Beginning at the top, we have the secret agent, Ellen Mai, who was requesting an interview with Jack Idema whilst Joe Cafasso was promising on Stuporpatriots that Jack could expect to receive a visit from ‘them’. She is at the upper left hand corner.
To her right, is Tod Robberson, who lied in order to get access to their quarters while they were at trial in Afghanistan, stole some documents and personal correspondence, and left a note on Stacy Sullivan’s piece, circling his name.
Underneath Ellen Mai is Robert Young Pelton, who wrote an entire chapter in his book “License to Kill” about Idema, when his book was about PMCs and Idema is not a PMC. It’s been pointed out on Amazon dot com that this chapter is completely contrary to the subject matter of the book, and that Pelton uses Idema as an example of why PMCs are dangerous. Needless to say, the chapter on Idema is out of place for a few reasons. First, he uses a picture of Idema training indigenous soldiers; the definition of a green beret. Second, he uses the picture without licensing it properly, as it is a copyrighted image. Third, he did wrote that chapter in his book, not because of its relevance to the subject matter, but as a personal favor for Ed Artis.
To Pelton’s right is the illustrious homely lonely heart, Kathryn Cramer. At present, she is distancing herself from Joe Cafasso, claiming he owes her $20,000, when, in fact, it is rumored that she was ‘dating’ him. This could be one of the reasons why law enforcement decided not to pursue her complaints against him.
Beneath Pelton is our Joe Cafasso aka Gerry Blackwood, aka Alcarillo.
Next to Joe is Ed Artis, the man behind Knightsbridge and the star of “Beyond the Call”. We can see today that Jack Idema and others’ instincts about Ed Artis loving publicity to the point getting sexual pleasure from it, and doing his utmost to promote himself, is indeed the case. He didn’t really care about the people he was ‘rescuing’; what he cared about was getting filmed in the process of doing it. This appears to be similar to John Kerry taking films of himself in Vietnam….for a purpose that would be served later. So, “Beyond the Call” seems to have achieved him notoriety and fame; something that he and Joe Cafasso seem to long for.
Under Alcarillo we have David Isenberg. Isenberg has been involved with this since , when he published his article, The Fog and Dog of War.
To his right is Stacy Sullivan, who wrote “Keith Idema’s Operation Desert Fraud” at New York Magazine.
Underneath Artis, we have Floyd Abrams of the prestigious lawfirm, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. Abrams is one of the leading First Amendment lawyers in the U.S., who defends Columbia and the Columbia Journalism School, and was involved along with thousands of lawyers from his law firm, in the case Idema brought defending himself against this fraudulent bad reporting. If I’m not mistaken, I haven’t seen the briefs, but Mariah Blake was also named. She has since left the school. This could be one of the reasons why she is witing for the Miami New Times now instead of the New York Times.
To his right is the girl Abrams and his lawfirm were defending, Mariah Blake. Columbia Journalism Review and Mariah Blake and others were taken to court by Idema while he was in Afghanistan for having published “Tin Soldier”.
There are others who belong to this group who are not pictured. Now you know why I keep thinking of the ‘murder on the orient express’ movie in connection with this story. Not one individual can be held responsible; it is a group, and each person is taking their stab.
so we just drop the word “PMC’s” call our brothers in arms Prophets of the Word, Nine and Five Five Six?
Well, Elder, there is a definition to the word PMC, which Pelton broad brushes Idema with. As many of the commenters on Pelton’s book have noticed at Amazon, Idema doesn’t fit the description or definition of a Private Military Contractor.
When you call things by their real names, then maybe you have something. But that wasn’t Pelton’s intention. Pelton does Artis a favor by sticking Idema in a book about PMCs when PMC is not what Idema is, and you think that buys him credibility?
As I mentioned before on this blog and elsewhere, although I realize your IP address is Sterling Virginia; Britain’s Colin Berry withstood the same treatment as Idema did for doing the same type of work. Was Berry a PMC, too?
It’s not as though Idema is an anomoly. The distinction between them is that Idema has a cabal of people willing to kill him (I’m using Dallas Morning News’ Tod Robberson’s and Joe Cafasso’s verbiage for that), who Pelton actually wrote about:
“Idema didn’t know it, but his rash of threats, lawsuits, and betrayals had created a rapidly growning cabal of former friends who were bound and determined to shut him down. He no longer had to be unjustifiably paranoid about a conspiracy out to get him, since he had forced the situation. A private investigator he screwed out of 15 percent from the proceeds of a successful lawsuit, a humanitarian he’d conned, an author he’d destroyed, an army officer who’d been used, the list goes on…”
It’s not as though people don’t know who all of those individuals are, several of them are pictured above. The private investigator could either be Bill Hagler or Chris Thompson, as both of them have pretended to be that. But that paragraph in addition to the entire chapter on Idema is full of imagination and hyperbole more befitting the writings of the poor science fiction writer, self-proclaimed internet consultant, Wolfram researcher and military analyst, Kathryn the lonely heart Cramer.
To begin with, Thompson admitted under oath that the dollar amount was closer to £415. That would be about 800 USD, to you. But accuracy is not something Pelton is known for; he’s known for being a whining crying pufter.
I could detail each individual, but I already did that in the post, and look forward to taking each one individually and examining the story over time. There is too much going on here to detail it for you right now, Sterling.
£410, or thereabouts. Alright, so my math went awry. ‘T’is late, pip pip
George, I think the one that claimed Jack owed him a percentage of a million dollar lawsuit is Bill Hagler, not Thompson. Hagler was the one that admitted that huge amount was a lie, as I recall. I can see how it’s confusing, though, since some of these people seem to be clones of each other.
Thompson began as a friend of Idema’s, and even helped out with the Hunt For Bin Laden – editing? I’m not sure exactly what he was doing, but he stole from Special Forces Widows…. Thompson has quite a few of his own problems; another guy in the cabal who’s known for beating up women, drugs, booze, pulling a knife on a pizza guy, and impersonating a police officer.
Hagler was in South Carolina with Mariah Blake when they visited Tom Bumback to get into Jack’s office.
But I like this clever post, CN.
There is a great distinction between Jack and PMC’s. PMC’s have some good people in them here and there but by in large are mercs. Period. I haven’t made that distinction explicit with Jack but I have been praying for Jack and company and been posting on it for some time now and have never implied they were mercs. I have always considered his imprisonment treason and a general indicator of the state of the FBI and CIA. It just seems while you make a distinction between contractors and Jack, you leave what a contractor is unsaid. But then this is my first time reading your posts.
I would find it interesting to see any links to Blackwater, “Total” Intel or Booz Allen , etc on this. Not saying they actually exist.
I found your excellent post via google blog for “Jack Idema”. Cao usually has a good updated “what’s going on” with Jack but it seems no one has heard from Jack in some time. I was looking outside my usual circle of search results. Seems you have been posting for some time on Jack but this is the first time I have noticed your blog when searching periodically for “Jack Idema”.
There is prayer and then there wanting to see the effectiveness of one’s prayers even though we don’t always get what we want.
I wouldn’t depend on the IP. They’re not me and I’m not there.
There is a community in which Jack is well known to be a true patriot. Obviously those who are genuine traitors are trying to use him as a lesson. As someone recently said to me: “Yeah. But look what happened to Jack Idema.”
That’s the thing about having no free will. There’s nothing to threaten. And the threats/general terrorism are aimed at a fundamentally different creature than what actually exists, even if that creature is deceived free will does exist.
God is blessing and will bless Jack.
Agreed.
I am not here to demonize the Private Military Contractor, or to support them. Mercs have existed since time immemorial. In Britain they’re referred to a PSC’s or Private Security Companies. They include notable companies like Aegis Defence Services, Armor International, and Sir David Stirling’s Watchguard International, the one that Kevin O’Brien labels as “the model for all future” firms. The British government, has paid over £160m to private security companies (PSCs) since the invasion of Iraq, for a variety of services, among them, the protection of British officials on duty and in transit in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. There is, in fact, a British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC).
The PSC industry has increased tenfold over the past decade, the equivalent of about $4bn (£2.04bn) a year.
Brian Brady wrote at the Scotsman that
The bottom line where Pelton is concerned is- he doesn’t know what the bloody hell he’s talking about, there is a bigger picture than just Blackwater and American PSCs, Sterling.
Jack Idema doesn’t belong lumped in with a group of people who are being paid to do that work. A “merc” is someone who gets paid. Jack Idema doesn’t qualify as a merc or a PSC under that definition of a ‘merc’; he has funded this fight on his own, and lost everything in the process.
The fact that today mercs and/or PSCs are frowned upon by the peace crowd is funny, as they ignore hundreds of years of history.
I haven’t decided what to do with my ‘blogroll’ yet…so I don’t have any other links up, so sorry to disappoint you on that score. Do a search on ‘causal nexus’ and see what comes up. I’ve been around elsewhere, looking at different points of view on this mess, just found wordpress and was delighted that I didn’t have to fork out a shilling to get started here. It is a tremendous improvement over blogspot, and the features are incredible.
Oh, I agree with you wholeheartedly about God. God is blessing and Jack has already been blessed and God continues to bless him. The odds have been against him in this fight, yet he keeps showing up, after the smoke has cleared, the can of petrol has been kicked. He’s lived to tell this tail, and has made some unusual friends in the process who could help the world in fighting this war. Doubtless; I know he is still alive because of his training and experience, and the fact that the little group of naysayers is unrelenting, pissing themselves that he might some day be released, is absobloodylutely aces. I pray that day is close.
Cao, I didn’t see you there. What’s amusing is, I must have approved your comment! Sorry. I was tired when I wrote that, it was late, as it is now. Bloody long days I’ve been having. Hagler, Thompson, they’re both idiots. I’ll take a look on the morrow~the Free Jack Idema Blogburst arrived and I have to get it up.
One more thing before I sign off; your location says a lot about you, and in some cases, where you are has shaped what you believe. It’s important for me to take note of it.
[...] Mar 12th, 2007 by Causal Nexus I’m told I have the wrong David Isenberg in the picture comic strip I did on the smearing Jack people. [...]