The Omar Khadr repatriation thread - Part 1

Ever since his capture while fighting with the Taliban, I've scolded away at those who use the "child soldier" excuse to absolve Khadr of blame for killing a U.S. soldier and critically wounding another. Even at age 15, Khadr knew what he was doing. In the past I've cited several Canadians who joined up at Khadr's age at the time, and fought wars on Canada's behalf.

Where I part company with Ezra -- and the American government and judicial system -- is for punishing Omar Khadr for killing one American soldier and wounding another.

It should be remembered that he had gone to Afghanistan and was trained and serving with al Qaida and the Taliban before 9/11 happened, and before American troops invaded. What Khadr was doing when the Americans troops attacked the position he occupied, was fighting off an invading army. He was doing what any soldier or fighter would do when invaded by an outside, alien force.

To have charged Khadr with murder for fighting back against an invader seems an obvious abuse of law and power. As an enemy combatant, I see no problem in keeping him in custody, or out of circulation, until the war is over.

How can it be that there is such widespread empathy in America for the old and the sick and such revulsion at the idea of restraining them (even for their own good), and yet when it comes to actually torturing people considered to be “terrorists” — even before these people have had a trial — or people who have been jailed, even for non-violent crimes, many of the same people are happy to see them water-boarded, hung by the wrists from the ceiling with only their toes on the ground, placed for hours in stress positions, slammed against the wall, deprived of sleep for days on end, or in the case of common prisoners, placed in solitary, sometimes for months at a stretch, and shackled like slaves when removed from their cells?

It’s the same kind of moral disconnect that has people weeping and becoming outraged over the abuse of animals — for example the case of the Arizona pound that killed a badly injured cat brought in by a homeless man for treatment when it got caught in barbed wire — but then shrugging it off when they hear that another man in Arizona, picked up on a drunk driving charge, was placed in solitary and then left there, without trial or even access to a lawyer, for a year, or when they hear that a number of the so-called “terrorists” held at Guantanamo, sometimes for years, were captured and stolen away from their families in Afghanistan when they were just boys as young as 14!`

One of those boys, Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was 15 when captured, has not only been held at Guantanamo for for over a decade now, but was tortured repeatedly as a child by his US military captors, and ultimately was forced, after a sham military “tribunal,” to choose between endless captivity at Guantanamo or an admission of “guilt” and an additional sentence of 8 years with one more served at Guantanamo and seven more in his native Canada (he chose the latter).  His “crime”? He allegedly tossed a grenade at US troops who were entering a Taliban compound which they had already called in an airstrike on. As the US soldiers were checking out the bodies of the victims of that airstrike, and by some accounts, finishing off the wounded, boy-soldier Khadr, badly wounded himself, is alleged to have tossed a grenade that killed one US soldier. Note that had an American soldier done exactly the same thing under those circumstances he would almost certainly have won at least a Silver Star, and maybe a Medal of Honor, but because this boy was fighting with the Taliban, he was instead charged with murder.

In an interview with Fox News Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch said, "I don't think anyone thinks it's a great idea that we're prosecuting people who have been held for ten years, the evidence gets stale, witnesses are no longer available. So there's strong incentive to move these cases forward, wherever they are."

She further explained, "But it doesn't mean that it's the right outcome. If these people have committed serious crimes, they should get a sentence that's appropriate."

The office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is placing the blame for the "stalled" process to transfer convicted terrorist Omar Khadr home to Canada squarely on the United States.

Toews' office is disputing a New York Times report that pointed the finger at Ottawa over delays in Khadr's return.

The New York Times reported Saturday that Khadr's "limbo status is the result of bureaucratic delays in processing his application to transfer, especially within the Canadian government."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta cannot sign the papers to transfer Khadr home to Canada, the Times reported, until Toews formally asks for his return, which he has not done.

"Khadr has applied to the Americans for transfer. The Americans have yet to approve that transfer," said Toews' spokesman, Michael Patton.

Patton said the transfer process begins on the Americans' side: Khadr applies to American authorities and, once his application is approved in the U.S., it is forwarded to the Correctional Service of Canada, which provides Toews with an "assessment." On the basis of that assessment, Toews approves or denies the application.

"The report that the U.S. is waiting for Canada to ask for Khadr's return is incorrect," he said. "He has applied to return. That application has not been approved by the Americans and no decision on bringing him back to serve the remainder of his sentence has been made."

During a visit to Ottawa on Tuesday, Panetta said negotiations are "continuing" and that he will sign the transfer papers when they cross his desk.

"I don't have a specific timeline for signing it," Panetta said. "But once those arrangements have been made, obviously we will approve the transfer to Canada."...

Once the Americans give approval for the transfer, Patton said, it will be up to Toews to exercise his ministerial discretion and decide whether Canada will let Khadr return to Canada.

So far, Patton said, Toews has never reviewed Khadr's file.

"There are no negotiations between Canada and the U.S. on this at this point," Patton said.

The state media in Canada acts just like any other. About as unbiased as Press TV.