Does anyone here know the story of Jonathan idema king of stolen valor

wiki
king of stolen valor documentary YouTube
Just got done watching this and the guy is definitely a piece of shite, dude went to Afghanistan pretending to be some special forces advisor to afghan forces, ends up torturing a bunch of innocent people, one of the people he tortured ended up being an afghan judge, dude ends up going to jail in Afghanistan, whenever he gets out he takes his wife down to Mexico, and gives her aids that he got from a Mexican trans person. How was he able to run around Afghanistan pretending to be a part of coalition forces, even having coalition forces giving him troop support is insane. It really makes you wonder what the background check process is in a war zone. This dude was on fox news giving reports about what was going on with no connection to military. Im thinking about taking a trip to Ukraine and start arresting random people for money.

quote:

---

In September 2004, Idema was found guilty of running an unlawful and unsanctioned private prison in Afghanistan and torturing Afghan citizens. At the time, Idema had been falsely portraying himself as a U.S. government-sponsored special forces operative on a mission to apprehend terrorists. The U.S. government repeatedly denied most of his claims.[4]

---

quote:

---

Formerly a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, Idema never saw combat and left the military in 1984 to form several companies centered around counterterrorism and internal security.

---

quote:

---

Idema served three years of a ten-year sentence.[5] He was released early by Afghanistan's then-president Hamid Karzai in April 2007, and left Afghanistan in early June for Mexico, where he died of AIDS in late January 2012.[1][2][3]

---

quote:

---

Idema repeatedly stated that he acquired 12 years of Special Forces service, 22 years of combat training, and 18 years of covert operations experience. However, per official records, Idema's military career was short and contained several reports of poor performance, with no recorded combat experience.[9]

---

quote:

---

In 1993 Idema was contracted to train police forces in Lithuania. After his return, he contacted officials from both the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), claiming to have uncovered a conspiracy by the Russian mafia to smuggle nuclear materials out of Lithuania. According to Idema, FBI agents demanded he provide the names of his contacts. He refused, claiming that the FBI was infiltrated by KGB agents and that his sources would have been killed.[7

---

quote:

---

Idema was also involved in multiple lawsuits,[2][3] including suits against journalists, an aid worker, a colonel, his father,[29] and the U.S. government. A prominent lawsuit filed by Idema against Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks Studios contended that Idema was the basis of a character in the 1997 Dreamworks film The Peacemaker.[30] The claim was dismissed, and Idema was ordered to pay $267,079 in legal fees.[2][3

---

quote:

---

The United States was not the only government that had contact with Idema in Afghanistan. On three occasions, Idema tricked the Canadian-led NATO mission into providing explosives experts and bomb-sniffing dogs.[43] According to a spokesman for the ISAF, Idema called for and received technical support after his vigilante team raided compounds on the 20th, 22nd, and 24th of June 2004. ISAF personnel believed they were "providing legitimate support to a legitimate security agency."[43]

---

quote:

---

After leaving Afghanistan, Idema moved to Mexico to become a proprietor of Blue Lagoon Boat Tours out of Bacalar, on the Yucatán Peninsula, under the name of "Black Jack".[2] He was charged by his former girlfriend Penny Alesi of infecting her with HIV when he knew he had the disease.[2][61] His arrest warrant and publicity surrounding charges were picked up by Mexican and American media.[62]

Although he was known to engage in sexual relations with men and transvestites, he claimed to have had nine wives, according to Alesi, although only one of them may have been legal. At his death, he was listed as having no immediate survivors.[2]

---

quote:

---

Idema sold tapes to many publishers that he claimed showed an Al-Qaeda training camp in action. The tapes showed men in camouflaged tunics and ski masks storming buildings, practicing drive-by shootings, and attacking golf courses. CBS bought the right to broadcast the tapes before any other network. They were used in a 60 Minutes II episode called "Heart of Darkness" in January 2002.[20] CBS presented Idema and the tapes he supplied as reliable.[70]

Idema made more money from the same tapes when he sold the rights to rebroadcast the Al-Qaeda training camp footage with still pictures to The Boston Globe, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, BBC, and others.[20]

The authenticity of the several hours of tape is disputed because the supposed tactics shown are not used by Al-Qaeda. The "Al-Qaeda" fighters shown in the footage also occasionally communicated in English and laughed, providing credence

---