Through email I’ve been in touch with the intrepid Rodney Stich, after having purchased his kindle books and reading Terrorism in America: External and Internal Terrorists, and Defrauding America. He has written numerous books and his contacts in the intelligence community, and his knowledge of it are both vast. He gave me permission to re-publish here from “Terrorism Against America: External and Internal Terrorists” the portion he wrote about Jack Idema.
Stich wrote to me:
Every courageous person I have been associated with that sought to prevent some of America’s tragedies by exposing high level corruption suffered serious personal and financial tragedies.
That is how those of us who knew the real Jack Idema still see him today; a courageous person who sought to prevent some tragedies. He did it in the U.S., and he did it in Afghanistan and before that in numerous other countries. I have included some video at the end to further punctuate the story he tells. Thank-you for everything, Mr. Stich, and God bless you. He warns:
Until the public shifts some of their attention from trivia to the hard core corruption, the continuing escalation of tragic consequences that I have witnessed and sought to document will continue. I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel, and can only assume the American public is getting what they helped bring on by the obsession with trivia.
Stich is confidant to dozens of former government agents, former drug smugglers and former Mafia figures. His sources include present and former agents of the FBI, DEA, Customs and CIA. Stich has, by writing a number of non fiction books about the octopus-like corruption in the United States, paid an incredible personal price for having done so, the consequences of which, he writes, will follow him to his grave. Scroll down to the end to find more information on Stich.
The following is the story Stich put together on Idema. It’s a story that a circle of people, Idema’s ex-girlfriend included, are trying to systematically erase from the internet. It is a story that a number of people tried to prevent us from telling back in 2004 and beyond. It is probably the main reason my website was hacked in 2011.
This all took place long before his ex-girlfriend ever was on the scene and had ever met Idema. These events took place long before I ever came to know him in 2004. This stands as another record of the type of man he was, and what he tried to accomplish in the face of strong destructive political forces that sought to manipulate him. He withstood them, and persevered. But in the process, he paid a terrible personal price.
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An American Green Beret described to me what he discovered about suitcase nuclear devices being removed from former Soviet weapon warehouses and sold to terrorists and rogue states. He learned about this situation while training and advising Lithuanian and Russian military and police personnel.
J. Keith Idema had been highly trained in the U.S. Army’s Green Berets and Special Operations sections. Although Idema denies it, inside sources confirm that in the 1980s Idema was sheep-dipped, acting as a civilian but actually still connected to the Army’s Special Operations Forces, being used in a covert role. In this clandestine capacity, he operated a private training school for counter-terrorism and hostage rescue, operating under the group name of Counter Group Academy.
His students came from U.S. agencies and from foreign governments. They included persons from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Navy SEALs, Department of the Interior, the SWAT teams for the Statute of Liberty re-dedication, and the elite guard group for the U.S. Mission in Haiti. He later conducted counter-terrorist conventions called Spec-Ops Expo, which had frequent enrollments by military and intelligence personnel from throughout the world.
His expertise in counter-terrorism caused military and intelligence people to invite Idema to conduct teaching seminars in Moscow and Lithuania. They wanted to learn more about western style police, military, and counter-terrorism techniques.
Nuclear Material and Suitcase Nuclear Devices Sold to Terrorists
During these visits and training sessions Idema became friendly with Russian and Lithuanian dignitaries, who looked upon Idema as a celebrity because of his Special Forces background and counter-terrorism expertise. This friendship caused several of them to provide Idema with information about nuclear weapon sales by Russia’s KGB and Russian Mafia figures. Idema learned from these sources that Russia’s suitcase nuclear devices were disappearing and were being sold by Russian intelligence and crime groups to terrorist groups.
Smuggling of Suitcase Nuclear Bombs
The Lithuanian officials who provided this information to Idema first learned about the shipment of Russian nuclear material and suitcase nuclear devices after eight Lithuanian border guards were shot dead, execution style, on August 1, 1991.
The senior commissar of the Lithuanian Interpol and Criminal Police, Juozas Rimkevicius, conducted an investigation with Idema. Idema believed that the guards were killed because they stumbled upon a shipment of nuclear material being shipped from Russia through Lithuania. Further, that the guards were killed by Russian security forces known as OMON, and that they were protecting or directly involved in the smuggling operation. The nuclear material and the portable nuclear devices were being taken from Russian nuclear storage areas and sold to terrorists.
Several months later, Lithuanian police arrested two men who had in their possession a Russian made AKS-74 rifle that had the serial number belonging to one of the murdered Lithuanian guards. The men claimed to be part of the Communist underground, but Rimkevicius believed they were part of OMON.
The two arrested men revealed that the shipment was one of many that had gone through Lithuania in recent months and that another shipment was scheduled for April 1991. A Lithuanian anti-terrorist commander under (ARAS) then waited for the scheduled shipment. When they spotted two trucks crossing the border with Russia they followed until reaching a designated point where the trucks were halted.
Upon investigating the truck’s contents, they found crates filled with hundreds of pieces of a shiny bright metal (beryllium), tubes, cylinders and undistinguishable parts, some of which contained parts of four disassembled Soviet portable nuclear bombs (SADMs) and uranium (U-235) for detonating them.
Rimkevicius discovered from his informants in OMON and the Russian Mafia that the smuggling operation had continued after the Soviet Union began disintegrating, and that KGB officials and GRU operatives were key players in the smuggling operations, and working with Russian mobsters.
Developing Information About Terrorist Activities
Rimkevicius and Idema became good friends. Over a period of years Rimkevicius spoke at Idema’s high-level Special Operations conferences in the United States and Europe. This friendship caused Rimkevicius to reveal a smuggling operation in the Baltic republics that he was about to crack. Simultaneously, other sources were providing Idema information about the Abu Nidal and Hezbollah terrorists, and the assistance provided to these two groups by the Russian KGB. Rimkevicius discovered that OMON was working with the KGB, organized crime, and such terrorist groups as the as the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
KGB Providing Evidence of Nuclear Weapon Sales
While Idema was in Moscow in the summer of 1992, he was approached by a high ranking KGB officer in the Soviet ministry who showed Idema several dozen highly classified documents revealing the removal of several dozen SADMs from the Soviet nuclear inventory under Russian Army control and transferred to the KGB 12th Directorate. This source described to Idema how the smuggling operation worked and how the nuclear weapons were sold to terrorist states like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. This source told Idema that he would pass the documents to a Lithuanian friend who would then give them to Rimkevicius.
At the same time, Rimkevicius was learning about other parts of the smuggling operation from additional sources. In April 1993 Rimkevicius was informed of another shipment of nuclear material that had already crossed the Byelorussian border into Lithuania and that it had been delayed in Lithuania. The following month, Rimkevicius discovered its location at the Stock Innovation Bank in Vilnius.
Rimkevicius, and a Lithuanian Commando squad Idema trained, discovered 27 crates containing beryllium pieces, cylinders, and uranium plugs, similar to what he had discovered a year earlier in April 1992. These were parts of portable nuclear devices. The bank claimed it was holding the material as collateral for a loan VEKA was seeking to obtain, and it could be assumed that the bank was aware of the nuclear material in the crates and possibly that the material was for portable nuclear devices. But, Idema felt the bank could have been involved and merely one more front company the KGB was using.
It was learned that the nuclear material came from a Russian nuclear research facility at Obninsk, Russia, and had been sold to the A.M.I. Trading Company in Yekinterinberg, located east of the Ural Mountains on the fringes of Siberia. A.M.I. had shipped the nuclear material to another company, the VEKA Trading Company in Lithuania.
The packing list enclosed with the shipment did not list the ultimate destination. International law requires that dual use material such as beryllium must have an approved end user certificate.
In the fall of 1993, Idema and Rimkevicius discovered from a KGB source in Moscow that the KGB source had documents showing the trail and eventual destination of the stolen nuclear weapons and materials. Idema met with the source in a country outside of Russia and Lithuania and examined the documents. They revealed the logistics of the nuclear bomb smuggling activities and the sources willing to sell them.
Key KGB officials would authorize the removal of SADMs from the Soviet 12th Directorate, supposedly for shipment to nuclear research facilities for dismantling purposes. The KGB officials used phony trading companies that worked with the Russian Mafia to transport the stolen material. The trading companies bought beryllium and other needed material from Russian research facilities.
Under this arrangement, the records showed the nuclear weapons as being properly disposed of, rather than missing or stolen. Idema and Rimkevicius discovered documents revealing that several shipments of nuclear explosive material, and suitcase nuclear bombs, went through Turkey and on to Saddam Hussein in Iraq and terrorists in Qom, Iran. Of the 12 nuclear shipments they knew were sent through Lithuania by 1997, two were intercepted.
The KGB officials arranged for the SADMs and U-235 to be packed inside the crates of beryllium. A combination of Russian criminal groups, KGB officials, and Soviet Special Forces, then shipped the material through Lithuania via surface transportation to terrorist groups or foreign governments.
Capable of Blowing Up Large Segments of Major Cities
Idema knew that the typical portable SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munitions), as he refers to them, could level a small city and emit radiation that would eventually kill tens of thousands. The former Soviet Union provided these to their Soviet Special Forces teams, known as Spetsnatz. Hundreds of them were assembled and in the Soviet military inventory when the Soviet Union collapsed.
United States Suitcase Nuclear Bombs
The United States also has suitcase nuclear devices, and it is estimated that more than three hundred of them were built. They weigh less than 100 pounds and can be carried on a backpack or in a suitcase. These small nuclear devices can be used in the form of a suitcase, artillery shell, or carried in several backpacks. The United States assembled hundreds of these small but powerful nuclear devices, which were made available to the U.S. Army Special Forces, known as the Green Berets. Most of the U.S. SADMs were assigned to teams in the 10th Special Forces Group (ABN) and its secret commando unit called “Det-A.”
The training for SADM teams was located at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, the home of the 10th Special Forces Group and ASA, the Army’s intelligence and security spy command known as ASA. The United States’ plans for these weapons were to sneak behind enemy lines and blow up strategic sites such as dams, bridges, air bases, and cities. It is known that Idema was on a SADM team assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group during the cold war in the 70’s.
Providing Information to the United States
Rimkevicius and other intelligence sources in the Baltic States told Idema that they wanted to provide their information to the United States, but not to the FBI or CIA. High-ranking agents in the former Soviet Union told Idema that the KGB had sources deep inside the FBI and that they should not be present when Lithuanian officials presented information to Pentagon and DIA personnel.
Idema said that although FBI personnel were not invited, they showed up at this 1992 meeting, which distressed both Idema and the Lithuanians because of their knowledge that there were FBI agents actively spying for Russia.
At this July and other meetings, Rimkevicius and Idema described the roles played by Russia’s OMON, the Russian Mafia, and terrorist groups in Lithuania. Because of the moles in the FBI and distrust of the FBI personnel, they did not reveal the names of their sources. Rimkevicius and Idema knew that U.S. intelligence agencies had been infiltrated by the KGB. Attending some of Idema’s meetings with Department of Defense officials were FBI agents Earl Edwin Pitts and Robert Philip Hanssen.
Start of Justice Department Retaliation Against Idema
FBI personnel demanded that Rimkevicius and Idema give them the names of confidential sources and informants, which they refused to do. If this information were misused, it would result in the deaths of sources providing the information to Idema and Rimkevicius. Several years later, several of the moles were exposed. Two of them were FBI agents Pitts and Hanssen, both of whom leaked the names of Russian sources to the KGB, causing several to be executed.
The long-standing rivalry between the various government agencies became obvious to Idema and the Lithuanian officials, as I had learned over the years. This rivalry was especially strong between the DEA, Customs, and Justice Department. It has resulted in people working undercover for one agency, such as Customs, being charged with criminal offenses by Justice Department prosecutors.
Interagency rivalry again surfaced. Both the CIA and FBI wanted to be the first to get Idema‘s information and take credit for it.
Blocking Discovery of Source and Destination of Nuclear Devices
Based upon the partial information they received from Idema at a clandestine meeting in the Washington Hyatt Hotel in January 1993, the CIA placed large numbers of agents in Lithuania and tried to pit Rimkevicius against Idema. When the FBI learned about this, they did the same, which then became known to the smugglers of nuclear material and weapons. The smugglers then changed their logistics and destroyed Idema’s chance to halt the smuggling and to learn who had already received nuclear material that would probably be used against the United States.
Repeatedly Reporting Soviet Moles in U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Idema stated, in 1994, on radio and television shows, and in federal court documents, that the CIA and FBI Foreign Counterintelligence offices in New York were compromised by the KGB and infiltrated by double agents. Idema had first sought to reveal this information to government agencies, but no one in government acted on it.
Later, in 1994, defectors began providing information revealing that FBI and CIA agents were selling secrets to Russia. CIA officer Aldrich Ames was arrested on April 4, 1994 on espionage charges. CIA officer Harold J. Nicholson was arrested in November 1996. And FBI agent Earl Edwin Pitts was arrested on December 18, 1996. All were charged with being spies for the Soviet Union. Long before being exposed, FBI Agent Pitts sought to obtain Idema‘s sources in Russia and Lithuania.
Standard Off-the-Shelf Justice Department Tactic
Justice Department personnel, and particularly those in the FBI division, were angry about Idema‘s refusal to provide them the names of his confidential informants and sources, which made them look bad. Further, Idema was revealing that the FBI had Soviet moles and it was possible that one or more of these moles wanted to silence Idema before an investigation revealed their treasonous activities.
Seeking to force Idema to disclose the information they wanted, they filed false wire fraud charges against Idema and his wife, Dawn Glosson. Idema felt that the FBI wanted him out of the picture as he was unintentionally interfering with their plans for obtaining a greater role in international operations and also threatened to expose the Soviet moles in the FBI.
Among the FBI agents of whom Idema thought poorly was a senior FBI special agent in the New York office, William Zinnikas, who was on the counter-intelligence team. Zinnikas was one of the agents who Idema felt was responsible for filing false charges against Idema. It was Zinnikas, who was working with Soviet agent Philip Hanssen, who then double-crossed him when Idema acquiesced in providing information to the FBI in return for dropping sham charges against Idema’s wife, Dawn, and releasing her from federal prison. Idema filed a federal lawsuit against him, Idema v. Zinnikas, et al., (96-CV-2841) when Zinnikas violated their agreement to release his wife.
Justice Department personnel have many sources at their disposal to silence anyone who threatens to expose their corrupt acts. Using insider information, they can force people or companies into bankruptcy and then with their influence on federal judges insure that their assets be liquidated in a manner that leaves the victims penniless. They have law firms, public relations firms, and others that will carry out whatever scheme they concoct.
They can pay people, or force people, to falsely testify against a particular target. They can file sham charges against a person or company and rely upon naive jurors to find the victim guilty. Or, they can simply start investigating a person or company and through such investigation inflict great personal or financial harm. And many other tactics are used.
While Idema was working in Eastern Europe, two former employees started a business in Fayetteville, NC. Idema claimed that one of these former employees forged his wife’s signature to a credit letter and then after obtaining merchandise based on the credit letter, the person disappeared without paying for the merchandise acquired on the basis of the credit letter with Dawn Glosson’s forged signature.
Idema said that these two part-time employees utilized a company owned by Idema, Idema Combat Systems (which made military hostage rescue gear for almost every special operations unit in the free world), for providing a credit reference. The linchpin for the scam was the credit letter bearing Idema’s wife’s forged signature.
This was just the opportunity Justice Department prosecutors needed to fabricate false charges against Idema and force him to cooperate in the quest to uncover his intelligence sources in the former Soviet Union. They had been trying to implicate Idema in everything from drugs to machineguns, and when all that failed, they charged him wire fraud, based upon the forged signature on the credit letter.
The first jury trial against Idema and his wife resulted in their acquittal, but the second jury believed everything the Justice Department prosecutors said and held Idema and his wife guilty of aiding and abetting wire fraud.
After Idema was convicted, reams of exculpatory evidence surfaced to clear Idema and his wife. First, the credit letter was analyzed by Albert Lyter and renowned forensic examiner from Federal Forensic Laboratories. Lyter, one of the US Treasury’s top forensic specialists, determined that Idema’s wife did NOT sign the credit letter.
It was signed by a government witness named Andrea Graves. Then ATF reports were discovered that virtually cleared Idema and contradicted much of the FBI’s case. Several FBI witnesses later changed their story. Two witnesses admitted perjury, and a local Deputy Sheriff named Ricky O’Briant, who was working with the FBI, was shown to have committed perjury when confidential police records later surfaced. In fact, that was only the beginning. The more the media investigated, the more evidence of Idema’s innocence surfaced. CBS News investigators even found fax machines that the real culprits used to set Idema up.
Many people came forward showing that Idema did not commit the crime. Others wrote letters in support of Idema. U.S. District Judge Terrance Boyle, who was acting to insure the success of the Justice Department scheme, ignored their letters and the newly discovered evidence.
In Lithuania, Rimkevicius, learning of the charges against Idema, tried to get the charges dropped by refusing to allow any cooperation between the U.S. and his Lithuanian commandos regarding the smuggling of nuclear devices. Idema continued to provide additional information about terrorist activities to his Pentagon contacts. But Pentagon officials believed that the information was too sensitive and involved national security issues, and should only be made known to the CIA.
Letters Sent to Sentencing Judge on Idema‘s behalf Colonel William I. Chadwick, Director, Combat Development Division, Headquarters, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, wrote in a March 31, 1994 letter to Judge Terrence W Boyle, U.S. District Judge, at Elizabeth City, North Carolina:
Talk Show Host Barry Farber wrote on April 20, 1997:
From Lithuania, Juozas Rimkvicius, Commander and Chief, National police/ARAS Commandos and Interpol, Lithuanian Republic Ministry of Internal Affairs, wrote in a May 26, 1994 official letter to Judge Boyle:
Major, now Colonel, Ricky D. Lester, U.S. Special Operations, Task Force 160 (the US’s most classified helicopter unit), wrote:
Ted Kavanau, who spent three decades in journalism, was a CNN Vice President, who won the Emmy Award numerous times for top journalist, wrote in a September 30, 1995, letter:
Retired U.S. Army Special Forces Major Jim Morris sent a September 22, 1995, letter to Senator Arlen Specter (the same senator who repeatedly covered up for the many criminal activities that were described to him in letters that I and some of my other sources wrote to him). Included in that letter were the following comments:
Judges and Prosecutors Protecting the Corrupt System There were many other letters, but the federal judge ignored these. He also ignored one of the most compelling letters ever sent in connection with a FBI criminal case. Asking for Idema‘s release, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, Timothy A. Connolly, wrote to Judge Boyle on official Department of Defense letterhead the following comments:
When the federal judge ignored Connolly’s March 1994 letter, the Assistant Secretary of Defense flew to Idema‘s sentencing hearing in person and asked Idema be released. No sooner had Connolly walked out of the courtroom before he was surrounded by FBI agents threatening to investigate the finances of his Pentagon office. Connolly was un-swayed, he meet with the director of the FBI, and tried to talk some sense into them. He found little cooperation, and the FBI assured him that Idema would break eventually. Connolly assured them he would not. Idema never did.
I discovered over the years that it is common for prosecutors and judges to work together to go after a particular target, usually someone exposing corruption in any part of government. It was done to Richard Taus when he continued to report CIA related drug smuggling and other crimes involving federal officials, and many others who I describe in my various books.
Federal Judge Supporting Corrupt Justice Department Prosecutors
Not only did U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle ignore these letters, and the obvious obstruction of justice tactics by his legal compatriots in the Justice Department, but he sentenced Idema to 20 years in prison. Keith said the federal sentencing guidelines call for 6 to 12 months for similar offenses. The draconian prison sentences imposed to silence those who expose corruption in federal government is a common tactic to keep the information from the public.
Losing His Wife and All Worldly Possessions
Idema‘s fight with FBI personnel not only brought about his incarceration, but he lost his home, his businesses, everything. Eventually—denied all communication with his wife for years by Boyle’s court orders, Idema’s wife remarried. Unfortunately, this is the standard result when a government insider attempts to protect the public’s interest by revealing corrupt personnel or practices in government.
A December 23 1986 article in the Washington Post, with a picture of a huge crater caused by a Project Sedan nuclear test explosion, stated:
More than 30 years ago, the United States developed a lightweight nuclear device and then “extensively practiced” delivering it to an enemy harbor using a navy or Marine parachutist, according to materials released yesterday by the Departments of Energy and Defense. Roger Heusser of the Energy Department’s Office of Declassification, acknowledged yesterday that the 60-pound weapon, part of the U.S. arsenal from 1963 through 1989, could be seen as a precedent for a possible current-day terrorist nuclear weapon.
Among the more spectacular film released yesterday was the 1962 test entitled Operation Sedan, which saw a 104 kiloton device exploded to determine whether atomic detonations could be used for peaceful purposes such as moving earth to dig canals or create harbors. One of many so-called Plowshare experiments, Sedan left a crater 320 feet deep and 1,2080 feet in diameter.
Confirming the Existence of Operation Peregrine
Idema had learned of my attempts to expose corrupt government personnel and we started to correspond. Idema wrote in one letter that “my loyalty is to the military; my enemies are the Department of Justice, especially the FBI. I consider the CIA neutral.” He confirmed in a June 1997 letter one of the operations that I had described several years earlier in Defrauding America:
Regarding Peregrine, I’m not so sure I want to see any more info about Peregrine, Counterr Group, or the IDDC, etc., in print. I believe that what they/we were doing was the right thing to do, and we were soldiers, at war, and righteous. Wrong is things like the FBI’s COINTELPRO. I’ll only confirm their existence.
In an April 2, 1997, letter, Idema wrote, “It has been my dream to walk into the U.S. Senate and testify before them the real story of nukes, Iraq, and KGB/FBI, and how [Soviet mole] Pitts was really discovered.”
Idema Did Not Trust U.S. Media
Idema felt that government officials control the mainstream media, a discovery that I made over many years, and which has been the subject of several books by media insiders.
Before the FBI acted to silence him, Idema briefed many people on the dangers of the ongoing theft of nuclear material and the suitcase nuclear devices. In letters commencing in early 1997 Idema told me that in March and April of 1992 he briefed Pentagon personnel, and in December 1992 and January 1993, he briefed CIA personnel. He directly informed President Bill Clinton‘s legal counsel, Bernard Nussbaum, in 1993. He briefed the Special Operations community in June 1993. And he met with ex-Special Forces associates, now working for the FBI, numerous times in 1993, warning them of FBI double agents.
One was FBI Agent Gary Rohen, Idema‘s old team leader, who remained silent, receiving a promotion and job as head of the Bureau’s Emergency Management & Disaster Preparation Office. Idema hand-carried secret messages from Moscow to Top Secret people in the U.S. intelligence community revealing terrorist activities, the existence of Soviet spies in the FBI, and KGB sales of portable backpack nuclear weapons (SADMs) to Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. None showed any reaction or interest, even after Justice Department prosecutors later acted to silence him.
Further Corroboration of Information Provided to Me Earlier
Idema‘s April 15, 1997, letter referred to the book that I sent him, the second edition of Defrauding America: “I received your book. Thanks very much. I didn’t plan on reading it for a few days, but when I started to glance through it I was so enthralled that I could not put it down—it’s great! Especially for people like us (intelligence community).” Referring to my reference to Peregrine International, Idema wrote in his April 15, 1997, letter of the sister organizations:
Counter Group Associate (aka Counter Group Academy—aka The U.S. Counter Terrorist Group): The first paragraph on page 605 was fairly accurate but it was a much bigger operation than that. I was the director of the organization (CGA) for about five years. Counter is still operating. I only tell you this so you may check out my bonifides with whoever your source was for that information. I do not tell you for the purpose of exposing Counter—since I still believe in it’s purpose, men, mission (although we were frequently misused). Understand that my enemy is the DOJ and not the U.S. military to whom I remain totally loyal, as they have remained totally loyal to me…
I still have extensive contacts and sources in the Special Operations and intelligence community that trust me and will give me anything because I did five years in prison and never sold out any of them, as did my good friend (but I don’t blame him for doing it) Dick Marchenko—he had his reasons for what he did exposing; I have mine for the way I will handle it.
Media Sources Confirmed Idema’s Credibility and Truthfulness
Among the people who knew Idema and his activities, with whom I was in contact, was Gary Scurka. He had worked as a television producer for CBS. During a May 18, 1997, conversation, he confirmed much of what Idema wrote to me, that Idema ran special operations exposition shows twice a year to which U.S. and foreign military dignitaries enrolled; that Idema was clandestinely operated for the military, yet appeared as a private citizen and businessman; and that he was falsely prosecuted by Justice Department prosecutors. He explained being very familiar with Idema, his activities, and his European sources, and how his television investigators had traveled to Lithuania, met people who knew Idema, who were trained by him, and confirmed what Idema told me. Scurka stated:
I heard from a very high up person in the Pentagon (the Assistant Secretary of Defense) several years ago at one of the meetings that was held in July 1992 in the Pentagon. In attendance also were the CIA and the FBI. Keith refused to provide information to them, stating he would provide information only to Pentagon personnel. When Keith refused to cooperate with anyone but Pentagon personnel, there was bad blood.
After the meeting was over, this senior official who I am in contact with told me that CIA personnel came up to him and said, “This guy’s full of shit.” And the Pentagon guy said, “Well, how do you know?” The CIA really tried to downplay his information. But my source told me, a few weeks later, that the CIA then “flooded Lithuania with agents,” rousting Keith’s sources trying to find out information. Were people’s lives put in danger? Lo and behold, here is this former sergeant in the Green Berets talking to Loren Fausbit (sp?) and talking to Interpol and talking to organized crime people. I don’t think the CIA and FBI liked that very much.
One of my first meetings with Keith in North Carolina, while I was working for CBS, tthis would have been April or May of 1994, he identified for me that the New York Counter Intelligence & Terrorism Office was compromised. There is obviously a lot to Idema‘s story. I haven’t confirmed it all, but an awful lot of it I have. And I’ve been to Lithuania twice. Keith supplied all of the information to me that ran on CBS 60 Minutes.
He did link organized crime and officials to the nuclear trade smuggling. He did take this information to the Pentagon; the CIA and FBI were indeed aware of this. They did go to Lithuania, caused some trouble there. And there’s a great deal of evidence now that strongly suggests that Keith was set up for the charge that he’s now in prison for. Those things I’m quite sure of. Keith’s very sensitive about being in Black Ops and he will not comment on that. But it sure looks like it. He dislikes people who kinda just came out and spilled their guts.
Mr. Idema arranged for Lithuanian Intelligence sources to brief the Department of Defense at the Pentagon in July of 1992 on Russian terrorist activity. After Idema’s portion of the briefing Department of Justice personnel requested his assistance. US State Department personnel requested he terminate his activities inside Lithuania and the former Soviet Union. This was the result of a turf war between the FBI, CIA, and US State Department.
Senior officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including Larry Potts and Danny Coulsen, met with Idema and Russian diplomats in December 1992. Shortly thereafter FBI requested his assistance again. Mr. Idema made it clear he would only work with the Department of Defense agencies. The FBI began concerted effort to “squeeze” Idema for the names of the intelligence sources he had sworn to protect.
Special Agent William Zinnikas of the FBI’s New York Counter Intelligence Office continued to pressure Idema, and used Judge Boyle to make it stick and increase his punishment.
[Double Agents Were Later Discovered in the FBI]
Scurka told how the New York FBI office of counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism particularly went after Idema to learn the names of his covert sources. One of these agents was special agent Pitts, formerly of the FBI’s New York Russian Squad, who later pled guilty to spying for the Russians, and that Pitts was an influencing force in the conviction against Idema. While Idema was in prison on the bogus Justice Department charges, he provided important information to several of the broadcast and print media concerning the suitcase nuclear bombs, in order to expose the FBI’s wrongful actions. This information included top-secret Russian documents and referrals to Russian and Lithuanian personnel who had provided Idema with insider information on the theft of the suitcase nuclear devices.
As a result of Idema‘s information, in June 1996, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association (IRE) awarded CBS 60 Minutes, U.S. News & World Report, and Gary Scurka of Enterprise Telefilms, the top award for the most outstanding story and investigative report of the year.
The Perfect Terrorist Weapon
On Eye To Eye letterhead dated October 4, 1994, Gary Scurka sent to Idema‘s wife, Dawn, a letter about the story that that would eventually air on CBS 60 Minutes in October 1995.
Connie Chung Eye-To-Eye Selective Exposure
The story, known behind closed doors as The Vilinus Brief, was broadcast based upon information and documentation provided by Idema and a key official in the Lithuanian Criminal police agency, making reference to Idema and the Lithuanian official and their clash with the FBI and CIA as it related to the nuclear devices.
The Vilnius Brief stated, “According to a source in the U.S. Army Special Operations, the most common SADM deployed in Europe had an explosive yield of 6.5 thousand tons (kilotons) of TNT. According to a report prepared by the International Strategy Associates, the Eye To Eye report stated that Soviet SADMs have a destructive yield of between one to ten kilotons and contains about two kilos (less than five pounds) of highly enriched uranium.
The Eye-To-Eye report stated that during this time, Idema, who was supposed to be in the Army reserves, was assigned to various positions at active duty units, including the Army’s top secret SOT course at the classified installation where “blue light,” the forerunner to the Delta Forces was founded. SOT is where the Special Forces trained their elite Ninja-type commando teams. In 1983, Idema’s job was evaluating the instructors at the most classified counter-terrorism school in the world.
An article in the San Francisco Chronicle (July 1, 1997) titled, “Pair Allegedly Tried to Sell Soviet Nukes,”stated:
The Perfect Terrorist Weapon
CBS’s 60-Minute show on September 7, 1997, addressed the suitcase nuclear bombs under the heading, The Perfect Terrorist Weapon. The program omitted all reference to Idema, who had provided much of the information, documentation, and referrals to Russian and Lithuanian military personnel. Despite the gravity of the subject, the program was limited to the standard few minutes, and centered on the statements made by general Alexander Lebed, who 60-Minutes described in the following manner:
The producers of the CBS 60-Minutes show were Andrew and Leslie Cockburn. They later sold Idema‘s story to Steven Spielberg and it became the first film released by Spielberg’s newly formed DreamWorks Studios. The blockbuster film was called The Peacemaker, and starred George Clooney as a renegade Green Beret chasing backpack nuclear weapons and terrorists in Eastern Europe.
Clooney’s character, Tom Devoe, appeared in his opening scene testifying in a Congressional hearing about his alleged illegal activities. Spielberg’s film, which did not acknowledge being based on Idema, differed from Idema’s story and painted the Clinton administration as being competent in the war on nuclear smuggling.
More Reports
A Los Angeles Times article (September 9, 1997) was titled, “Ex-general says Russia lost 100 portable nuclear bombs.” MOSCOW—Alexander Lebed, the former Russian general and presidential hopeful, has been broadcasting his claim over the past week that Russia has lost track of 100 nuclear bombs the size of suitcases. “A very thorough investigation is necessary,” Lebed reiterated Monday. “The state of nuclear security in Russia poses a danger to the whole world.”
In an interview with CBS “60-Minutes,” aired Sunday, Lebed said the suitcase bombs were ideal weapons for terrorists because they could be armed and detonated by a single person within half an hour. One of the one-kiloton bombs cold kill 100,000 people, he said. Of 250 suitcase devices made by the Soviet Union, he said, 100 are unaccounted for.
On Monday, Lebed told Interfax news service in Moscow that he had learned of the existence of the bombs 11 months ago when he was Yeltsin’s security adviser. Lebed said the suitcase bombs, measuring about 23 inches by 16 inches and 8 inches wide, were deployed by the Soviet Union in special brigades in some of the empire’s remote regions. After the breakup of the Soviet state, many of the suitcases vanished in what became independent republics, where they could fall into the hands of terrorists, he said.
Lebed’s American broadcast brought denunciations from a host of officials, including Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who called his contention “absolutely impossible.”
Russian General Confirming Stolen Suitcase Nuclear Bombs
A September 14, 1997, newspaper article stated:
Two days later Idema was released from federal prison. He was secretly put in an unmarked sedan inside a Bureau of Prison’s garage and driven to Detroit, avoiding any possible media reporters. Idema ceased providing me information after that which he had promised earlier to provide.
Continuing the decades of lying to the people, Washington officials said they had no information that any of Russia’s nuclear weapons, whatever their size, have been offered for sale on the world’s black market.
A Christian Science article (April 2002) stated: The Federal Bureau of Investigation missed multiple warnings about spy Robert Hanssen … Russia complained that a “disaffected agent,” later identified as Hanssen, tried to sell US secrets in 1993, eight years before his arrest. In 1990, Hanssen’s brother-in-law, also an FBI agent, warned that he had suspiciously large sums of money at home.
A Washington Post article (April 7, 2002), headlined, “FBI says spy ratted out 50 informants,” stated: A preliminary damage assessment by the FBI of the impact of convicted spy Robert Hanssen’s treachery determined that the identities of more than 50 people who were providing confidential intelligence information to the bureau or were being recruited to do so were disclosed to the Russians. It has been reported that Hanssen’s disclosures played a part in the execution or jailing of at least three Russians who had spied for the United States, this is the first indication that his activities put in jeopardy a far larger number of other people working clandestinely for the bureau, according to a report released last week by a special commission headed by former FBI and CIA director William Webster.
When CIA spy Aldrich Ames was uncovered in 1994, it was learned that he had disclosed the names of CIA and FBI recruited Soviet and Warsaw Pact agents and that about 10 were executed.
Filing Federal Lawsuit
Idema filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York (96 CV-2841) in October 1995, detailing the cover-up and abandonment he experienced from CBS 60-Minutes, Eye-To-Eye, and U.S. News and World Reports. The complaint alleged breach of contract and fraud, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
In that lawsuit, Idema explained how he provided these media personnel with confidential information and secret Russian documents from which they then published articles and television presentations, but left out any information that might reflect badly upon government officials in the FBI, the CIA, and Congress. By this slanted presentation of the facts, viewers were unaware of how Justice Department employees and Clinton Administration officials prevented discovery of the logistics involved in the theft of the nuclear material and devices and the people receiving them.
Idema‘s lawsuit explained how his information and contacts were sabotaged by Justice Department officials, preventing discovery of the logistics of the nuclear smuggling conspiracy and what groups had acquired nuclear devices. Also, that the media defendants had violated their agreement to tell the complete story and how Idema uncovered the nuclear smuggling operations. The lawsuit explains the agreement that he had, that they were to include, as consideration for the material, his role in these activities, without which the published and broadcast description of the suitcase nuclear devices would either have not occurred or much of the supporting material would not have been available to them.
The lawsuit stated how Idema and his wife were improperly convicted as a result of FBI misconduct and witness perjury, that he was an ex-member of the US Army Special Forces, that he and his wife, Dawn Glosson, operated a trade show for the special forces community under the name of Special Operations Expositions and Conference (Spec Ops). He explained how in 1991, while traveling inside the former Soviet Union he came in contact with high ranking members of the Lithuanian and Russian counter intelligence community, gained their trust, and received from them information concerning activities of the KGB, OMON, and various terrorist groups in Lithuania, Russia, and surrounding territories. He stated in this federal court filing that:
Members of the KGB were engaged in the “theft” of nuclear materials from the Russian Federation, and smuggling these devices to locations in the Middle East and North Korea. These devices and nuclear materials were available for sale to foreign countries and terrorist groups. … Members of the intelligence community in Lithuania advised Mr. Idema to be very discrete in revealing information about these activities within the United States because United States intelligence sources and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been compromised by the KGB.
This was long before FBI agents Pitts and Hanssen were arrested as KGB spies. Idema described in the lawsuit how FBI Special Agent William Zinnikas, Sr., of the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Unit specializing in Russian information and assets, had agreed with Idema, in front of Scurka, that Idema’s wife, Dawn, would be released from prison after Idema and Gary Scurka provided a document relating to the sale, transfer, and smuggling of nuclear material. Scurka turned the document over to the FBI, the promised release did not occur.
In fact, not only did the FBI violate the release agreement, but within 72 hours the document was in the hands of the KGB in Russia and Russian officials were frantically trying to find out where their leak was and identify Idema‘s covert sources in Russia. Idema’s worst fears were validated.
Idema included in the lawsuit seven sealed copies of documents relating to the theft of the nuclear material that caused the court to place the documents under seal. He also provided these documents to me.
Reminders of Prior Justice Department Calamities
In my books and my 40 years of discovering and exposing corrupt government personnel, a few stand out as it relates to Justice Department lawyers: • Justice Department lawyers covering up the documented corruption that I discovered, initially while a federal air safety inspector. This cover-up enabled the corruption and the crashes to continue, year after year, with the most recent consequences occurring on September 11, 2001.
• Justice Department lawyers engaging in conduct that insured the transfer of several dozen surface-to-air missiles to terrorists, and which occurred about seven months prior to the missile downing of TWA Flight 800.
• Justice Department lawyers covering up for the people who actually placed the bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103, and the Justice Department retaliation against a covert DIA agent and a former Mossad agent for exposing the people who actually placed the bomb on board the aircraft.
• Justice Department lawyers covering up for the decades of CIA and DEA drug smuggling into the United States, which continues in a cover-up status, with grave consequences upon matters of national importance.
• Justice Department lawyers covering up for other criminal and subversive activities that are detailed in the books, Defrauding America, Drugging America, and Unfriendly Skies.
Idema‘s Working with Northern Alliance’s General Dostum
I made contact with Idema in early 2002 through his current wife, Viktoria. She wrote:
Keith kept a pretty low profile for a few years and rebuilt his life. He had returned to absolutely nothing except the clothes on his back. He then found himself in a whirlwind again, fighting with the DOJ about Waco (he exposed the now famous secret documents that showed the army did NOT want to assault the compound and recommended to the FBI and Reno not to do it) After that, he moved on to a new mission, finding a Czech spy in the US government, finding the real killer of a famous Green Beret Colonel’s wife. (He won the National Press Club Award in Washington, DC last summer for his story, “Spies, Lies, and Serial Killers,” a one year investigative report, which I helped co-produce).
Then, comfortable in our home and enjoying life, September 11th happened. Within a month, Keith was in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and al Qaida. That was six months ago and he has still not returned. There have been hundreds of stories about his deeds in Afghanistan; many of the stories simply refer to him as “Jack, the senior military advisor for the Northern Alliance.” Jack is how he is known throughout Afghanistan.
My Early Reference to General Rashid Dostum
I first made reference to General Dostum several years earlier in the third edition of Defrauding America. A friend of mine, Ronald Rewald, who had been the head of a secret CIA financial operation based in Honolulu, had played a role in negotiations between General Dostum and CIA and FBI personnel in Los Angeles.
Stich, Rodney (2010-07-24). Terrorism Against America: External & Internal Terrorists (pp. 231-250). Silverpeak Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Who is Rodney Stich? Find out what Wikipedia says. In part:
Rodney Stich (born 1923) is an American author and former Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) investigator (1962–1968). According to Burnett’s Conspiracy Encyclopedia, “his work led him to believe that there was major corruption at the heart of the aviation business. His “whistle-blowing” campaign was carried out for over 30 years, in which he filed his own “federal actions” in courts throughout the United States.
Christopher Story‘s conspiracy journal, International Currency Review (ICR), considers that Stich was a pioneer in exposing the crimes committed by the United States government and their concealment. ICR compared the United States federal government actions against Stich to political repression in the Soviet Union.
Wikipedia also lists his books. Stich’s website Defrauding America has a lot of interesting information for further reading. His bio is here.
