The Omar Khadr repatriation thread - Part 1

101 posts / 0 new

Wed, 2011-10-05 17:43

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://rabble.ca/babble/international-news-and-politics/khadr-handed-40-... last we heard[/url], 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: [url=http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/Doc_Zone/1242299559/ID=1233753588]The U.S. vs Omar Khadr[/url].

Series of articles and collection of links at WL [WikiLeaks] Central on Omar Khadr, starting [url=http://wlcentral.org/node/1778]HERE[/url].

Wed, 2011-10-05 21:48

Fidel

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.

Thu, 2011-10-06 19:50

contrarianna

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

Quote:

The Guardian

Guantánamo film shows plight of Canadian national detained at 15

Filmed interrogation raises ethical questions over treatment of Omar Khadr, arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 and still in custody

The film, Four Days Inside Guantánamo, is released in the UK on Friday. It even casts doubt on the Pentagon's claims that Khadr was responsible for killing a US solder, the incident for which he was tried.

Dennis Edney, a prominent Canadian human rights lawyer who represented Khadr until earlier this year, says he remains dismayed by the attitude of both the US government and that of Canada, which has repeatedly refused to agitate on Khadr's behalf.

"When governments won't stand up to this prosecution of a child soldier, who will stand up to it?" he said. "If you can't protect the most vulnerable in society – which are children – then what is it that you do stand for?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/05/guantanamo-film-rights-child-soldier?CMP=twt_gu

Quote:

“I Lost My Eyes” – Omar Khadr Interrogations at Guantanamo Bay
John Glaser, October 05, 2011

....Watching this, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the fact that at least 92 Gitmo interrogation tapes were destroyed by the CIA. For the obvious reason of covering up the vastly more extreme torture and abuse that other detainees suffered.

There are too many examples to pick from, but just because it is fresh in my mind from recent readings, we can be sure we won’t see any video of the two innocent Afghans who were detained and ‘deadlegged’ by their interrogators until their legs were “pulpified” (as the autopsy report put it) and both were murdered. This was in 2002. What killed one of them was “blunt force injuries to the lower extremities” which created pulmonary embolisms – blot clots – that traveled up from their legs to their hearts....

http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2011/10/05/i-lost-my-eyes-omar-khadr-interrogations-at-guantanamo-bay/

Thu, 2011-10-06 21:45

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

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.

Fri, 2011-10-07 07:32

Fidel

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.

Sat, 2011-10-08 00:16

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/10/07/pol-omar-khadr-return.h... applies for repatriation[/url]

Quote:
Lawyers for Khadr, who is serving eight years in a U.S. prison for killing a U.S. soldier when he was 15, have filed the paperwork required to start the repatriation process.

Corrections officials have received the request for transfer and now have to determine if Khadr is eligible to return to Canada to finish out his sentence.

Once Canadian officials determine that, they send an official request to American officials. If U.S. officials agree, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has the final say. He has the option of refusing the transfer if he decides Khadr is a risk to public safety.

The process is expected to take about 18 months.

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?

Sat, 2011-10-08 00:30

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

According to Michelle Sheppard of the [url=http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/omarkhadr/article/1066103--on-eve... Star[/url], 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:

Quote:
“It would not affect the minister at all,” spokesman Michael Patton told the Toronto Star.

“I don’t know what’s in the plea deal but it wouldn’t matter because the minister is not a signatory.”

Of course Vic Toews is well aware of what is in the plea deal, even if his idiot "spokesman" isn't.

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/ottawa-agre... year ago[/url] 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..

Sat, 2011-10-08 04:19

NDPP

I'm sure the ndp will be all over this - surely? There's a question for the candidates...

Sat, 2011-10-08 09:59

Fidel

NDPP wrote:

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?

Tue, 2011-10-11 10:53

#10

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

contrarianna wrote:

A timely post, Spector, as it so happens a new documentary on Khadr interrogation released in UK on Friday

Excerpts from reviews of the Omar Khadr documentary in [i]The Guardian[/i]:

[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/06/four-days-inside-guantanamo-r... Bradshaw[/url]

Quote:
This almost unbearably painful documentary features what could be the most hateful villain to appear in the cinema this year. And he is just a disembodied voice. The movie shows us declassified video recordings of a 2003 interrogation, in Guantánamo prison, of 16-year-old Omar Khadr....

His unseen interrogator here is a Canadian intelligence officer, evidently the lead officer in a team, permitted by the Americans to question the prisoner on the understanding that a friendly seeming fellow countryman might cause Khadr to open up and give the US valuable intelligence. So far from being a respite from torture, this insincere friendly chat is a hideous refinement of cruelty: a horrifying turn of the screw. Khadr realises the man is not here to bring him home, but to get him to talk and condemn himself. Dying in prison is a real possibility, and this friendly guy is here to make it happen....

Watching waterboarding would be less horrible than this. A gut-wrenching film. [4 out of 5 stars]

[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/09/four-days-inside-guantanamo-r... French[/url]

Quote:
It is an appalling tale of injustice that reflects badly on both the US administration that has incarcerated him and the Canadian government that has done nothing to seek his repatriation. It's the interrogator, you feel, who ought to be in jail.

Tue, 2011-10-11 21:50

#11

Northern Shoveler Northern Shoveler's picture

thx for the links

Wed, 2011-10-12 12:02

#12

contrarianna

M. Spector wrote:

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.

Right, thanks, I missed that this documentary had previous release venues.

M. Spector wrote:

According to Michelle Sheppard of the [url=http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/omarkhadr/article/1066103--on-eve... Star[/url], 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....

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:

Quote:
The Guantanamo military trials do not operate according to either [US civilian or Uniform Code of Military Justice] system of justice. The differences include:

Unlike civilian courts, only two-thirds of the jury needs to agree in order to convict someone under the military commission rules. This includes charges such as supporting terrorism, attempted murder, and murder.[4]

The accused are not allowed access to all the evidence against them. The Presiding Officers are authorized to consider secret evidence the accused have no opportunity to refute.[5]

It may be possible for the commission to consider evidence that was extracted through coercive interrogation techniques before the enactment of the Detainee Treatment Act.[6] However, legally the commission is restricted from considering any evidence extracted by torture, as defined by the Department of Defense.[7]

The proceedings may be closed at the discretion of the Presiding Officer, so that secret information may be discussed by the commission.[8]

The accused are not permitted a free choice of attorneys, as they can only use military lawyers or those civilian attorneys eligible for the Secret security clearance.[9]

Because the accused are charged as unlawful combatants, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated that an acquittal on all charges by the commission is no guarantee of a release.[10]

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.

Wed, 2011-10-12 12:57

#13

NDPP

Another excellent subject for questions to the NDP leadership contenders...

Wed, 2011-10-12 13:02

#14

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

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 [url=http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/11/02/omar-khadr-jury-hammers-the-... piece by Andy Worthington[/url].

Wed, 2011-10-12 13:33

#15

Northern Shoveler Northern Shoveler's picture

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.

Tue, 2011-11-01 15:18

#16

NDPP

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..."

Tue, 2011-11-01 15:38

#17

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

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.

Tue, 2011-11-01 15:43

#18

Fidel

Northern Shoveler wrote:

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.

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.

Wed, 2011-11-02 19:16

#19

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Toronto Sun wrote:
The Conservatives are continuing to play coy over whether or not they'll allow convicted war criminal Omar Khadr [to] return to Canada.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Tuesday he will decide in good time if and when Toronto-born Khadr can return home to finish his sentence for murdering a U.S. Army medic in Afghanistan.

“I put the safety of Canadians first,” he said. “A decision will be made on this file, as on all applications, in due course.”

[I refuse to link to the Toronto Sun. It makes the baby Jesus cry.]

Thu, 2011-11-03 00:20

#20

Fidel

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.

Thu, 2011-11-03 15:27

#21

NDPP

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..."

Tue, 2011-11-08 04:21

#22

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Fidel wrote:

Omar Khadr's elder brother is al-CIA'duh according to CBC reports of several years ago.

Fortunately, the courts don't always rely on the kind of unattributed and unproven allegations that the corporate MSM treat as "news".

Quote:

Canada's top court on Thursday upheld a lower court decision to halt the extradition to the United States of an alleged Al-Qaeda arms supplier, by refusing to hear the case.

An Ontario Superior Court judge had previously justified stopping the extradition proceedings and releasing Abdullah Khadr, the older brother of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp's youngest detainee Omar Khadr, citing US human rights abuses tied to his capture in Pakistan.

Both men are Canadians.

Canada's attorney general appealed the earlier decision on behalf of the US government, arguing that the lower court failed to balance society's interests in proceeding with "an extradition involving significant terrorist activity."

The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the appeal, providing as usual no reason for not hearing the case. It effectively brings the case to a close.

...the Ontario court suggested that releasing Khadr to the United States would be tantamount to complicity in his alleged torture..... Justice Christopher Speyer said Khadr had suffered "shocking and unjustifiable" human rights violations, including being physically mistreated and abused.

According to court documents, the United States paid Pakistani intelligence services $500,000 to abduct Abdullah Khadr in Islamabad in 2004.

He was held in detention for 14 months, until the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) had exhausted Khadr as a source of anti-terrorism intelligence.

Khadr admitted under interrogation that he had purchased arms for Al-Qaeda. But he later claimed he had been tortured during his detention.

— [url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g6UxRtbfM8tgZOBBpT4oj...

Tue, 2011-11-08 04:27

#23

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://www.cine-vue.com/2011/10/theatrical-releases-four-days-inside.htm... review[/url]

Quote:
The documentary focuses on four days of harrowing interviews conducted by the Canadian Intelligence Service. Divided into four sections, the viewer is shown the vile tactics used by the intelligence service, clearly willing to have done anything for the answers they wanted. The use of actual declassified footage alongside interviews from Khadr's former cellmates, lawyers, and politicians, all make for captivating - if highly upsetting - viewing.

Most repulsive are the interviews with Damien Corsetti (AKA 'The King of Torture'), who provides an insight into the monstrous acts both he and the US forces have committed during 'The War on Terror'. There are also many scenes showing, not only the conditions inmates of Guantánamo and Bagram suffered, but also photos of the results of physical and mental torture.

Perhaps the most gut-wrenching and emotive moment is during the second day of interviews, when Khadr has realised that the interrogators are not there to help him; in this moment he breaks down, crying out repeatedly for his mother.

[5 out of 5 stars]

[b]Update:[/b] The DVD was released in the UK on November 7. [url=http://www.subtitledonline.com/reviews/4-days-inside-guantanamo]Review[/... [5 out of 5 stars]

Fri, 2011-11-11 02:09

#24

Fidel

M. Spector wrote:

Fidel wrote:

Omar Khadr's elder brother is al-CIA'duh according to CBC reports of several years ago.

Fortunately, the courts don't always rely on the kind of unattributed and unproven allegations that the corporate MSM treat as "news".

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.

AFP wrote:
A US military tribunal sentenced Toronto-born Omar Khadr to 40 years in prison in October 2010 after he pleaded guilty to throwing a grenade that killed a US sergeant in Afghanistan in 2002. He was only 15 at the time.

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.

Fri, 2011-11-11 10:51

#25

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Fidel wrote:
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.

Fri, 2011-11-11 14:43

#26

Fidel

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.

Mon, 2011-11-21 23:04

#27

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

contrarianna wrote:

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[/quote]

Babblers in Ontario can see this film on TV Ontario on Wednesday, November 23 at 9 pm EST.

Tue, 2011-11-22 23:56

#28

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

You can download a free (.pdf & .zip) copy of Michelle Sheppard's book, Guantanamo's Child, at [url=http://uploading.com/files/0TS680J0/G0470841176.zip.html]this location[/url] (click on Free Download and wait for the clock to count down).

The file is called G0470841176.zip

Wed, 2011-11-23 00:00

#29

Fidel

Alright-alright, I've downloaded the package.

Wed, 2011-11-23 22:15

#30

Fidel

Michelle Sheppard wrote:
And fi nally, this story cannot fully be told until the Pentagon allows access to Omar Khadr and until his fate is determined.

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.

Michelle Sheppard wrote:
In 1993, Delta Force embarked on the ill-fated mission to apprehend Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid. The joint operation with the "Shoot Me" 7 U.S. Army Rangers ended with two downed Black Hawk helicopters and the deaths of eighteen U.S. servicemen and hundreds of Somalis. Mark Bowden's bestseller Black Hawk Down brought to life this devastating
mission in painful detail.

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.

Fri, 2011-12-09 21:48

#31

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/us-must-certify-canad.... must "certify" Canada before Khadr can return[/url]

Quote:
Omar Khadr...needs another first before he can go home to serve out his sentence in a Canadian prison.

Canada must first be certified as a fit place to send a convicted terrorist, a nation not likely to permit him to attack the United States, and one that has control of its prisons.

That certification must be delivered to Congress signed by U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta with “the concurrence of” U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton....

The “certification” step requires the Obama administration to satisfy itself, among other things, that Canada has “taken such steps as the Secretary determines are necessary to ensure that the individual cannot engage or re-engage in any terrorist activity.”

Fri, 2011-12-09 22:11

#32

Fidel

I thought the Steve Harper Government of... Canada was rubberstamped after their most recent visit to Washington? God don't they get anything done after standing in line all that time with the rest of the corporate lobbyists?

Wed, 2012-01-11 21:35

#33

NDPP

Khadr Still in Limbo 10 Years After Opening of Guantanamo

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2010/11/10/f-omar-khadr-returns-faq....

"...Khadr's lawyers submitted an application for prisoner transfer in the spring of 2011 but have yet to receive a response, Lawyer Brydie Bethell confirmed on January 11. Protests organized by Amnesty International and others are taking place in several Canadian cities this week, demanding the US close Guantanamo and release Khadr..."

Wed, 2012-02-15 12:40

#34

NDPP

Controversial Author Wants Omar Khadr Barred from Canada

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Controversial+author+wants+Omar+Khadr+b...

"Convicted al-Qaida terrorist Omar Khadr is due to be returned to Canada any time now - something Ezra Levant is working to scotch. Ezra Levant wants Canada's National Parole Board to hold an open hearing into Khadr's case, and for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to intervene to prevent the plea deal with the Americans from ever being acted upon...

Insists Levant: 'Letting in Omar Khadr is a full face-slap in the face to the Conservative base in Canada."

Wed, 2012-02-15 20:14

#35

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

I've no idea why [url=http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/peter-worthington/omar-khadr-_b_1241622.htm... allows the likes of Peter Worthington to appear on its pages, but I guess they'll take anybody these days.

Nevertheless, he did have something useful to say a while back about Omar Khadr:

Quote:
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.

Which entirely misses the point, because of course those "several Canadians" he refers to were not put on trial for trumped-up "war crimes" charges.

That wasn't the useful part i was talking about. This is:

Quote:
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.

Wait a minute...did Worthington just refer to himself as an "enemy combatant"?

Wed, 2012-02-15 22:48

#36

NDPP

I've always considered him that. Most MSM are...

Mon, 2012-02-27 16:27

#37

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/27/but-that-would-be-torture/]America's great moral disconnect[/url]

Dave Lindorff wrote:

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, [b]Omar Khadr[/b], 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.

Mon, 2012-02-27 16:41

#38

NDPP

- the racist animus towards Omar Khadr in this country has been malevolent and horrifying. He has been virtually abandoned.

Mon, 2012-02-27 16:52

#39

Hoodeet

With the current people in government, who pooh-pooh the power of the Judiciary (up to and including the Supreme Court of Canada), Khadr has little chance of being repatriated. In fact, he might be safer in a US prison, because if he does manage to return to Canada Harper's people might just strip him of his citizenship and deport him to Afghanistan or Pakistan...

Mon, 2012-02-27 18:04

#40

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Hoodeet wrote:

In fact, he might be safer in a US prison, because if he does manage to return to Canada Harper's people might just strip him of his citizenship and deport him to Afghanistan or Pakistan...

That might be hard to do, seeing as he was born in Canada.

Mon, 2012-02-27 18:16

#41

Hoodeet

Indeed. My latest egregious mistake.

Thu, 2012-03-01 21:53

#42

NDPP

Is Omar Khadr Headed to Canada's 'Guantanamo North'?

http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/omarkhadr/article/1138757--is-oma...

"A report this week in Montreal's La Presse stated that the 25-year-old-Toronto-born Khadr will be imprisoned at the vacant Millhaven immigration centre, derisively dubbed 'Guantanamo North'..."

Fri, 2012-03-02 04:10

#43

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

So nice to know Human Rights Watch is keeping a watchful eye on things. They're not happy with the Guantanamo prosecutors making plea deals with the likes of Omar Khadr in order to move things along:

Quote:

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, [b]"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."[/b]

[url=http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2012/02/28/what-difference-four-years-... News[/url]

Fri, 2012-03-02 04:14

#44

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
The decision for the transfer ultimately rests with Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. Toews’s spokesperson said Khadr’s file has “not come before the minister.”

“(C)ertainly no decision has been made [b]on whether he might be transferred to Canada[/b],” Michael Patton wrote in an email to the Star.

- from that Star link NDPP posted

Thu, 2012-03-08 11:55

#45

Boom Boom

Saw this on the TorStar FB page just now: "A report in Montreal’s LaPresse stated that the 25-year-old Toronto-born Omar Khadr will be imprisoned at the vacant Millhaven immigration centre, derisively dubbed “Guantanamo North.”.. Link

Thu, 2012-03-08 12:07

#46

NDPP

Boom Boom wrote:

Saw this on the TorStar FB page just now: "A report in Montreal’s LaPresse stated that the 25-year-old Toronto-born Omar Khadr will be imprisoned at the vacant Millhaven immigration centre, derisively dubbed “Guantanamo North.”.. Link

NDPP

look up, look way up...#41

Thu, 2012-03-08 12:13

#47

Boom Boom

oops!

Tue, 2012-03-27 22:28

#48

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/us-presses-for-omar-khadrs-.... presses for Omar Khadr’s long-delayed transfer to Canada[/url]
March 27, 2012

Quote:
The United States wants the long-delayed transfer of Omar Khadr – the convicted al-Qaeda terrorist and murderer – to Canada to go ahead because it will serve as a model for sending others held at the Guantanamo Bay prison back home....

Some U.S. officials have been hinting for months that stalling by the Canadian government was holding up the transfer....

Mr. Khadr “continues to be held in limbo even though he has lived up to his part of the deal,” John Norris, his lawyer said Tuesday.... “Canada and the United States have had since October, 2010, to make the necessary arrangements.”...

“Your country doesn’t want him back,” an American official familiar with the case said months ago....

Under Canadian law, Mr. Khadr will be eligible for parole in July, 2013. By then he will have spent more than 40 per cent of his life in prison....

Mr. Panetta said sending Mr. Khadr back to Canada will be “an important step” because it will serve an example to other detainees. “We’ve got others there obviously we’d like to be able to move as well.”

Panetta didn't explain why the U.S. can't proceed to repatriate other Guantanamo detainees until after Khadr is sent home.

Tue, 2012-03-27 22:35

#49

NDPP

Yet another issue upon which to judge the performance of one's government, its loyal opposition and Canadian civil society. Dismal failures all in my view.

Tue, 2012-03-27 22:35

#50

Fidel

Khadr donated 40% of his life to being a bogeyman for the sake of upholding a myth.

Tue, 2012-03-27 22:45

#51

Fidel

The NDP told them to negotiate Khadr's return, like all those other democratic western countries did for their nationals held at Gitmo.

Like the NDP told them in Ottawa to defend Maher Arar who was wrongly accused of being Al-CIA'da.

What did you want the NDP to do at the time besides stand on their heads?

The Omar Khadr repatriation thread - Part 1

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