" Idema in 2002

Though there is no hard evidence that he had official authority, Idema has long claimed - and Moore has confirmed - that he worked closely with Northern Alliance leaders in the early days of the war. Idema also maintains that he continued contact with them even after he returned to the United States in 2002 and that when he returned to Afghanistan this spring, it was to work with the Northern Alliance. "We're working with the same guys we've been working with since the day we went to war here," Idema told Stuff. "I don't change my friends. They were my friends on the day after September 11, and they're going to remain that way."

To bolster his claim, Idema posed for a photograph with several key Northern Alliance leaders.

In fact, Idema claims, information that he received from sources he developed while working with the Northern Alliance - along with his frustration over the federal government's apparent inability to exploit that intelligence -- led him to return to Afghanistan this year.