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The Omar Khadr repatriation thread - Part 1
October 5, 2011 - 5:43pm
The last we heard, Omar Khadr was serving the first year of his 8-year sentence in the highest security section of Guantanamo Bay, after which, in November 2011, he would be allowed to apply to the U.S. and Canadian governments for transfer to Canada, to serve out his remaining sentence here.
For background on Khadr and his persecution, check these links:
CBC documentary, October 2010: The U.S. vs Omar Khadr.
Series of articles and collection of links at WL [WikiLeaks] Central on Omar Khadr, starting HERE.
And just a backgrounder on the family themselves
The Kahdr Family: Working for the CIA 2004
Omar must have the worst lawyers in the world and been handed over to the American inquisition by one of the most corrupt stoogeaucracies in the world there in Ottawa at the time. It's either that or Guantanamo is a nest of al-Qa'eda spies working for the U.S. Military dictatorship for x-rated number of years through today.
A timely post, Spector, as it so happens a
new documentary on Khadr interrogation released in UK on Friday:
YOU DON’T LIKE THE TRUTH - 4 days inside Guantánamo is a documentary based on security camera footage from the Guantánamo Bay prison.
http://www.youdontlikethetruth.com/?lang=En&page=Home
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/05/guantanamo-film-rights-child-soldier?CMP=twt_gu
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2011/10/05/i-lost-my-eyes-omar-khadr-interrogations-at-guantanamo-bay/
Yes, this is the same doc that was on the CBC last year, showing Khadr's interrogation by Canadian agents. I'm glad it's now getting a wider distribution in the world.
And the elder Khadr fought for the CIA in 1980s Afghanistan, and this is how the family is rewarded in the 2000s by our then Libranos Government of Canada. It's almost like belonging to the mafia.
And we know what Abdurahman Omar's brother was up to in Gitmo while working for the U.S. Military dictatorship.
It never ceases to amaze us troofers just how many Qa'eda recruits end up on the CIA's payroll. We've lost count actually. It's hard to keep up with the revolving door goings on between Al CIA'duh and their masters in the CIA, ISI, MI6 etc. It's like they've been playing hippity hop at the barber shop, and the rules change all the time. Compensation packages are very good, but retirement is never an option.
The U.S. Military Inquisition and their obedient capos in Ottawa: Teacherous bastards they are can't trust one another. There simply isn't any loyalty these days. No rhyme or reason to it all when working for Murder Inc.
Khadr applies for repatriation
18 fucking months?? They made him languish in maximum security in the Guantanamo gulag for a whole year before allowing him to apply for repatriation, and now he has to wait another year and a half to hear Vic Toews deny his application?
According to Michelle Sheppard of the Toronto Star, Vic Toews's office is denying they have any obligation to honour the gun-to-the-head "plea bargain" Khadr was forced to sign last year:
Of course Vic Toews is well aware of what is in the plea deal, even if his idiot "spokesman" isn't.
A year ago when Gilles Duceppe asked, "Yes or no, will the Prime Minister authorize the transfer of Omar Khadr once he has served his one year?” the answer from Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon was, "We will implement the agreement that was reached between Mr. Khadr and the government of the United States." This was accepted at the time as meaning the government would allow Khadr's repatriation, but in fact that's not what Cannon promised, since the plea agreement doesn't oblige Canada to do anything..
I'm sure the ndp will be all over this - surely? There's a question for the candidates...
Yes, yes, the Liberals stood up in the House and lied to Canada's Parliament and the NDP who demanded that the then colonial administrativeship see to it personally that the vast stoogeaucracy in Ottawa would ensure Omar's rights were not violated.
And the Liberals said Yes! Yes we are on it yesterday. No need to worry, because we won't see one more member of Al-CIA'duh's rights violated by the inquisition. And I think they meant not one but many.
I still think they could have cleared up this confusion with issuing 2-4-1 secret club membership rings at the embassies for fasttracking their Qaeda agents(mujahideen) from Riyadh, Islamabad and Cairo throught the gates at Ottawa and Washington. It wouldve saved them a lot of hassle over the years. I wonder what the deal is now, eye/hand scanners?
Excerpts from reviews of the Omar Khadr documentary in The Guardian:
Peter Bradshaw
Philip French
Another review
Update: The DVD was released in the UK on November 7. Review [5 out of 5 stars]
thx for the links
Right, thanks, I missed that this documentary had previous release venues.
I had doubts at the time that the Cons would honour the agreed on deal extorted at the kangaroo military tribunal from within the Gitmo torture chambre.
The extra-judicial nature of these tribunals is partly summarized here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_military_commission
The US/Canada Governments and their corporate press basked in the coerced "guilty" plea as if it signified due process.
The show-trial "guilty plea" produced what the US wanted (and might have had a hard time getting without further gitmo torture techniques): that is, a "confession" from the (at the time of the alleged crime) 15 year old.
Additionally, the US thought they would unload one of their more embarrassing Gitmo victims. (Wikileaks revealed the US problems with repatriation of Gitmo victims)
In my opinion, only if there is sufficient public and international pressure (and probably more to the point, pressure from the US itself), will the extorted guilty plea deal be honoured and Khadr repatriated.
Otherwise, expect that further pseudo-legal "lawfare" outrages will be perpertrated on Khadr by our Con sado-fascists.
Another excellent subject for questions to the NDP leadership contenders...
It's not just procedural differences. The "military commissions" apply a unique set of laws that are at variance with anything known to international law. Read what Lt. Col. Frakt says in this piece by Andy Worthington.
The Conservatives believe that child means an innocent. They have taken the same approach with our juvenile court system. To them any child capable of committing a violent crime is an adult because they have lost their innocence.
This case shows the child soldier conventions to be simply propaganda. American Exceptionalism allows them to be the exception to any international law or convention they want.
Khadr Asks to Return to Canada from Guantanamo
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Khadr+asks+retur...
"Toronto-born Omar Khadr, the youngest detainee ever held at the US 'war on terror' prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has officially asked to return home to Canada, one of his lawyers said Tuesday..."
I don't know why this is suddenly news to the Ottawa Citizen. It happened over three weeks ago, as I reported at #5 above.
The whole thing is a propaganda campaign meant to drive people into thinking "al-Qa'eda" is a real enemy.
Elvis bin Laden was a myth, and his invisible army of darkness does not actually exist.
It's all a pack of lies, I'm afraid. Omar Khadr's elder brother is al-CIA'duh according to CBC reports of several years ago. And some people are actually surprised by how many Qaeda end up on the CIA's payroll.
[I refuse to link to the Toronto Sun. It makes the baby Jesus cry.]
Why did the U.S. Military bother picking up youngster Omar Khadr near Tora Bora? It makes no sense whatsoever. Where is their proof that this kid had anything to do with the invisible army of darkness which does not exist? It would be laughable if it wasn;t so sad.
No End to the Shameful Treatment of Omar Khadr - by Andy Worthington
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1111a.asp
"It was deeply disturbing that the US government was willing to suggest to the world that those who raise arms against US forces in wartime, and in a country where the United States is engaged in a war, can actually be defined as war criminals, even if their only targets are members of the US military.
Khadr, I believe, should be freed on his return to Canada, as a gesture of support from a government that shamefully abandoned him for the best part of a decade..."
Fortunately, the courts don't always rely on the kind of unattributed and unproven allegations that the corporate MSM treat as "news".
— AFP
The Khadr family member I was referring to confessed to a CBC Newz reporter and not under duress of torture, unlike all those other non Al-CIA'duhs abducted off the streets of Algiers, Morocco, Kabul, Baghdad, Cairo etc have done after actually being tortured into giving false information since 2001. It's best we keep it straight who has confessed to what and under what circumstances. The American inquisition prefers that we be confused about these issues, but some of us are keeping track of what has been a parade of US Military dictatorship lies, deception, and half-truths concocted to conceal much larger lies.
The intent of actual torture is never to discover truth. I repeat, use of actual torture is never intended to discover truth. Inquisitions then or now have no regard for truth whatsoever as a general rule.
OTOH, no one is saying that torture has no purpose - it does. And apparently that purpose is much more insidious than some of us have imagined it to be.
I was talking about Abdurahman Khadr not Abdullah. CIA paid me to spy: Abdurahman Khadr. The father, Ahmed Khadr, and similar to a number of alleged 9/11 hijackers and schemers, was also a rabid anticommunist who fought for the CIA in 1980s-90s Afghanistan. Anticommunist jihadi-mercenaries, trained by the US Military, CIA, SAS etc, have been coming and going from USA and UK since the late 1980s as if a game of hippity-hop at the barber shop. Canada's RCMP have been instructed to enforce a hands off policy on Uncle Sam's Al-CIA'duh agents before. Our corrupt stooges just do as their told. Trust and obey is the only way as far as they are concerned.
It's hard to keep up with how many CIA'duh agents are on the US Military Government payroll these days, we know.
This is colder war baloney. These people are probably on a level with the "Nicaraguan" contras. Them and their's have been mercenaries for hire for the CIA for a long time. Scum of the earth? More than likely. Believe nothing the lapdog newz media, our lead lap poodles in Ottawa, or their imperial masters in Warshington have been saying. All the world's a stage. There is no damn way I can have any sympathy for these mofos. They played with the gladio mafia, and now they pay. Or do they pay? Perhaps it's the other way around. They will likely sue Canadian taxpayers for being so damned naive, then use the proceeds to fund another CIA'duh gladio op somewhere in the world. Crooks and liars and crooked-liars are like that.
Everyone who thinks the US Military dictatorship gives two shits about a US Army Sargent killed by a grenade in Afghanistan should say so. Let's see a show of virtual hands, please. The Khadrs are more than likely voluntary/involuntary bogeymen for the colder war inquisition. They are trotted out like exhibits a and b and used to scare hell out of Americans and Canadian into believing this is a genuine globo war on terror - it's not.
All I'm saying is, let's not worry about Omar so much. His family made career choices. And he will likely be a millionaire by the time he's 30. He's prolly a made member of the gladio mafia. In the mean time we are not being told a helluva lot. Yes, we are doing what we are supposed to be doing now, which is to continue being appalled by this charade. How could they do this to a 15 year-old? We are discussing this case, and it all boils down to his family's relationship to the former king of terror, Elvis bin Laden. Plenty more fake Al-CIa'da ringleaders lined-up to take his place. That's what we are supposed to know and nothing more.
The glasnost is half full.
Babblers in Ontario can see this film on TV Ontario on Wednesday, November 23 at 9 pm EST.
You can download a free (.pdf & .zip) copy of Michelle Sheppard's book, Guantanamo's Child, at this location (click on Free Download and wait for the clock to count down).
The file is called G0470841176.zip
Alright-alright, I've downloaded the package.
She can say that again. I say, she can say that again. We know it's the hallmark of any democracy for a string of military governments to keep a shitload of secrets from the people paying their salaries. It goes without saying.
This is beginning to sound really good, like a Hollywood movie plot even. Somalia an Al-Qa'eda haven? Hmmm? Interestingly enough, Somalia also happens to be a long-time coveted Pandora's box of naturally occurring treasures. What a coincidence! It seems that crafty old British empire strategists and their modern day cousins in the U.S. have a lot in common these days, except for the Al-Qa'eda bit, of course.
U.S. must "certify" Canada before Khadr can return