Omar Khadr: The life of a child Islamic Fundamentalist

Omar Khadr is a Canadian citizen who is detained at Gitmo. Captured at 15 in Afghanistan and accused of killing an American medic, along with several other terrorism related charges, he has had a long road to get to his trial. The boy,now 21, has been held in limbo at Gitmo for the last 5 years. The latest twist on this case is the prosecuting military attorney's have withheld a witness, who for reasons of National security can't be identified, until Thursday from the defence. This witness can apparently help the claim of Khadr's lawyers to get him designated as a child soldier. The prosecution didn't bother to talk to this witness and didn't notify the defence till Thursday, the day before the trail was set to go.

Here's some links for your reading pleasure....

en.wikipedia.org...
www.rollingstone.com...
www.cbc.ca...

Now some of those are long so I'll give you some highlights of them.

The Rolling Stone article chronicles some of his earlier life, growing up in a fundamentalist household. His father taught the boys from a young age that martyrdom was a noble death. They moved to Pakistan, where he was educated in a strict Islamic school. Back to Canada after his father was injured in a mine blast. Then back to Pakistan and eventually to Afghanistan, where they lived with OBL in Jalabad. This kid was destined to be a Jihadist. Every moment of his life was dictated by fundamental doctrine. Brainwashed you could say and exposed to the "evils" of the West. He was with OBL when the States launched the cruise missile attack in retaliation for the African Embassy bombings.

The RS article also chronicles the torture of Khadr at the hands of the military in Gitmo. Physical beatings, sensory depravation, sensory overload, humiliation, loss of self idenity. You know, GWB "enhanced interrogation techniques". It also goes on to talk about his brother, who the US tried to use as an informant inside Gitmo. But removed him because there was so little to find out.

The wiki article is a chronicle mostly of the charges leveled against Khadr. It also provides some background on him.

The Canadian Government has abandoned him. They haven't tried in the least, unlike other world government's, to get this person released back to Canada. They have ignored repeated attempts by organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to pressure them into intervening on this person's behalf with the US government.

I have found no mention of this in big US news sources. NONE. One hit for the Miami Herald and one for the Washington Post. Surprised? I'm not. Why in the name of all thats good would the US press cover a trial like this? It deals with the torture, not "enhanced interrogation techniques", torture, of a child soldier.

I am not disputing the facts or the allegations made against Khadr. I don't know if there true or not. I am waiting for the trial to decide that. What I am against is the torture of a kid. I am against the war crimes that the current US administration has perpetrated on the world and it's citizens in the name of "Freedom and Democracy". What I am against is how these war criminals keep walking free while people are tortured by there decree. Many of whom have been found to be innocent.

Cry me a River, Build a bridge, and Get over it...That 'kid' and his circle jerk Mosque buddies would see you Dead, your kids Dead, your country Dead, and fight over who get's to strap on the nut and ball-bearing filled explosive pack to pop in your local pizza joint on a friday night... *SNIP* his "feeling's"...

Mod Edit: Profanity/Circumvention Of Censors – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 11/11/2007 by Mirthful Me]

reply to post by GAOTU789

just working out the maths (of ages)
it does seem strange that the father would want to move to afghanistan when the Taliban were in power (a statement within its self)
the kid probably has been brainwashed.
who do you blame the kid, or the father ?
or even the mother ?

if he has killed (the kid) then he needs to learn what is right and wrong,
not a ferocious doctrine installed by his father

Khadr was definitely brainwashed or indoctrinated from a young age into the fundamentalist way of thinking. The article's tells about his father talking about martyrdom as a noble way to die. This guy didn't stand a chance from the start.

Blame would lie with the father and education he was provided. Think about growing up always hearing of the evils of the west,of Christianity without having the chance of hearing the other side. Even in Canada, he was schooled at strict Islamic schools with very little exposure to our culture.

The Canadian government has not abandoned these people; they were never ours to abandon. In fact, they are rather lucky they are still here.

I recall seeing an interview with the Khadr family where they had basically said that were they in Afghanistan, they would gladly kill any Canadian soldier they found there as a foreign oppressor and would be proud of any family member martyred for the cause. They said all this from the comfort of their Toronto home, paid for by Canadian welfare, under the protection of Canadian law enforcement officers. Needless to say, the journalists were not impressed.

In my mind there is no doubt that the younger Khadr is guilty of killing an American medic. Brainwashed or not, he and his family are not Canadians and should not be treated as such. A simple google search of the Kadr's will reveal a history of violence towards the west as well as ties to fundamentalist groups. Osama attended a family wedding for pete's sake.

For the record I am firmly against the war on terror and a strong proponent of Canadian sovereignty. But these people are only Canadian in the legal sense, that is citizenship, and deserve no Canadian intervention on their behalf.

***UPDATE***


www.theglobeandmail.com...

Doubt cast on allegations against Omar Khadr

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — Another fighter was still alive inside the Afghan compound where Omar Khadr was captured at the time a grenade killed a U.S. soldier, casting doubt on allegations that only the teenage militant could have been responsible for the soldier's death.

It has long been assumed by many that Mr. Khadr was the only combatant alive during the firefight, and so must have been the one who threw the grenade.

It appears that through a mistaken leak to the press present at the pre-trial which started yesterday, new revelations have come to light in this young man's case.

There was another person alive in the compound at the time of the grenade attack, who was subsequently killed by a SF officer involved in the attack.

While the interviewed agent — whose identity and agency affiliation are still secret — says he believes Mr. Khadr threw the grenade, his account of events clearly shows that he deduced that conclusion rather than saw it first-hand.

Dudn't say nothin' about him sitting back to OC-1 facing the wall in the compound and being shot twice... nice down-spin on the quota selections. Wondered who'd post. We roared with laughter that the Yanks mistakenly released this to the defense and the press. We'll have to see what the judge says after reconviening.

Vic

A couple of new twists on Khadr's trial.

Evidence doctored to implicate Khadr: Lawyer

The tribunal heard that in one official report dated July 28, 2002, the commander "Lieut. Col. W" wrote that the person who threw the grenade at Sgt. Christopher Speer had died, which would rule out Khadr as the suspect.

Yet, in a near-identical report written two months later, but also dated July 28, the commander changed a single line to read the grenade thrower did not die.

It was revealed yesterday that one of Khadr's interrogators at Bagram, identified only as Sgt. C, was court-martialled and disciplined in connection with the December 2002 beating death of a detainee.

Given that Sgt. C was one of Khadr's interrogators, "creates an overwhelming lack of confidence in the evidence that the government is going forward on," Kuebler later told reporters.

Khadr team wins a small victory

In what is being hailed a bittersweet victory, lawyers for Omar Khadr yesterday won the right to question a U.S. commander who changed a report about a firefight in Afghanistan, blaming Khadr for the murder of a soldier.

Of particular importance to the defence was the ability to question the commander about the discrepancy, as well as the identities of Khadr's interrogators following his capture at an Al Qaeda compound on July 27, 2002. Khadr was 15 when he was arrested after a firefight with U.S. Special Forces.

I'm glad to hear this. Especially since the revelation about one of his interrogators being convicted in the death of a detainee. The defence will get access to all the interrogation notes on Khadr also. Which is another victory. Must be hard to defend someone when the prosecution won't release pertinent information related to the case.

I particularly liked this quote from Khadr's lawyer.

Particularly troubling, said Kuebler, was that the Pentagon blocked the public release of the motions filed by the defence because they contained "negative information."

The move is an attempt to "manipulate the media" because the Pentagon is "taking an absolute beating," said Kuebler.

Imagine the Pentagon trying to do that. I'm shocked.

This is getting interesting. Khadr's lawyers are arguing in the Supreme Court of Canada for the access to interrogation files held by the Canadian Government.

Top court reserves judgment on release of Khadr transcripts

His lawyers have asked Canada's top court to order Ottawa to hand over uncensored transcripts and videotapes of the Canadian interrogations of Khadr in 2003 at the base.

Hope he gets access. It could possibly show that the Canadian Government of the time knew Khadr had been tortured and did nothing about it.

Shameful.

The Supreme Court finally handed down it's ruling on whether Khadr's lawyers could have access to his interrogation.

Top court orders disclosure information concerning Canada’s interrogations of Khadr or subsequent material turned over to the U.S.

The unanimous ruling ordered the federal government to hand over documents pertaining to those 2003 interrogations by agents with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Foreign Affairs Department, since Canada participated in a process that was contrary to international law.

“Our hope at this point is that the Canadian government will read this decision and recognize what everyone else knows, that the system in Guantanamo Bay is contrary to international law, that Omar’s rights have been seriously violated,” Khadr’s Canadian lawyer Nathan Whitling told reporters here today.

Here's the actual Supreme Court ruling for anyone that enjoys reading Legalese.

Supreme Court Ruling

It looks like Khadrs trial date has been set.

www.cbc.ca...

Canadian Omar Khadr was told by a military judge Thursday at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that his trial on war crimes charges will begin on Oct. 8.

Also the new judge presiding over the case has ordered the US military to hand over the interrogation manuals to the defence, something that the prosecution has been unwilling to do up until this point.

Prosecutors have been refusing defence requests for the documents, saying they contained sensitive information.

"The defence says [Khadr's] confession [at Bagram] was extracted under torture," Gillespie said, "and the judge told the prosecution you have 10 days to hand over those documents."

And another interesting twist to all of this is that the trial date comes on the heels of USSC decision to allow prisoners to challenge their detention.

Well, a lot has happened yet so very little has actually occured since my last post in June.

His trial has been delayed repeatedly as both sides argue whom to allow as witnesses and what evidence may be admitted.

Khadr has had another pre trial hearing though on Friday and it appears there has been more conflicting testimony to call into question Khadr's guilt in the death of the American Soldier.

www.cbc.ca...

Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler told the hearing that the photograph shows Khadr buried under the rubble of a collapsed building at the time the grenade that killed Sgt. Christopher Speer was thrown, proving he could not have thrown it.

ca.reuters.com...

Defense lawyers also want to call as witnesses other U.S. soldiers who told investigators that U.S. forces were also throwing grenades at the time, suggesting Speer might have been killed by friendly fire.

His trial will be the first to happen under President Obama, if it occurs at all, as Obama has said he wants to close Gitmo.

evilvonscarry.blogspot.com...

Regardless of what side one sits on about Khadr's innocence or guilt the trial has brought in
scary ideas and some concepts I find a bit concerting.

Now before anyone gets their noses out of joint, my condolences go out to the Speer family and the sacrifice that Chris has made and this article is no way meant to besmirch or undermine the great work he has done or that of the Special Forces.

The Problem:

Although the Khadr's have been know Al-Quida supporters-
Omar Khadr was a 15 year old at the time. Therefore a child, a child soldier maybe but a minor none the less. Not to mention how much autonomy does a 15 year old boy of a fanatical father have? NONE.

During the trial Kahdr has plead guilty to violating rules of war- however the United States government does not recognize the Geneva Convention in the Afghanistan conflict and refused to recognize fighters there as P.O.W.'s instead anyone not in a "uniform" (which ironically is everyone fighting there that is not a part of NATO or the Afghan army) that kills a U.S. Soldier is guilty of being an "unprivileged enemy belligerent" according to the Military Commissions Act .

Sort of like tailoring the law to make the crime fit isn't it? Even the Nazi's didn't have it this hard in Nuremberg which in the light of later law was a kangaroo court anyway. Not to mention the history of military tribunals or courts martial someone is guilty until proven innocent.

This ruling sets a very dangerous precedent not to mention the whole Military Commissions Act as it will inevitably BE turned on the populace at large. Stay tuned to the next altercation where the military is used domestically.