Ex-Green Beret from NC dies in Mexico; ran private Afghan jail, tortured terror suspects
Ex-Green Beret from NC dies in Mexico; ran private Afghan jail, tortured terror suspects
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, January 25, 2:59 PM
RALEIGH, N.C. Jonathan Jack Idema, a former Green Beret from North Carolina convicted of running a private jail in Afghanistan where he tortured terrorism suspects, has died. He was 55.
The director-general of police in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Arturo Olivares Mendiola, said Idema died of AIDS on Saturday. No one has shown up to claim his body from the medical examiners office, Mendiola said.
Idema had moved to Mexico at some point after being released from prison in Afghanistan in 2007, when he was pardoned by President Hamid Karzai as part of a general amnesty.
A native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Idema joined the Army in 1975 and was an active duty Special Forces soldier until 1978. He eventually settled in Fayetteville and began a long series of bizarre and sometimes criminal misadventures while pursuing the national spotlight.
More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ex-green-beret-from-nc-dies-in-mexico-ran-private-afghan-jail-tortured-terror-suspects/2012/01/25/gIQAQxYuQQ_story.html
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Sorry to read about anyone's passing, even one of the many privatized black ops Erik Prince pseudo intel types.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)and turned war into his personal playground and profit source (most likely as an unofficial CIA freelancer)...
My sympathies go to the people he tortured and swindled over his long megalomaniacal career
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Well, he's called a con man here:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/25/3392149/notorious-north-carolina-con-man.html
He's all over the DU archives:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2019670
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x868174
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1943839
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x868247
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x996845
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x726667
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1355926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2403270
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x810099
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x770603