Harper seems to be stalling on repatriating Omar Khadr

 The Khadr family have long been associated with Al Qaeda and the Canadian family are far from popular in Canada. Unlike other countries the Canadian government has done nothing to have Omar Khadr repatriated from Guantanamo. They sat back and let someone who was a child soldier when captured by the U.S. in 20002 in a firefight in Afghanistan stay in Guantanamo for a decade now. In fact the Canadian government said nothing about his treatment that included what amounted to torture nor the fact that he was tried by a military tribunal.
   Although he and his comrades were under attack Khadr was charged with throwing a grenade and killing an American soldier, The U.S. justifies holding Khadr and others indefinitely because there is a state of active hostilities between the U.S. and terrorist linked groups. Of course Obama does not call this the war on terror as Bush did but the legal justification is the same. Usually in such armed conflicts fighters on both sides would not be charged when in battle if they kill people on the other side. However in the legal mumbo jumbo used by the U.S. people like Khadr who fight without  uniforms and not as part of a recognized force are unprivileged belligerents and if they kill their enemies even if they are soldiers can be charged with murder. This is what happened to Khadr. Theoretically CIA drone operatives are in the same legal position. This has been pointed out as a problem by lawyers. Of course the difference is that CIA operatives are not likely to be caught and tried!
  To add insult to injury he was also a child soldier at the time. In fact he was badly wounded and would have been finished off as was a comrade who may have thrown the grenade except that an officer thought that Khadr might have useful information.
  Usually Canada does what the U.S.  wants. This was the case with  Abdullah Rahman who was arrested at the request of the U.S. when he returned to Canada. From this site:""Abdullah Khadr (born 1981), a son who returned to Canada in 2005, was arrested on behalf of the United States and held for 5 years while an extradition request was reviewed. Ontario Superior Court ordered him released in 2010 citing "shocking and unjustifiable" human rights violations." One son Abdurahman Khadr no doubt  regarded by the family as their black sheep worked for the CIA and gave numerous interviews with the press.
     ^{Omar Khadr has been held at Guantanamo for almost ten years now. The U.S. has agreed to have him serve the rest of his sentence in Canada. An article here gives six reasons why he should be transferred to Canada. I will deal only with two.
   Since Khadr is a Canadian citizen he has the right to enter and remain in Canada. A Federal Court cited this right in another prison transfer case. The U.S. is waiting for Canada to consent. In this case the U.S. is not the holdup it is the Canadian Harper government.
   Secondly Khadr committed the alleged offenses when he was still a child and was 15 when captured. Both Canada and the U.S. have signed the Optional UN Protocol on the rights of the child that set 18 as the age for participation in hostilities. Child soldiers are to be psychologically and physically rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. Of course neither the U.S. nor Canada has paid the slightest attention to this aspect of the case. Perhaps one reason Harper does  not want him here is that there will be demands that he be treated as a child soldier. This could be politically inconvenient for Harper. For much more of this whole travesty of justice see the full article.}

UN reports chastizes Canada for not acting on rendition of three Muslim Canadians

A recent report by the UN Committee Against Torture takes the Canadian government to task for what they call not taking seriously their complicity in renditions of Canadian citizens to countries such as Syria and Egypt.

Strictly speaking the only case that was actually a rendition was of Maher Arar. They did take that seriously. The rendition was not by Canada but the U.S. Maher was arrested when he is was in the U.S. simply transferring planes on a trip back to Canada. The U.S. authorities declared that Arar was an Al Qaeda operative and shipped him back to Syria where he was interrogated and tortured. The Maher Inquiry was extensive and found that Arar had no terrorist connections. The Canadian government negotiated a settlement with Arar for about ten million dollars in compensation. The U.S. refused to cooperate with the Arar inquiry and the U.S. still has Arar on a no fly list and presumably considers him an Al Qaeda operative.

The Canadian government wanted to make sure nothing more than a tongue lashing would come from the Iacobucci Inquiry that was very narrowly focused. The Inquiry was almost all done behind closed doors with not even lawyers for the three men who had been jailed in Syria and Egypt being allowed in to sessions where intelligence officers were questioned. Some groups withdrew from participation in disgust.

The three Canadian Muslims were not directly rendered. I call it rendering light or opportunistic rendering. Intelligence operatives waited until the men involved visited Syria for different reasons and then had them arrested so they could be interrogated on matters of terrorism. None of the three have had any compensation as yet. In neither inquiry was there ever any punishment of officials for wrongdoing. Of course the U.S. which was involved in direct rendition has never punished anyone. In fact Obama has not even abolished rendition.

The report also urged the government to repatriate Omar Khadr held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo from the age of 16. He signed a plea deal in which he plead guilty to charges that was supposed to see him transferred to Canada but the Canadian government has never followed through. For more see this article.

Supreme Court rules that Harper need not try to repatriate Khadr.

Although the Court did not order Harper to ask for the repatriation of Khadr it did note that Khadr's human rights were violated by Canadian officials. Of course the Harper government will just ignore this part of the ruling. No officials will suffer any penalties. Canada is the only country not to try to repatriate its citizens from Guantanamo. Khadr will be left to be tried by a US military tribunal most likely even though he should have been treated as a child soldier.


Khadr repatriation overturned by top court
By Emily Chung, CBC News
Omar Khadr shown at a U.S. military hearing in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2009. (Canadian Press) The Supreme Court of Canada has overturned lower-court orders that the federal government must try to repatriate Toronto-born Omar Khadr from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

However, the top court agreed Canadian officials violated Khadr's human rights, and that he continues to be threatened by the effect of those violations.

In a unanimous decision released Friday, the court declared that Canadian officials breached Khadr's right to life, liberty and security of the person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

However, it concluded that ordering the government to ask the U.S. for Khadr's repatriation to stop the continuing violation of his rights would interfere with the government's jurisdiction over foreign relations. Therefore, it chose not to issue the order, even though it had the authority to do so.

"We … leave it to the government to decide how best to respond to this judgment in light of current information, its responsibility for foreign affairs and in conformity with the charter," the ruling said.

Khadr, 23, has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since he was arrested in Afghanistan at age 15, accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. He is scheduled to be tried in July by a U.S. military court on charges of murder, conspiracy and support of terrorism.

Charter rights violated
Details of the Supreme Court ruling
The Supreme Court ruled that Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was breached in Omar Khadr's case, as Canadian officials contributed to the violation of his rights to life, liberty and security of the person.

It noted that CSIS officials obtained evidence from Khadr under "oppressive circumstances" during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay in 2003 and then shared that evidence with U.S. officials. The ruling said the interrogation "offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects," as:

Khadr was a minor and had been denied adult counsel.
He had been repeatedly deprived of sleep over a three-week period using a technique designed to make detainees more compliant.
The interrogation was designed to elicit statements about "the most serious criminal charges."
The information was to be shared with U.S. prosecutors.
The court agreed that Khadr's rights continue to be violated given the role of the information in his upcoming trial. It also concluded that bringing Khadr back to Canada would stop the violation of his rights by preventing him from facing trial.

However, it said ordering the government to demand Khadr's repatriation was not a suitable remedy for the violation of his rights as:

It gives too little weight to the government's constitutional responsibility to make decisions on matters of foreign affairs in the context of complex circumstances and Canada's national interest.
The court lacks the government's knowledge of foreign relations. "We do not know what negotiations may have taken place or will take place between the U.S. and Canadian governments over the fate of Mr. Khadr.
Therefore, the court felt it was not appropriate to give direction to the government about diplomatic steps to address the rights breaches.
Khadr's lawyers had asked for a judicial review of the government's decision not to request his repatriation. They argued that returning him to Canada would stop the violation of his human rights.

The lawyers alleged the violations were due in part to Canadian intelligence officials who interrogated him at Guantanamo Bay in 2003-04, knowing he had been repeatedly deprived of sleep, and passed the information on to U.S. officials.

The Federal Court of Canada had agreed and ordered the government to request his return in April 2009. A panel of the Court of Appeal upheld that ruling in 2-1 decision in August, prompting the government to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court decision doesn't prevent the government from voluntarily asking for Khadr's return. However, even if the government does make the request, there is no guarantee that U.S. officials would agree.

Nathan Whitling, Khadr's lawyer, said he didn't think Khadr would be surprised by Friday's ruling.

"He has never had a whole lot of hope in terms of the Canadian government, in any event," Whitling said.

Whitling said he doesn't expect further assistance from the Canadian government and the focus of Khadr's legal team will now shift to the trial proceedings.

Dennis Edney, another one of Khadr's lawyers, said he will be heading to Guantanamo Bay on Monday, where he will continue to negotiate with U.S. officials and inform Khadr of the ruling. Edney said that while he doesn't have faith in the Canadian government's conduct, he will try to give Khadr a more optimistic message.

"I will say that the court has the belief that ... the Canadian government has a moral conscience and will do the right thing," he said. "I will tell him, 'And that's what we have to pray and hope.'"

Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said the ball is now in the government's court.

"The only thing it can’t do is to do nothing because the court clearly said that the rights of a Canadian citizen have been violated."

He added that the Liberals recognize that Khadr was a child soldier and had been calling for him to be brought back to Canada from the beginning.

But Edney said neither Stephen Harper's Conservative government nor the Liberal government before it did anything about Khadr's situation.

Human rights group Amnesty International echoed the opinion that the government has to respond to the ruling.

"It is not open to the Canadian government to just yawn and not take that seriously now," said Alex Neve, a spokesman for the group.

"There has to be an effective response that demonstrates that this government is prepared to stand up for rights of Canadians and is prepared to take seriously judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada, even if the court did not feel inclined to say specifically what the Canadian government has to do here."


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/01/29/omar-khadr-supreme-court.html#ixzz0e24HpFIz

Khadr to face military commission in the US.

As the article notes the US has never recognised the fact that when apprehended Khadr was a juvenile and should be considered a child soldier. The military commissions are also as the article also points out a second class system of justice in that among other things hearsay evidence can be presented and evidence derived through coercion is admissible. Of course justice for terror suspects in the US is a farce in any event. Obama for example has already declared that the suspects to be tried in civilian courts will be found guilty! So much for the presumption of incidence. Of course as the article points out the whole idea of trying some in military courts and others in civilian courts has no justifiable rationale. All should be tried in civilian courts. Of course the government no doubt knows that if Khadr were tried in a civilian court they would probably lose. They want to only try those in civilian courts who they are certain to convict!




- Antiwar.com Original - -

‘New’ Military Courts Still Lack Basic Safeguards

Posted By William Fisher

While conservatives complain about Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terror suspects from Guantánamo coming to New York for trial, many legal experts and human rights groups are being equally outspoken in their criticism of the "new and improved" military commissions designated to try five other detainees.

And some are particularly incensed that Omar Khadr, Guantánamo’s "child soldier" – a Canadian captured in Afghanistan seven years ago when he was only 15 and imprisoned at Guantánamo ever since – is slated to be one of the five others to be tried before military commissions.

The "new and improved" military commissions were part of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, which President Barack Obama signed last month. It included some changes in the rules governing military commission proceedings and is intended to replace — and improve upon — the George W. Bush-era Military Commissions Act of 2006, which the Supreme Court found unconstitutional last year.

Human rights groups and many legal experts are charging that, while the new regulations improve the commissions to come extent, they remain not only unnecessary but dangerous because they establish a parallel system of second-class justice.

Furthermore, they point out, the actual implementation of military commission proceedings could be delayed for years by legal challenges – as were their predecessors.

Much of the early pushback against the military commissions is centering on the Khadr case. Khadr is a Canadian citizen who was arrested in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old, accused of throwing a grenade that killed an Army medic, and sent to Guantánamo Bay in 2002, where he has been imprisoned for more than seven years without charge or trial.

The U.S. government has refused to acknowledge his status as a child or to apply universally recognized standards of juvenile justice in his case.

The other child soldier, Mohammed Jawad, was released back to Afghanistan after the government failed to produce enough credible evidence to bring charges against him.

The only Western citizen remaining in Guantánamo, Khadr is unique in that Canada has refused to seek extradition or repatriation despite the urgings of Amnesty International, UNICEF, the Canadian Bar Association and other prominent organizations.

Last week, on the same day U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was appearing before the press, the Supreme Court of Canada was hearing oral arguments in an appeal by the Canadian government on two lower court decisions that found Khadr’s rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been breached when Canadian officials interviewed him at the prison in Guantánamo in 2003 and shared the resulting information with U.S. authorities.

Khadr’s lawyers argued that Canada was complicit in his abuse and maintain that the Canadian government is obliged under international law to demand the prisoner’s return.

The U.S. attorney general believes that the reforms Congress recently incorporated into the Military Commissions Act will ensure that military commission trials will be fair and that convictions obtained will be secure.

But many disagree. One of them is Prof. David Frakt of Western State University law school, the Air Force Reserve officer who successfully served as military defense counsel for Mohammed Jawad.

Frakt has strong views on military commissions. He believes that "Allowing some cases to go forward in the military commissions means that some detainees are getting second-class justice."

He is also unclear about the rationale for a system of parallel justice. He told IPS, "The administration’s justifications for which cases are being send to federal court and which cases to military commissions don’t stand up to scrutiny. For example, they claim that the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, allegedly planned by Mr. Al-Nashiri, was a violation of the law of war and therefore should be tried in a military commission, but the government has been claiming for years that the 9/11 attacks were also violations of the law of war."

"In fact, the attack on the U.S.S. Cole was definitively not a violation of the law of war because there was no armed conflict taking place at the time of the attack. Rather, it was an isolated terrorist attack, the type of murder of U.S. service members during peacetime that we have always tried in federal courts before."

Frakt is also critical of the "new" military commissions because, like their predecessors, they fail to protect juveniles.

"It is appalling that the Obama administration is allowing charges to go forward in the military commissions against Omar Khadr," he said. "Clearly, Omar Khadr, as a juvenile of 15 at the time of his alleged offences, could not be tried as an adult in federal court, so they are allowing him to be tried as an adult in the military commissions, potentially making him the first child soldier to be tried and convicted as a war criminal in world history."

Frakt believes the military commissions are still "fundamentally flawed" for a number of reasons. He noted that there is no requirement of pretrial investigation, such as a preliminary hearing or grand jury, and that evidence derived from coerced statements may still be admitted into evidence.

"Now that that the evidentiary rules in military commissions have been tightened to more closely resemble the rules in federal courts, the real reason for the creation of military commissions — the ability to gain easy convictions on tainted evidence — has largely been removed," he added. "But the taint of the original process still lingers. The perception that the military commissions are a second-class option remains."

Since the passage of its very first incarnation, the Military Commissions Act has spent most of its time in court responding to challenges to its constitutionality.

In 2006, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the Military Tribunals set up by the Bush administration to try terror suspects at Guantánamo. Congress then passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, "To authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war." But the MCA was also declared unconstitutional two years later.

While litigation was ongoing – and that was virtually constant – trials at Guantánamo came to a complete standstill. That is a major reason that there were only three trials in eight years.

Many in the human rights community see a similar fate awaiting the 2009 amended version of the MCA.

Harper appeals Khadr verdict

Harper has been consistent all along in his kissing U.S. ass to much applause of many of his reactionary supporters. This will delay any attempt to return Khadr to Canada. Khadr was a child when he allegedly threw the grenade that killed a US service person. No matter. He may have been tortured. No Matter. The system of military tribunals under which Khadr is to be tried is widely regarded as unjust and certainly does not meet the standards of the US civil legal system. No matter. Khadr is faced with a serious charge and the U.S. is a great beacon to the Free World and the trials represent our Free World values of no habeas corpus and torture as part of a justifiable legal system.

In all this Obama has been completely silent. I guess it is because it has nothing to do with the U.S. reform of health care.



'We will not make it easy for the government': lawyer for Guantanamo Bay detainee
Ottawa will seek to overturn an appeal court ruling that it must demand his repatriation. (Janet Hamlin/Pool/Associated Press)
The federal government will appeal to the country's top court to quash a ruling forcing Ottawa to press for the release of Canadian Omar Khadr from Guantanamo Bay, the Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed Tuesday.
The Federal Court of Appeal earlier this month upheld a lower-court ruling that required Ottawa to try to repatriate Khadr, the only Western citizen still being held by the U.S. at its military base in Cuba.
"After careful consideration of the legal merits of the ruling ... the government has decided to seek leave to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court" of Canada, Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The government has filed a motion to stay the Appeal Court's decision pending its application to the Supreme Court, the statement said.
Dennis Edney, Khadr's Canadian lawyer, said he will argue that the country's top court should not hear the case.
"We will not make it easy for the government," Edney said from Edmonton. "The ruling indicated this was a unique decision, a one-off decision, based upon the particular circumstances of Canadian conduct and Omar Khar's situation. It's not an issue of national security, it's not an issue of national importance, and we will be telling the court that."
Toronto-born Khadr, 22, was captured by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15, and has been held at Guantanamo Bay for seven years. The U.S. accuses him of throwing a grenade that killed U.S. soldier Christopher Speer, but leaked documents have called into question the Pentagon's murder case against Khadr.
On Aug. 14, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a Federal Court ruling that ordered Ottawa to press for Khadr's return from Guantanamo.
In a 2-1 judgment, the Appeal Court found that Khadr's rights under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — the rights to life, liberty and security of person — had been breached when Canadian officials interviewed him at the prison in Guantanamo in 2003 and shared the resulting information with U.S. authorities.
Other countries have intervened
Some other Western countries have intervened to get their citizens out of Guantanamo, but the Canadian government has maintained that because of the seriousness of the charges, Khadr should face military proceedings in the United States.
"Our position regarding Mr. Khadr remains unchanged," the Foreign Affairs statement said. "Omar Khadr has been accused of serious crimes, including murder."
With the swearing-in in January of U.S. President Barack Obama, who vowed to close Guantanamo and repatriate all but its most serious prisoners, it seemed the issue of Khadr's detention would soon be immaterial. But the Obama administration has never laid out its intentions for Khadr, and it now seems the Guantanamo tribunals might still proceed.
"President Obama has not communicated any decision to the government of Canada with respect to the case of Mr. Khadr," Foreign Affairs said Tuesday, adding "it is in our interest to wait for the outcome" of the White House's decisions on the Guantanamo tribunals.
The military commission process, a cornerstone of former president George W. Bush's approach, has been hobbled by court findings that it violates the American constitution, as well as by allegations that it breaches international law and that crucial evidence was extracted under torture — which Khadr's lawyers say happened to him.
Deprived of sleep
A Canadian official visiting Khadr in 2004 in Guantanamo Bay was told the U.S. military was depriving the then 17-year-old of sleep for weeks to make him "more amenable and willing to talk."
Human rights advocates say that because Khadr was 15 when captured, he is entitled to protection under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the U.S. has signed. The convention’s Optional Protocol says anyone under age 18 in armed conflict are to be treated as victims needing rehabilitation, not hostile agents to be imprisoned.
According to the original U.S. military version of events, Khadr ambushed American soldiers with a grenade following a four-hour firefight against al-Qaeda militants at a mud compound in Afghanistan in 2002.
Pentagon officials later backtracked slightly after it was revealed nobody witnessed Khadr throw the grenade. Military officials said an eyewitness wasn't needed, because Khadr was the only militant left alive and the only person who could have thrown the grenade.
But a classified Pentagon document inadvertently released to reporters in February 2008 suggested otherwise. The document, a sworn first-hand account of the gun battle from an American soldier, said two combatants were left alive in the compound when Speer was killed.'We will not make it easy for the government': lawyer for Guantanamo Bay detainee
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 12:00 PM ET Comments39Recommend25
CBC News
Omar Khadr is shown in a sketch from a hearing at Guantanamo Bay in January. Ottawa will seek to overturn an appeal court ruling that it must demand his repatriation. (Janet Hamlin/Pool/Associated Press)
The federal government will appeal to the country's top court to quash a ruling forcing Ottawa to press for the release of Canadian Omar Khadr from Guantanamo Bay, the Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed Tuesday.
The Federal Court of Appeal earlier this month upheld a lower-court ruling that required Ottawa to try to repatriate Khadr, the only Western citizen still being held by the U.S. at its military base in Cuba.
"After careful consideration of the legal merits of the ruling ... the government has decided to seek leave to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court" of Canada, Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The government has filed a motion to stay the Appeal Court's decision pending its application to the Supreme Court, the statement said.
Dennis Edney, Khadr's Canadian lawyer, said he will argue that the country's top court should not hear the case.
"We will not make it easy for the government," Edney said from Edmonton. "The ruling indicated this was a unique decision, a one-off decision, based upon the particular circumstances of Canadian conduct and Omar Khar's situation. It's not an issue of national security, it's not an issue of national importance, and we will be telling the court that."
Toronto-born Khadr, 22, was captured by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15, and has been held at Guantanamo Bay for seven years. The U.S. accuses him of throwing a grenade that killed U.S. soldier Christopher Speer, but leaked documents have called into question the Pentagon's murder case against Khadr.
On Aug. 14, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a Federal Court ruling that ordered Ottawa to press for Khadr's return from Guantanamo.
In a 2-1 judgment, the Appeal Court found that Khadr's rights under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — the rights to life, liberty and security of person — had been breached when Canadian officials interviewed him at the prison in Guantanamo in 2003 and shared the resulting information with U.S. authorities.
Other countries have intervened
Some other Western countries have intervened to get their citizens out of Guantanamo, but the Canadian government has maintained that because of the seriousness of the charges, Khadr should face military proceedings in the United States.
"Our position regarding Mr. Khadr remains unchanged," the Foreign Affairs statement said. "Omar Khadr has been accused of serious crimes, including murder."
With the swearing-in in January of U.S. President Barack Obama, who vowed to close Guantanamo and repatriate all but its most serious prisoners, it seemed the issue of Khadr's detention would soon be immaterial. But the Obama administration has never laid out its intentions for Khadr, and it now seems the Guantanamo tribunals might still proceed.
"President Obama has not communicated any decision to the government of Canada with respect to the case of Mr. Khadr," Foreign Affairs said Tuesday, adding "it is in our interest to wait for the outcome" of the White House's decisions on the Guantanamo tribunals.
The military commission process, a cornerstone of former president George W. Bush's approach, has been hobbled by court findings that it violates the American constitution, as well as by allegations that it breaches international law and that crucial evidence was extracted under torture — which Khadr's lawyers say happened to him.
Deprived of sleep
A Canadian official visiting Khadr in 2004 in Guantanamo Bay was told the U.S. military was depriving the then 17-year-old of sleep for weeks to make him "more amenable and willing to talk."
Human rights advocates say that because Khadr was 15 when captured, he is entitled to protection under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the U.S. has signed. The convention’s Optional Protocol says anyone under age 18 in armed conflict are to be treated as victims needing rehabilitation, not hostile agents to be imprisoned.
According to the original U.S. military version of events, Khadr ambushed American soldiers with a grenade following a four-hour firefight against al-Qaeda militants at a mud compound in Afghanistan in 2002.
Pentagon officials later backtracked slightly after it was revealed nobody witnessed Khadr throw the grenade. Military officials said an eyewitness wasn't needed, because Khadr was the only militant left alive and the only person who could have thrown the grenade.
But a classified Pentagon document inadvertently released to reporters in February 2008 suggested otherwise. The document, a sworn first-hand account of the gun battle from an American soldier, said two combatants were left alive in the compound when Speer was killed.

CSIS ignored Khadr's human rights.

It is hardly news that CSIS or RCMP intelligence ignored human rights. What would be news is if anyone were ever held responsible for it. Arar was paid millions by Canadian taxpayers for the wrongs done to him but no one in the intelligence agencies were punished. The US still considers him a member of Al Qaeda or at least that is the grounds upon which they rendered him to Syria for interrogation and torture. Arar has not even been able to get a court case off the ground in the U.S. for reasons of national security. Even Stockwell Day and Stephen Harper who are hardly left wing wackos thought the secret evidence the US revealed to them was no ground for changing their own opinions. Yet nothing happens.
Again Abdelrazik was on a no fly list at the request of the U.S. No evidence that can be revealed no evidence that could bring a charge so he just suffered in the Sudan and until Harper was forced by a court decision to allow him back to Canada.


CSIS ignored Khadr's human rights: report

CBC News
CSIS ignored human-rights concerns and did not take Omar Khadr's age into account in deciding to interview him at the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay prison, says a report from the independent committee that oversees the spy agency.

The Toronto-born Khadr, now 22, is being held at the U.S. detention centre in Cuba for allegedly throwing a grenade in Afghanistan when he was 15, killing an American soldier. He is the only Western citizen still detained at Guantanamo.

A report from the security intelligence review committee (SIRC), released Wednesday in Ottawa, said documents also show Khadr's U.S. captors threatened him with rape, kept him alone and would not let him sleep. Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers questioned Khadr at Guantanamo Bay in 2003 and shared the results of their interrogations with the Americans.

However, the report did not find that CSIS was complicit in Khadr's alleged torture at the hands of U.S. interrogators.

The committee recommended that CSIS take human-rights issues into consideration in future probes and also establish a policy framework to guide its dealings with young people.

"As part of this, the service should ensure that such interactions are guided by the same principles that are entrenched in Canadian and international law," the SIRC report said.

Omar Khadr Lawyers sue PM

The Harper government will continue on its present course of never offending the U.S. or criticising rendition or the judicial process at Guantanamo even though many Canadian and International legal groups have been vociferous in their criticism of the military tribunals. The Conservatives probably think that the Canadian public cares little for the rights of anyone accused of terrorism. The Arar case was an anomaly and one that the government is bound and determined will never be repeated. The Iacobucci inquiry is a case in point. Almost the whole inquiry has been in secret and there are not even progress reports on the official website. Iacobucci has made it clear that there will be no attempt to clear the names of the three in whose names the inquiry was called. Even should Iacobucci in his report find shortcomings in conduct of officials, no one will be punished or held responsible. Indeed after the Arar inquiry some of those criticised were promoted. So much for accountability. The war on terror is in effect a licence for official wrongdoing with no recourse or accountability for the most part.

Omar Khadr lawyers sue PM
Guantanamo detainee's defence team asks court to force Harper to bring him back to Canada
Aug 09, 2008 04:30 AM
Noor Javed Staff Reporter
Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr filed a lawsuit yesterday to force Prime Minister Stephen Harper to intervene and repatriate the 21-year-old before he faces trial by a U.S. military tribunal in October.
"It is time for Prime Minister Harper to stand up for the rights of a Canadian citizen," said his Canadian lawyers, Dennis Edney and Nate Whitling, in a release.
A Harper spokesperson said the suit would have no bearing on current government policy. Harper has long insisted he won't get involved in the case because a legal process against Khadr is underway.
The suit's legal premise is based on Canada's obligations under international law to co-operate in the social integration and rehabilitation of children in armed conflicts.
Khadr was 15 when he was captured in 2002 after a firefight in Afghanistan. The Pentagon alleges he threw a grenade that killed an American soldier.
Khadr's lawyers had hoped that public pressure after the release of an interrogation video last month, showing the youth crying for his mother, would prompt the Canadian government to intervene.
"This is predictable," said Kory Teneycke, Harper's director of communications, of the lawsuit. "It's another attempt by Mr. Khadr's lawyers to avoid a trial, on the charges of attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism, and spying."
"We have no intention of deviating from the course that we're on ...," he said. "Our position is the same as the previous Liberal government's position, that Mr. Khadr should face these charges through a judicial process, not a political one and certainly not a media one."
Whitling said taking the government to court is the only option left.
"We're getting down to the point where Omar has been in Guantanamo for upwards of six years and we think it's high time this proceeding was brought," he said.
"We were hoping it wouldn't be necessary."
In May, the Supreme Court of Canada concluded that Khadr's detention violated basic human rights norms. More recently a Canadian judge deemed Khadr's treatment by U.S authorities – including sleep deprivation – violates international prohibitions against torture.
The suit, filed in Federal Court, is modelled on ones in Australia and Great Britain. Those countries eventually repatriated their citizens from Guantanamo.
It's now Canada's turn to "do what every other Western democracy has done with respect to its own citizens," said Whitling.
Khadr is the last citizen of a Western country held at Guantanamo.
With files from The Canadian Press

U.S. military lawyer: Gitmo trials rigged.

I predict that Harper will not act. As my last article showed the charges against Khadr are themselves ludicrous. In war an enemy combatant certainly has the right to respond to an attack by killing the attackers without being charged with murder. The whole idiotic charge is simply an Orwellian manufacture made possible by the concept of an unlawful combatant. Very few have commented upon this bit of conceptual crapola.
It is not just that Khadr was a child and hence should be treated under the rules that Canada has agreed to as Dallaire rightfully points out, the whole charge is a monstrous perversion of justice in the first place.
Harper will not act because he will not suffer politically from going along with Bush since many Canadians have no more of a clue about the law or basic principles of justice than do Americans. Let''s not forget either that the Liberals knew all about the situation in Guantanamo and did exactly the same as the Conservatives when they (Liberals) were in power.


Gitmo trials rigged, PM should push for Khadr's return: U.S. military lawyer
10 hours ago
TORONTO — Despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper's assertion that Omar Khadr should be tried for war crimes in the United States, the American military lawyer who will defend the Canadian citizen at trial said Wednesday he doesn't believe justice will be done.
In a wide-ranging interview, Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler attacked the military commission that will try Khadr in October on charges he killed an American medic in Afghanistan when he was just 15.
"He's not going to get a fair trial," Kuebler told The Canadian Press from his office in Washington, D.C.
"Military commissions aren't designed to be fair. They're designed to produce convictions."
Harper could pre-empt the hearing by asking Washington to send Khadr - Guantanamo Bay's lone western detainee and also its youngest - back to Canada, Kuebler said.
"I hope that the prime minister of Canada finally decides to stand up and act like a prime minister of Canada and protect the rights of a Canadian citizen."
Kuebler said a new blast of publicity surrounding Khadr's case, spawned by last week's court-ordered release of intelligence information and Tuesday's jailhouse interrogation video, should prompt Harper to act.
Harper, however, has been dismissive of calls to intercede in the case.
"Mr. Khadr is accused of very serious things," the prime minister said last week. "There is a legal process in the United States. He can make his arguments in that process."
On Wednesday, Harper's director of communication, Kory Teneycke, repeated that position.
"We're not affected by what's on the cover of newspapers," he said.
Last week, U.S. intelligence information made public under Canadian court order showed Khadr was deprived of sleep and subjected to other abuse. Kuebler said the new information bothered him "greatly."
"Whatever you think about the appropriateness of those methods being employed on adult terrorists, Omar is a child - he was particularly susceptible to psychological trauma and damage," Kuebler said.
"When the Chinese and the Soviets were doing it, we didn't have any problem calling it torture."
On Tuesday, video of a then-16-year-old Khadr under interrogation by Canada's spy service in a cell at Guantanamo Bay was shown around the world.
Kuebler said anyone who watched Khadr whimpering for his mother and still believed he had vowed to die fighting with a bunch of hardened al Qaida terrorists is "crazy."
"The tape shows Omar Khadr not as a hardened terrorist but as a frightened boy," he said.
"It just shows how unreliable anything that they extracted from this kid is and would be at trial."
Sgt. Layne Morris, who was blinded in the July 2002 firefight that left Sgt. Chris Speer dead, was adamant Khadr was an incorrigible terrorist and the video of his crying should elicit no sympathy.
"He's disappointed and discouraged that he's alive and he's in the hands of coalition forces instead of in paradise with 72 virgins," Morris said from Portland, Ore.
The Utah soldier, who is expected to be a key prosecution witness, insisted Khadr be tried in the U.S. because he "committed adult crimes" against Americans.
Khadr was bent on killing as many American and Canadian soldiers as he could, Morris said.
"He waited until the troops got close enough that he could throw a hand grenade. That was the hand grenade (that) killed Chris Speer."
Kuebler called that scenario "a complete figment of his imagination," noting a wounded Morris had been taken from the immediate battle scene before Speer died.
In the end, it doesn't matter if Khadr did throw the grenade, Kuebler insisted.
"He's a child soldier and he deserves protections as a child soldier under international law."
In the absence of a request from Canada to have Khadr returned, the military lawyer predicted mounting political pressure in the U.S. on the prosecution to get a conviction before President George W. Bush leaves office in January.

Khadr urinated on photo of his family

From some of the comments on the Khadr family I have noticed in some Canadian blogs this gesture by Khadr would make some people more empathetic to Khadr! This is from antiwar.com.
Khadr is obviously completely conflicted in his feelings about his family but that is not at all surprising given his experiences.


The most distressing anecdote from Gould's report, however, which, bizarrely, he portrayed as an example of Omar "hav[ing] some feelings," followed a session with an interrogator from the Department of Defense, who had shown him a photo of his family, only for Omar to deny that he knew anyone in the picture. "Left alone with the picture and despite his shackles," the report continued, "Omar urinated on the picture. The MPs cleaned him, the picture, and floor and again left him alone with the picture – after shortening his shackles so that he couldn't urinate on the picture again. But, with the flexibility of youth, he was able to lower his trousers and again urinated on the picture. Again the MPs cleaned up and left him alone with the picture on a table in front of him. After two and a half hours alone and probably assuming that he was no longer being watched, Omar laid his head down on the table beside the picture in what was seen as an affectionate manner."
This is an example of Omar "hav[ing] some feelings"? In my world, which I hope you share, it shows a horrendously isolated and abused teenager displaying mood swings that are symptomatic of extreme mental disturbance.

Lawyers dispute Harper's comments on Omar Khadr

This is from CTV.
Harper surely is not so stupid as not to know that he has alternatives or if he is we are really in trouble. What Harper knows is that Khadr is not popular and that many Canadians have absolutely no sympathy for him. Many comments in the blogosphere and on this article bear this out. Many of the comments exhibit blissful ignorance and complete contempt for issues of human rights. All one has to do is categorise someone as a terror suspect and this causes the mental faculties of many people to close right down.
Canada is obviously complicit in human rights violations by the United States and it is not just in the case of Khadr but it would seem in the Arar case indirectly if not directly and also in the cases being investigated by Iacobucci. It remains to be seen what Iacobucci will have to say. With the secrecy with which the investigation is being carried out and the lack of input from lawyers what has happened so far is not at all promising.
As Khadr's lawyer maintains if Harper actually requested that Khadr be returned to Canada even the Bush administration might agree. The Bush administration is actually looking for places to send Guantanamo detainees.

Lawyers dispute Harper's comments on Omar Khadr



CTV.ca News Staff Updated: Thu. Jul. 10 2008 3:23 PM ET
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says that his government has "no real alternative" to the U.S. legal system in the Omar Khadr case, but the accused terrorist suspect's lawyers and opposition critics strongly disagree.
"This is a disingenuous comment from the prime minister," Khadr's Canadian lawyer Dennis Edney told The Canadian Press.
"The prime minister, through his cabinet members, particularly Mr. (Peter) MacKay, have long said that they have been assured that Omar Khadr was being well treated, when in fact the Canadian government well knew that was not the case," he said.
The prime minister's comments come a day after explosive new documents suggest Canada was aware of the harsh treatment that Khadr was being subjected to in Guantanamo Bay at the hands of U.S. military interrogators.
But Harper, speaking Thursday in Tokyo, Japan following this week's G8 meetings, said Canada had little say in the situation and has no intention of interfering.
The Foreign Affairs documents released by Khadr's defence team this week show Khadr was visited in 2004 by Canadian officials. They found the then 17-year-old had been deprived of sleep for weeks in an attempt to make him more pliable for interrogation by U.S. agents.
Harper distanced his government from the documents. He said former prime minister Paul Martin's government was aware of how Khadr was being treated, but there was little that could have been done.
"The previous government took a whole range, all of the information into account when they made the decision on how to proceed with the Khadr case several years ago,'' he said.
Harper added that Canada: "frankly, has no real alternative'' to the U.S. legal process.
Harper criticized
Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae, who was not part of the Paul Martin government, said on CTV Newsnet that "things got caught up" in the post-9/11 scramble to take direct action against terror suspects by governments.
But he says that time has passed and "it's extremely important for Canadians to take full responsibility for one of our own citizens and insist that he be brought home."
"Other countries have done the same and I can't, quite frankly, explain why Canada didn't do the same, but I think we should, and it's not too late to do that now," he added.
"I think it's time for Mr. Khadr to face justice in Canada."
Edney asked why Harper would criticize China's human rights record but ignore the situation in Guantanamo.
"It boggles my mind that this prime minister is prepared to criticize China over human rights and is prepared to lambaste Mexico for the way its criminal justice system is applied to a Canadian," he said.
"But when you have a young Canadian who is in Guantanamo Bay whom Canadian courts have said has been abused and tortured, our government remains silent."
Khadr's U.S, military lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, put the blame squarely on Harper's shoulders. He said the U.S. would probably have complied with a request from Harper to have Khadr transferred into Canadian custody -- but the request hasn't been made.
As a result, Kuebler said, any harsh treatment endured by Khadr is Canada's responsibility.
"This really shows the assurances the U.S. government has been providing to the Canadian government for all these years have been false, and at least since 2004 the Canadian government knew it was false."
The Toronto-born terror suspect is accused of throwing a grenade in 2002 in Afghanistan that killed a U.S. special forces soldier.
Khadr, 15 at the time, was captured and eventually sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has remained ever since.
The son of an alleged al Qaeda financier -- and the only Canadian being held in Gitmo -- Khadr is set to go to trial in October.
According to the reports released by Khadr's defence team, Canadian official Jim Ghould visited Khadr in 2004 and was briefed by U.S. military officials on Khadr's case.
One report says Khadr was moved every three hours for 21 days -- a technique known as the 'frequent flyer program' -- in an attempt to deprive him of sleep and weaken his ability to withstand interrogation.
And a U.S. Air Force report from February 2003 says Khadr wasn't allowed to receive mail from his family in Canada.
When he was finally given a letter from his grandmother, agents watched secretly as the young man broke down in tears.
The same report says Khadr was picked on by other inmates following his interview sessions with officials.
CTV's legal analyst Steven Skurka called the new revelations a "bombshell."
"We've been told repeatedly by the Canadian government he's been treated humanely and now it appears in the face of those statements the Canadian government knew otherwise," Skurka told Canada AM.
He added that the treatment described in the documents "could be called torture, it's certainly inhumane, it's certainly a story that really has to make Canadians wake up and shudder."
With files from The Canadian Press
© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Lawyers: Judge's removal political.

Brownback was removed no doubt because he was unreliable. The U.S. authorities want a judge who can be relied upon to convict. Brownback has showed he has a certain independent streak. Best he go back into retirement. Too bad the opposition is not up to forcing this present government to retire. The Harper government repeats the same old saw about not interfering in the U.S. justice system. The fact that the Guantanamo process is a travesty of justice doesn't seem to matter. Here is the tired refrain:
The parliamentary secretary to the Foreign Affairs minister responded with the same three media lines that Conservative members have used to answer all Khadr-related questions -- Khadr is facing a “serious charges,” Canada has sought and received assurances that he is treated humanely and they will not interfere in the U.S legal process, MP Deepak Obhrai responded.
So even though the Guantanamo process is unjust the Canadian government nevertheless sent interrogators to Guanatanamo to question Khadr. The Supreme Court decided this violated Khadr's rights but this doesn't matter. Not only Liberals can sit on their hands and do nothing when they feel like it. The Conservatives can mouth platitudes and do nothing just as well.


Judge’s removal political: lawyers TheStar.com - News - Judge’s removal political: lawyers


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'Deck is clearly stacked' against a fair trial, Liberal MP charges
May 30, 2008 Michelle ShephardNational Security Reporter The abrupt retirement of the judge presiding over Omar Khadr’s war crimes trial has prompted Canada’s opposition groups to call again for government intervention and provided critics of the military trials fuel for their argument that Guantanamo’s trials are unraveling.
A spokesperson from Guantanamo’s Office of the Military Commission said Friday that U.S. Army Col. Peter Brownback, who has presided over Khadr’s trial since late 2006, has decided to retire mid-way through the Toronto detainee’s trial.
“Col. Brownback was directed by the Army in 2004 to come back on active duty from retirement based on his previous experience as a military judge. He has been serving on a retired recall status for the past four years,” Air Force Capt. André Kok wrote in an emailed statement. “After this period of service, it was a mutual decision between Col. Brownback and the Army that he revert to his retired status when his current active duty orders expire in June.”
Brownback has refused comment.
The announcement of his shocking dismissal came from the chief judge for Guantanamo’s military commissions, Marine Col. Raph Kohlmann, in an email late Thursday. The note simply said that he was assigning U.S. Army Col. Patrick Parrish to replace Brownback.
Khadr’s lawyers charged that Brownback’s dismissal was political, since he had frustrated the prosecution’s attempt to set a trial date at a time when the Pentagon is pushing to have at least one Guantanamo trial completed by this fall’s U.S. presidential election. All three candidates have vowed to shut the U.S. prison on Cuba’s southeast shore.
Prosecutor Marine Major Jeff Groharing disputed any suggestion that there was any push from his office to have Brownback replaced.
“The prosecution does not have any involvement in assignment of military judges and certainly didn’t have anything to do with a new judge being assigned to this case,” Groharing told the Toronto Star. “Despite the insinuation in the press release filed by defense counsel, the prosecution has always acted ethically and transparently in this case and any suggestion otherwise is reckless and irresponsible.”
In Ottawa, Liberal MP Larry Bagnell pressed the federal government Friday to respond to Brownback’s departure by demanding that Khadr be sent home.
“The military commission pressing charges against Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay fired the judge overseeing the trial. Unbelievable,” Bagnell said. “How can the government continue to show confidence in this process when the deck is so clearly stacked against Mr. Khadr ever receiving a fair trial?”
The parliamentary secretary to the Foreign Affairs minister responded with the same three media lines that Conservative members have used to answer all Khadr-related questions -- Khadr is facing a “serious charges,” Canada has sought and received assurances that he is treated humanely and they will not interfere in the U.S legal process, MP Deepak Obhrai responded.
Bagnell countered, “It is nice to read a prepared sheet that was prepared before the new information came out. When will this government stop ignoring what is happening? When will it bring Mr. Khadr back to Canada to face justice here?”
Obhrai repeated the same answers.
The American Civil Liberties Union and New York-based Human Rights Watch, who have both sent observers to witness all the Guantanamo hearings, issued statements Friday decrying the lack of information about a military judge’s dismissal.
“While this decision is not surprising, it once again demonstrates the inherent flaws in a system that lacks impartiality and is subject to political influence,” wrote Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU’s Human Rights Program. “The message of the Pentagon’s decision seems to be that it is unwilling to let judges exercise independence if it means a ruling against the government.”
Khadr is scheduled to appear before a military court again next month, although it’s unclear now if a new judge will delay those pre-trial hearings. The Toronto-born detainee was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan after a firefight where the Pentagon alleges he fatally wounded Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer. Now 21, he is on trial for five war crimes, including murder for Speer’s death.
Khadr’s Canadian lawyers won a partial victory in the Supreme Court last week when the high court justices ordered the government to turn over information concerning his case – but limited the disclosure to only information resulting from interrogations by Canadian agents.
A federal court is now vetting the information for national security concerns and is expected to turn over documents to Khadr’s lawyers as early as next week.
The Star filed a motion to intervene in that case today, arguing that the public should have access to the information since the treatment of a Canadian detainee in Guantanamo and the participation of Canadian officials in that process “raises matters of great public interest.”

Dallaire: Canada losing moral standing over treatment of Omar Khadr.

Dallaire gets a bit carried away in comparing Canadian treatment of Omar Khadr to Al Qaeda! We are sinking to the level of the CIA and the Bush administration however and that is bad enough.
The Khadr family is quite infamous although the "black sheep" of the family was recruited by the CIA to spy in Guantanamo and Bosnia. See these articles:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/khadr/index.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/khadr/alqaedafamily8.html
Harper has stonewalled on this issue but where the U.S. is concerned Harper is very reluctant to pass judgment especially against the type of conservative U.S. regime exemplified by Bush. However he did stand firm when the US tried to get him along with Day to agree that Arar was a security risk and showed them secret evidence.
I gather from some of the posts on blogs that many Canadians could care less about the treatment of anyone they think is associated with terrorism. There is probably more political gain for Harper in standing firm against terrorism as his defenders might put it rather than being soft on terrorism. Being against terrorism trumps defending human rights or basic justice.



Canada losing moral standing over treatment of Omar Khadr: Dallaire
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 13, 2008
CBC News
Canada has sunk to the moral equivalent of al-Qaeda by failing to treat Canadian Omar Khadr the same way it treats other child soldiers, Liberal Senator Roméo Dallaire said Tuesday.
Dallaire, who appeared before a foreign affairs committee on international human rights, said Khadr is clearly a child soldier who shouldn't be prosecuted by an illegal court system at Guantanamo Bay but reintegrated into society.
Canada is heading down a slippery slope by failing to obey the United Nations conventions on child soldiers to which it is a signatory, he said.
"The minute you start playing with human rights, with conventions, with civil liberties in order to say you are doing it to protect yourself … you are no better than the guy who doesn't believe in them at all," he said.
"We are slipping down the slope of going down that same route."
Now 21, Khadr has been in U.S. custody since 2002, after he was captured on an Afghan battlefield. The Pentagon says he threw a grenade that killed U.S. Sgt. Christopher Speer and are attempting to try him before the controversial military tribunals.
Dallaire, Kenney spar
In a testy exchange with Conservative MP Jason Kenney, Dallaire suggested by failing to treat Khadr as a child soldier, Canada has sunk to the moral equivalent of terrorists.
Kenney pointed to a number of al-Qaeda actions, including an incident in which the group allegedly outfitted mentally challenged young girls with explosive belts and sent them to their deaths in a Baghdad animal market.
"Is it your testimony that al-Qaeda strapping up a 14-year-old girl with Down Syndrome and sending her into a pet market to be remotely detonated is the moral equivalent to Canada's not making extraordinary political efforts for a transfer of Omar Khadr to this country?" asked Kenney.
"If you want a black and white [response] … I am only too prepared to give it to you: absolutely," said Dallaire. "You are either with the law or you are against the law. You're either a child soldier or you're not. You're either guilty or you're not."
Canada must be ready to deal with similar situations in the future, Dallaire said.
"If you think this is the last one, then we're really smoking dope because in this era, we're going to face similar scenarios and we've got to be prepared in this multi-ethnic country to handle it," he said.
Canada must protect all of its citizens, "whether we like them and their beliefs or not. That is irrelevant," he said.
Dallaire said Canadian soldiers have helped rehabilitate more than 7,000 child soldiers in Afghanistan. None of them have been prosecuted, he said.
"What is the political reason? What makes [Khadr] different from the others?" said Dallaire.
Dallaire said Khadr is being tried under an illegal judicial system at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. prison on the eastern tip of Cuba.
"The thing is flawed, it is illegal and we're letting it happen," he said.
U.S. President George W. Bush would be "one of the happiest people on earth" if Canada removed Khadr from Guantanamo, Dallaire said.
"The way to sort it out is you get the prime minister of this country to call the president and say 'I want my boy out and we’ll fill out the paperwork after.' And that's it," said Dallaire.
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said he disagreed with Dallaire's choice of words and hinted the senator could be disciplined.
"This is a matter … [for] the [party] whip, and we'll deal with that," Dion told reporters.
"I would express that in my own way. I would say that Canada should do like the other countries and ask the government of the United States to bring this Canadian home to be prosecuted in Canada. The inaction of the government is unacceptable."
U.S. expert calls for action
The former U.S. prosecutor for the UN's war crimes court in Sierra Leone also called for Khadr to be returned to Canada, saying he believes Khadr is a child soldier.
"I think it's important to bring Khadr back and have his case fairly and openly considered in Canada," said David Crane, who appeared before the committee.
Crane, a law professor at Syracuse University College, said children who volunteer for military duty shouldn't be held to the same standard as adults.
"Children, any child, just doesn't have the requisite mental capability of this situation, regardless if they volunteer or not," he said.
"Children shouldn't be placed in these situations. If so, we shouldn't prosecute them for what they did," he said. "Legally, at the international level, they're not responsible for what they did. We just don't do this anymore."
Dallaire declared his intention to agitate on Khadr's behalf earlier this month, saying he would "harass" Prime Minster Stephen Harper until the government intervened in the case.
Washington maintains that the U.S. Military Commissions Act, which governs the trial process at Guantanamo Bay, doesn't have a minimum age, and is legal under international law.With files from the Canadian Press

Khadr's child soldier defence tossed out..

This is from the National Post. International law means nothing to the U.S. unless it is some enemy of the U.S. that is supposed to be violating it. If Iran ignores UN resolutions sanctions are demanded; if Israel, more military aid is provided. If the U.S. violates international law as in the case of mining Nicaraguan harbours the U.S. manages to help overthrow the government and the U.S. friendly govt. does not try to collect damages.
Guantanamo is a blot on the legal landscape. The best that can be said is that there are some U.S. military lawyers that have shown backbone and have pointed out the flaws in the system, a lot more than Stephen Harper has ever done.
Even though the U.S. has signed the relevant convention in this case it simply ignores it, just as it ignores the Geneva Conventions when it comes to such techniques as water-boarding. Surely this move should convince Harper that Khadr cannot get a fair trial in Guanatanamo. Of course Harper already knows that but he doesn't care. Supporting Khadr will not get him a majority.


Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Presented by
Khadr's child soldier defence tossed out
Steven Edwards, Juliet O'Neill, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, April 30, 2008


A U.S. military judge has dismissed the argument that Omar Khadr -- 15 at the time he allegedly threw a hand grenade that killed a U.S. serviceman -- should be spared a war crimes prosecution on grounds he was a "child soldier" under international law.

Col. Peter Brownback essentially endorsed the Pentagon argument that people under the age of 18 can be brought before the U.S. war crimes commissions at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to Khadr's military defence lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler.

The rejection is a significant setback for Khadr's defence, and little now stands in the way of his trial going ahead as scheduled around the end of July.

But Kuebler says it reflects what he and a significant number of jurists and human rights activists around the world call the bias of the commissions.

"This ruling is an embarrassment to the United States," said Kuebler, who has vigorously campaigned for the Canadian government to call for Khadr's return from the United States on grounds he can't get a fair trial in Guantanamo.

"The military commission process has now clearly failed and Canada will share in the embarrassment if it does not act soon."

The process, authorized by U.S. Congressional legislation in 2006 after the U.S. Supreme Court said earlier versions set up by the Bush administration were illegal, can impose the death penalty on those convicted of capital crimes.

Khadr faces five war crimes charges, including murder -- though the prosecution has said it will not seek the death penalty in his case if he is convicted, but could ask that he be imprisoned for life.

At the Pentagon, the administration office for the commissions had yet to release the text of the ruling Wednesday, and U.S. defence department spokespeople familiar with the process were unavailable.

Kuebler, who arrived in Ottawa Tuesday to speak of Khadr's predicament at hearings held by the parliamentary human rights subcommittee, announced the conclusion of the ruling in a press statement.

In separate rulings the Pentagon did release Wednesday, Brownback also dismissed a bid by Kuebler to have the five charges dismissed on grounds the offences didn't exist at the time of Khadr's 2002 capture because Congressional authorization was not granted until four years later.

Brownback cited Supreme Court rulings that gave Congress the right to let the commissions "determine for themselves what are the violations of the law of war."

At a Guantanamo hearing before Brownback in February, Kuebler argued the U.S. Congress couldn't have wanted the commissions to try people under the age of adulthood because allowing such would be inconsistent with the terms of a child soldier "protocol" Congress has ratified.

The protocol - which is attached to the global Rights of the Child treaty, and which Canada has also ratified - says countries that take child soldiers into custody should help with their "rehabilitation and social integration."

Kuebler also pointed out that commission rules fail to follow historical military law in the U.S. by distinguishing between juveniles and adults - therefore, he argued, the commissions are meant just for adults.

Prosecutors hit back by pointing out the protocol does not explicitly preclude prosecution of a child soldier - and said there was no evidence Congress "had any qualms" about prosecuting Khadr for war crimes because he was first charged a year before the 2006 authorization act.

""Congress therefore knew that the government intended to prosecute Khadr," prosecutors say in a written argument.

Kuebler and his civilian co-counsel, Rebecca Snyder, have uncovered U.S. military records that suggest Khadr may not have even lobbed the hand grenade that mortally wounded Delta Force Sgt. Chris Speer in a firefight in Afghanistan - and which led to the murder charge against him.

But while former Liberal administrations failed to consistently press for Toronto-born Khadr's return to Canada, the current Conservative government has said it intends to let the legal process play itself out before it goes beyond monitoring Khadr's detention conditions.

"Our best hope has always been intervention by the Canadian government to protect Omar's rights as a child soldier under international law," Kuebler said.

"I think if the Canadian government does not act soon, Omar is going to be convicted of a murder that he very likely did not commit and face a life sentence in a matter of months."

He spoke before meeting Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who has been calling for Khadr's repatriation since last September.

"If they are unable, our American friends, to give him a trial in a legal court, a regular court in the United States, we want him back in Canada," Dion told reporters.

In a prepared statement, Dion said the Canadian government has a duty to ensure Khadr's rights under the Canadian charter and international law are respected. "Omar Khadr is innocent until proven guilty and must be offered the same legal rights and due process as any other Canadian facing trial," Dion said. "This may not be a politically popular case to pursue, but this is the right thing to do."

He noted that lawyers who lead the bar associations in Canada, the United Kingdom and France have pointed out the U.S. Military Commissions Act of 2006 wrongly subjects individuals to trial by military commission solely on the basis of their status as aliens.

"The trial and continuing detention of Omar Khadr constitutes a violation of the fundamental principles of the rule of law including: arbitrary and illegal detention, denial of procedural due process, denial of the right to counsel, and denial of the right to trial within a reasonable time before a fair and impartial tribunal," the statement said.

"Canada cannot pick and choose when to intervene on behalf of Canadians detained abroad. Omar Khadr must receive the same level of support from his government as would any other Canadian."

Canwest News Service

Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

Khadr (Omar) 'not a risk' Commons committee told.

What if he is a risk? What difference should it make? Canada can arrest him and try him if there is enough evidence to bring forward a case against him and surely there is. The point is that there is no chance of a fair trial in Guantanamo and Canada is disgracing itself in not trying to rescue Khadr from the clutches of U.S. injustice.
While the fact that Khadr was a "child soldier" is relevant I think that Khadr was certainly a willing participant in jihad. I can't go along with the idea that he is somehow just a passive product of brainwashing. Why is this so at fifteen but not at eighteen or even thirty five? The fact that his family --even the CIA snoop who loves U.S. video games?--is hated by Canadians is neither here nor there. All that it shows is that many Canadians have no clue about justice.

Khadr 'not a risk,' Commons committee told
TheStar.com - Canada - Khadr 'not a risk,' Commons committee told

Omar Khadr being persecuted because of his father and his family, U.S. military lawyer says

April 29, 2008
Michelle Shephard
National Security Reporter

OTTAWA——Omar Khadr is being tried for the sins of his father and would not pose a risk to Canada if returned home, his U.S. military lawyer told a parliamentary committee today.

"Omar's story is one of victimization by everyone who has ever had authority over him and punishment for misdeeds of others," U.S. Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler told the committee members.

Kuebler argued that the Toronto-born detainee would be convicted if he goes to trial at Guantanamo Bay for war crimes — not because the evidence shows his guilt, but because the military commissions are designed to ensure convictions.

The hearing today before the subcommittee on international human rights marks the first time that Canadian politicians have held public hearings to discuss Khadr's continued detention and upcoming trial.

Now 21, Khadr has been in U.S. custody since July 27, 2002, following a firefight in Afghanistan. The Pentagon alleges that Khadr threw a grenade at the end of the battle that fatally wounded U.S. Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer.

The committee intends to call at least a dozen witnesses, including Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire and Louise Arbour, the United Nation's High Commissioner of Human Rights and former Canadian Supreme Court Justice.

The unconfirmed list of witnesses also includes Khadr's family members, who have been vilified in Canada since admitting ties to Al Qaeda and by condemning Canada's culture and foreign policy while asking for the government's help.

Kuebler spared no criticism of the family today and said they were to blame for Canada's reluctance to call for Khadr's repatriation.

An Angus Reid Strategies poll released last week showed that only 33 per cent of Canadians believed Khadr would receive a fair trial if tried at Guantanamo, but less than half of the 1,015 Canadians polled believed he should be brought home to face justice here.

Kuebler told the committee that Canadians likely worry that Khadr would pose a danger to Canada if returned.

"Such concerns are understandable — understandable in light of the deplorable and offensive behaviour of certain members of the Khadr family, understandable in light of the lies that have been told about Omar and his actions in the July 2002 firefight in Afghanistan, and understandable in light of Canadians' justifiable anger with the actions of Omar's father."

But Khadr views himself as a "victim of the decisions made for him by his family," Kuebler said, and does not have the "dreams of a dangerous jihadist" but wants to get a job and "begin living, as best he can, the ordinary and normal life of a Canadian citizen."

Outside of the hearing room, Conservative MP Jason Kenney said the federal government's position on Khadr's case has remained consistent.

"We've taken close note of the case (and) we remained in constant contact with Mr. Khadr. We've pressed the American authorities to ensure he received proper care and we've asked that they take into account his age," Kenney said.

But when asked if the government considers Khadr a "child soldier," Kenney dodged the question.

The Toronto-born detainee was 15 when he was captured and his lawyers have argued that international law protects child soldiers who are captured in armed conflict.

Prosecutors have countered that the Military Commissions Act — under which Khadr was charged after U.S. President George W. Bush signed it into law in October 2006 — does not prescribe a minimum age for prosecution.

U.S. Army Col. Peter Brownback, the military judge presiding over Khadr's case, has yet to rule on the defence's motion arguing that the case should be dismissed due to Khadr's age.

If Brownback grants the motion, it will be the third time that charges against Khadr have been thrown out.

In a landmark ruling in June 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Bush administration's first attempt at war crimes trials illegal. Then Brownback dismissed the charges against Khadr again last summer, ruling he didn't have jurisdiction to hear the case. A Washington appeals court overturned that decision.

Khadr will appear before Brownback once again next week for another pre-trial hearing.

Dallaire: Bring Khadr Home.

This is an eloquent argument for bringing Khadr back to Canada by Romeo Dallaire. While I appreciate the boy soldier argument there are plenty of arguments for intervening even without it. The idea that "child" soldiers are always victims seems to me seriously flawed. Omar was hardly coerced in the way that many African child soldiers were coerced. There is not some magic age at which teenagers gain free will! Omar's brother Abdurahman grew up in the same family and became a spy for the U.S. However, as Dallaire points out there are many other reasons such as lack of due process that would mandate Canadian intervention. Other countries defend their citizens in Guantanamo but not Canada. France has to intervene on Khadr's behalf. By the way Dallaire is wrong about Khadr being shot in the chest he was shot in the back. If the Special Forces people had not decided he was an asset he would have been executed as the other person who was alive was.



Monday, March 31, 2008

Presented by
Bring Omar Khadr home
Romeo Dallaire, National Post
Published: Monday, March 31, 2008

Reuters
Omar Khadr is a Canadian citizen who was a 15-year-old child soldier when he allegedly killed a U.S. serviceman during a firefight in Afghanistan. The debate about his return to Canada must begin and end there. That the current and past Canadian governments have failed to secure his release and repatriation is a glaring instance of hypocrisy by this country that prides itself on its advocacy of human rights and adherence to international law.

Child soldiers who are Canadian citizens belong in Canada for due judicial processing and, more importantly, for rehabilitation after having been reared and coerced into extremism and violence.

All other details about Omar Khadr's activities in Afghanistan and the aftermath of his capture by U.S. forces only strengthen the argument for his return. The 15-year-old Omar was in a compound during aU.S. attack and was shot twice in the chest during the raid. After his capture, he was transferred to the U.S.'s infamous Bagram detention facility where he was processed as an adult combatant and very likely mistreated and tortured.

Since 2002, Mr. Khadr has undergone relentless interrogation at the notorious U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Following years in detention, Mr. Khadr was charged in February, 2007 for war crimes and terrorism under a military tribunal the Bush administration arbitrarily created and continues to manipulate. This makeshift tribunal allows statements made under coercion and hides potentially exculpatory evidence. Despite international protests, Mr. Khadr will be the first ever child soldier tried for alleged war crimes by any Western nation, including the United States.

Canada's Conservative government has demonstrated a sorry lack of decisiveness and effort to bring Khadr home. Our other allies recognized at the outset that Guantanamo was no place for due process, and quickly and successfully pushed for their citizens' release and repatriation. Today, Mr. Khadr is the only remaining citizen of a Western country incarcerated in Guantanamo.

Although Canada has no established system for dealing with child soldiers, we can learn much from nations that do. Rwanda and Sierra Leone, for example, countries we smugly categorize as underdeveloped, use a combination of demobilization, youth justice and rehabilitation on child soldiers who were abused and used to commit unspeakable acts.

Even in Afghanistan where a war is in full swing, thousands of former child soldiers are processed through UN-designed special rehabilitation programs. Such programs are founded on the principle that child soldiers, regardless of their actions during conflict, are themselves victims who were incapable of the adult decision-making consistent with our conventional notions of responsibility and guilt.

In the face of my repeated questions in the Senate and the outcry from human rights groups about Omar Khadr's fate, the Canadian government remains blind and deaf to the obvious. They simply spout the same stock response: he "faces serious charges" and he is "being treated humanely."

As to his status as a child soldier, the government maintains a shameful silence. Perhaps the fact that Khadr's alleged victim was an American intimidates our government. Or perhaps it doesn't like the Khadr family's political views and therefore ignores Omar's plight. How ironic the government fought so vigorously to contain outrage about possible human rights violations of Afghan detainees, yet they ignore those of Mr. Khadr, a Canadian.

Canada's stance on the Khadr case unquestionably violates the spirit of the UN protocol on child soldiers and makes a mockery of our championing this and similar human rights causes.

The recent Manley report on Canada's mission in Afghanistan correctly points out that our commitment "gives faithful expression to our values" and affords us a larger role on the world stage. While the bravery and professionalism of our soldiers in Afghanistan have indeed enhanced our standing as an emerging middle power, the government's handling of other files clearly detracts from our credibility. In Darfur, for example, we have coldly turned our backs on our own Responsibility-to-Protect principles.

The international community notices all of Canada's glaring missteps on the world stage and carefully compares our words to our actions. If we continue to allow discrepancies between the two, we will quickly become known as 'the ugly Canadian' --hypocritical in the international community and uncaring at home. In Omar Khadr's case, we are in danger of being both. - Lt.-Gen. (ret'd) Romeo Dallaire is a Liberal Senator and former Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda.

Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

Interrogator: I didn't hurt Khadr

The last sentence of the article says it all.
" The documents released last week note Claus was once offered immunity in order to testify about the Khadr case. He said yesterday he could not discuss the issue."

The prosecution do not want this character to be put on the stand and subject to any cross-examination. His statements sound like unsconscious humour. This guy who was jailed for months for maltreatment and assault of Dilawar was he claims nevertheless sympathetic to Khadr who after all was surely known to be a member of a notorious family of Al Qaeda supporters--except for the black sheep who spied for the U.S.




Interrogator: I didn't hurt Khadr

Ex-prosecutor seeks retirement
The U.S. Air Force lawyer who quit as chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo war court five months ago alleging political interference has asked to leave the U.S. military.Ex-U.S. soldier says he spent much of his time trying to understand and win the trust of young Canadian

Mar 26, 2008 04:30 AM
Michelle Shephard
National Security Reporter

A former U.S. soldier who spent weeks interrogating Omar Khadr says he wants to testify before a Guantanamo Bay court and rejects any accusations that he harshly treated the Canadian detainee.

In the first interview he has given since leaving the army, Joshua Claus told the Toronto Star that he feels he has been unfairly portrayed concerning his work as an interrogator at the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan.

"They're trying to imply I'm beating or torturing everybody I ever talked to," Claus said by telephone yesterday. "I really don't care what people think of me. I know what I did and I know what I didn't do."

Claus was identified during a Guantanamo hearing as Khadr's chief interrogator during the three months the Toronto teenager was imprisoned in Bagram.

Khadr had been shot and captured in Afghanistan on July 27, 2002, following a firefight in which he's alleged to have thrown a grenade that fatally wounded Delta Force soldier Sgt. Christopher Speer.

The prosecution is relying on damning statements Khadr made in Bagram, reportedly admitting his involvement, which his lawyers argue were gleaned under torture.

Khadr faces five war crimes charges before a military commission including "murder in violation of the laws of war," for Speer's death. The Pentagon also alleges he conspired to kill U.S. forces in Afghanistan and provided support to Al Qaeda.

Khadr's lawyers fought to get access to Claus at a Guantanamo hearing earlier this month after the prosecution had dropped him from a previous witness list.

Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler accused the prosecution of trying to hide Claus' identity because he had been involved in the interrogation of an Afghan detainee who died in U.S. custody.

The December 2002 death of anAfghan taxi driver named Dilawar was ruled a homicide by military investigators and was the subject of a New York Times investigation and an Oscar-winning documentary called Taxi to the Darkside. Both the film and newspaper story portrayed an inexperienced unit of soldiers under tremendous pressure to get intelligence in Bagram.

Claus was 21 at the time, and the assignment was his first deployment. But he said yesterday it was unfair to compare his interrogation of Khadr to that of Dilawar or the other detainees.

"Omar was pretty much my first big case," Claus said, noting that they'd talk for six to eight hours a day. "With Omar I spent a lot of time trying to understand who he was and what I could say to him or do for him, whether it be to bring him extra food or get a letter out to his family ... I needed to talk to him and get him to trust me."

He said he was trying to find a "symbiotic relationship" with Khadr, who was 15 at the time of his capture.

In September 2005, Claus pleaded guilty to maltreatment and assault of Dilawar and was sentenced to five months in jail.

The 2,000-page confidential army file on the investigation into the case, obtained by The New York Times, quotes another soldier saying that on the day Dilawar died, Claus stood behind him and twisted up the back of the hood that covered his head.

"I had the impression that Josh was actually holding the detainee upright by pulling on the hood," he said. "I was furious at this point because I had seen Josh tighten the hood of another detainee the week before. This behaviour seemed completely gratuitous and unrelated to intelligence collection."

"These two events are completely separate," Claus said yesterday, pointing out Khadr's interrogation was three months before Dilawar's, among other differences.

He said he became "emotionally involved" with the Dilawar case and lost his temper, unlike Khadr's interrogation, which was controlled.

Khadr's time at Bagram is key because the prosecution has relied on his interrogations in building the case against the Toronto-born detainee, who is now 21.

"Toward the end of the firefight, the accused threw a grenade that killed Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer," notes the prosecution in a court submission last year, with a footnote to an "interview of accused Sept. 17, 2002."

The court filing to Washington's Court of Military Commission Review continues: "When asked on September 17, 2002, why he helped the men construct the explosives the accused (Khadr) responded `to kill U.S. forces.'

"The accused then related during the same interview that he had been told the U.S. wanted to go to war against Islam. And for that reason he assisted in the building and later deploying of the explosives, and later threw a grenade at the American."

In an affidavit released this month, Khadr claims he was sometimes brought to interrogations on a stretcher – still recovering from being shot twice in the back and extensive eye injuries. His lawyers argue his statements are unreliable because they were the product of "coercion or torture."

Claus said yesterday he had not been contacted by the prosecution recently and did not know if he would be called to testify. He would also not comment on what he is doing now or disclose the location from where he was calling.

The documents released last week note Claus was once offered immunity in order to testify about the Khadr case. He said yesterday he could not discuss the issue.

Canada's inaction in the case of Omar Khadr puzzling, embarassing

Harper is not worried or embarassed. He supports the U.S. Even though Canadian lawyers have asked him to intervene and France has intervened on behalf of Khadr, Harper sees no virtue in it and much of his conservative constitutency support what he is doing. A recent Globe Poll had these results:
The question was whether Khadr should be tried as a youth in Canada. Only 23 % said yes and a whopping 77 per cent said no. This is a completely unscientific poll but even a regular poll by Angus Reid in June 2007 showed that Canadians were almost evenly split on Khadr's fate:
"A new Angus Reid poll shows Canadians to be divided over Khadr's fate: 41% of respondents believe the Canadian government should actively seek his release from Guantanamo Bay, while 40% disagree.
On the question of whether Khadr - who was 15 at the time his crimes took place - should be considered a child soldier and not a war criminal, 47% agreed while 36% disagreed. The poll surveyed 1,081 Canadian adults."
As the article points out to intervene might offend the U.S.--but some countries such as France have supported him anyway. However, Harper wants to be seen as a great leader in the war against terror and a protector of human rights only when it is politically safe for a right winger such as himself. Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Tibet, Myanmar, are all safe targets but not the U.S. the great promoter of democracy, freedom, and so on...

Canada's inaction in the case of Omar Khadr puzzling, embarrassing
Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, March 21, 2008
The reasons against trying Omar Khadr before a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay keep piling up, yet the Canadian government continues to refuse to do anything about it.

Khadr, who was born in Toronto and is a Canadian citizen, has been held in Guantanamo for more than five years. His trial, on charges of lobbing a grenade that killed U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, has been repeatedly delayed, and is now expected to begin in the next few months.

But new evidence casts doubt on whether Khadr should have been charged in the first place. According to Khadr's military lawyer, U.S. Navy Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, the U.S. government "manufactured evidence to make it look like Omar was guilty."


At issue are two documents received by Khadr's defence team during the discovery process. According to Kuebler, the first document was written on July 28, 2002, one day after a firefight involving Khadr, and reports that a U.S. soldier killed the man believed to be responsible for Speer's death.

Yet another document, written several months later but also dated July 28, 2002, reports that the U.S. soldier only "engaged," rather than killed, Speer's assailant. And since Khadr was the only person found alive in the compound, the revised report implicates him.

This is troubling news in what has already been a troubling case. Khadr has, after all, been held for more than five years without a trial, and is now set to face a military trial that has been criticized by legal groups around the world.

Further, there have been rumours that Khadr and other Guantanamo prisoners were subject to torture, and that the evidence obtained through torture might be used against them.

This alone provides sufficient reason to put a stop to this trial. But there is a much more important reason: Although Khadr is now 21 years old, at the time of the alleged offence, he was 15 -- a child according to Canadian, American and international law.

And as Kuebler has said, "It is unprecedented to try a child for war crimes." Indeed, no international tribunals -- not the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, not the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and not the Special Court for Sierra Leone -- have prosecuted anyone under 18.

Further, both Canada and the U.S. have expressed their support for the Paris Principles, which state that child soldiers "should be considered primarily as victims of offences against international law."

And both countries were leaders in the drafting and adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires parties to the protocol to provide assistance for the physical and psychological recovery of child soldiers and to facilitate their social reintegration.

Finally, both countries have provided millions of dollars to aid in the rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers in Afghanistan.

Yet when one of the child soldiers happens to be Canadian, the U.S. proceeds with a prosecution and Canada stands idly by.

This is a tremendous embarrassment for Canada, especially given that the British and Australian governments have successfully lobbied the U.S. to repatriate their (adult) Guantanamo-incarcerated nationals.

So Canada's inaction is as puzzling as it is troubling. Perhaps the government fears upsetting the U.S. and appearing soft in the war on terror.

But in giving in to those fears, Canada risks a much worse fate: That it will be seen worldwide as a nation willing to ignore the rule of law and the rights of children.




© The Vancouver Sun



Canada's inaction in the case of Omar Khadr puzzling, embarrassing
Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, March 21, 2008
The reasons against trying Omar Khadr before a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay keep piling up, yet the Canadian government continues to refuse to do anything about it.

Khadr, who was born in Toronto and is a Canadian citizen, has been held in Guantanamo for more than five years. His trial, on charges of lobbing a grenade that killed U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, has been repeatedly delayed, and is now expected to begin in the next few months.

But new evidence casts doubt on whether Khadr should have been charged in the first place. According to Khadr's military lawyer, U.S. Navy Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, the U.S. government "manufactured evidence to make it look like Omar was guilty."


At issue are two documents received by Khadr's defence team during the discovery process. According to Kuebler, the first document was written on July 28, 2002, one day after a firefight involving Khadr, and reports that a U.S. soldier killed the man believed to be responsible for Speer's death.

Yet another document, written several months later but also dated July 28, 2002, reports that the U.S. soldier only "engaged," rather than killed, Speer's assailant. And since Khadr was the only person found alive in the compound, the revised report implicates him.

This is troubling news in what has already been a troubling case. Khadr has, after all, been held for more than five years without a trial, and is now set to face a military trial that has been criticized by legal groups around the world.

Further, there have been rumours that Khadr and other Guantanamo prisoners were subject to torture, and that the evidence obtained through torture might be used against them.

This alone provides sufficient reason to put a stop to this trial. But there is a much more important reason: Although Khadr is now 21 years old, at the time of the alleged offence, he was 15 -- a child according to Canadian, American and international law.

And as Kuebler has said, "It is unprecedented to try a child for war crimes." Indeed, no international tribunals -- not the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, not the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and not the Special Court for Sierra Leone -- have prosecuted anyone under 18.

Further, both Canada and the U.S. have expressed their support for the Paris Principles, which state that child soldiers "should be considered primarily as victims of offences against international law."

And both countries were leaders in the drafting and adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires parties to the protocol to provide assistance for the physical and psychological recovery of child soldiers and to facilitate their social reintegration.

Finally, both countries have provided millions of dollars to aid in the rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers in Afghanistan.

Yet when one of the child soldiers happens to be Canadian, the U.S. proceeds with a prosecution and Canada stands idly by.

This is a tremendous embarrassment for Canada, especially given that the British and Australian governments have successfully lobbied the U.S. to repatriate their (adult) Guantanamo-incarcerated nationals.

So Canada's inaction is as puzzling as it is troubling. Perhaps the government fears upsetting the U.S. and appearing soft in the war on terror.

But in giving in to those fears, Canada risks a much worse fate: That it will be seen worldwide as a nation willing to ignore the rule of law and the rights of children.




© The Vancouver Sun