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| Afghanistan/South Asia | ||||||
| The man who thinks he's George Clooney | ||||||
| 2004-07-09 | ||||||
| The Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema story, EFL: Yesterday, Afghan security forces and the US military admitted they appeared to have uncovered a freelance counterterrorism mission by bounty hunters, who may have been lured to the country by the prospect of earning multimillion-dollar rewards. At the heart of their investigation is a former American special forces soldier, Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema, who is alleged to have run the private jail and was being questioned last night. Mr Idema, who is said to be always heavily armed, is far from the only ex-military man to be making a living in Kabul, which has an atmosphere redolent of The Third Man, Graham Greene's thriller about postwar Vienna. Many of the private security guards attached to embassies and commercial companies have military histories, either real or imagined. Typically, they can be seen in dark glasses and camouflage gear, sub-machine guns slung over their shoulders as they ride through the city. They are often to be seen at the Mustafa hotel, one of the few bars that sell alcohol to ex-pats, who gather for the hotel's popular roof-top barbecues. Mr Idema, it emerged yesterday, has a colourful past. A volatile former Green Beret with a criminal record in the US, he describes himself as a security adviser. He also claims that he is the person on whom George Clooney's part in the Hollywood film The Peacemaker was based.
While there has been no official explanation of what sort of operation he was running, there are large rewards on offer for the capture of al-Qaida members in Afghanistan, which has led to a boom in the private security business. The biggest reward of all - $25m - remains on offer for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden.
Mr Idema knows all about him, having collaborated with Robin Moore, the author of the book The Hunt for Bin Laden, a gung-ho account, published last year, of the so-far unsuccessful pursuit of the al-Qaida leader. Mr Idema has a chequered history not untypical of some of the ex-military personnel who have been drawn to Kabul. Although the US military authorities would not confirm his record yesterday, he is said to have been a member of the special forces between 1975 and 1992. After leaving the forces, he ran a military equipment firm in the US. He was convicted of wire fraud and other offences in connection with that business in the 90s. One rightwing news website in the US suggests that he was only charged after he refused to cooperate with the FBI and the CIA over information which he claimed he had about weapons-grade nuclear material being sold in Russia to foreign terrorist groups.
This information, gathered when he was in Lithuania, is the source of a legal action that Mr Idema launched against Steven Spielberg's film company DreamWorks SKG. In 2000, he issued a writ against DreamWorks, claiming its 1997 film The Peacemaker, which starred George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, was based on his story. The film is about a maverick American colonel, played by Clooney, who tracks down a Russian nuclear smuggling team. He claimed damages of $130m. The case is ongoing. In the meantime, he had become something of a media security pundit, popping up on television programmes to comment on security matters.
During the war in Afghanistan in 2001, Mr Idema and a number of other former US military members linked up with the Northern Alliance rebel group, who were fighting the Taliban. He offered his services to the media and appeared on American television news programmes after having supposedly found al-Qaida training camp footage in Kabul. When Fox News showed the footage, Mr Idema launched another civil action, seeking $2m damages for supposedly showing the footage without his permission. He also threatened to punch Geraldo Rivera, the controversial Fox News commentator, who, Mr Idema claimed, had messed up the operations of the Northern Alliance by irresponsible reporting.
Mr Idema, who has a reputation in Kabul for volatility, is also the source of much internet gossip on sites used by ex-members of the US special forces, not all of whom would describe themselves as admirers. Now Mr Idema remains in the custody of Afghanistan's intelligence officials. In a country where the legal framework barely exists, his stay could be even longer than that of his detainees.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #5 If his suit on the Peacemaker is still ongoing, that means there has to be something to his claim. Otherwise Spielberg would have had this case thrown out by the judge long ago. That would be peanuts compared to what you'd get for the book and movie rights. Careful, Hollywood just might do that. Except they would buy the story from Osama. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-07-09 3:33:43 PM |
| #4 Im wonder if he has a sawed off Winchester and steely blue eyes. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-07-09 1:42:21 PM |
| #3 Mr Idema ..... A force of one. I kinda like this loose cannon. |
| Posted by: Anonymous5072 2004-07-09 12:45:13 PM |
| #2 Hey. I am going to sue Magnum, PI. That's my story (even though I am only 33...) |
| Posted by: Dragon Fly 2004-07-09 12:08:19 PM |
| #1 He also claims that he is the person on whom George Clooney's part in the Hollywood film The Peacemaker was based. Hey, that was on last night! Man, did it suck. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-07-09 11:50:13 AM |