RIP N!Xau the Bushman
December 16, 1944 - July 1, 2003
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| Great White North | ||||
| Ottawa in cahoots with American ‘gods’ | ||||
| 2005-11-08 | ||||
| TORONTO (CP) - The mother of a Canadian teenager charged with murder and held at Guantanamo Bay accused Americans of acting like gods Tuesday and slammed Ottawa for doing nothing to help her son. In an interview with The Canadian Press, Maha Elsamnah lashed out at both Washington and Canada's federal government over the detention and treatment of her Toronto-born son, Omar Khadr, 19, who faces the death penalty if convicted by a special U.S. military tribunal. "The Americans are gods now," Elsamnah said from her east-end Toronto home. "The Americans can do anything. They make the law. Nobody can tell them anything. Nobody can disagree with them."
"The Canadians have not been trying anything," said Elsamnah. "Ottawa is allied to the Americans, so what do you expect?" One of Khadr's Canadian lawyers, Dennis Edney, accused the federal government of abandoning the teenager and hiding behind a veil of "silent diplomacy." That sends a loud message to the Americans that Ottawa won't stand up for Canadian citizens, Edney said Tuesday from Edmonton. Canadian consular officials have never been allowed to visit the teen. The Americans have refused to rule out the death penalty if Khadr is convicted as they have done for British and Australian suspects. "The Canadian government has not been able to extract the most meagre concessions regarding this Canadian youth - there's not one single thing," said Edney, who's never been able to visit his client. "When they stand up and say, 'We're making our representations,' it gets to a point with your so-called silent diplomacy that it can be construed as being complicit." The lawyer said the federal government has to make clear whether it believes the military tribunal is legal under international law and complies with human-rights standards. The only Canadian contact Khadr has had so far has been with intelligence officials, who shared the information they gleaned in interrogating the teen with his American captors, the lawyer added. "Canada has done nothing for Mr. Khadr." On Monday, Canadian government officials, who have frequently been at odds with the Khadr family, said they will take unspecified legal steps to make sure the teenager's rights are upheld. "Foreign Affairs Canada is aware of the charges laid against Khadr and we'll be closely examining this new development," said Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs. Given that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a constitutional challenge to the military councils, it's unlikely Khadr will stand trial anytime soon. Elsamnah said she receives fairly regular letters from her son, the last about two weeks ago. "He's fine," she said. "(But) I can't be of any help. Believe me, if I could, I would help my son." The Khadrs, all of whom are Canadian citizens, have had an uneasy relationship with Canada since it emerged that the family patriarch, Ahmed Said, was a close associate of Osama bin Laden.
One son, Abdurahman, was previously detained on Guantanamo as an American agent but later returned to Canada. "He's a lost person," said Elsamnah, who has previously expressed sympathy for al-Qaida. "He's a production of the CIA, what do you expect?" Another brother, Karim, was paralyzed during the incident in which his father was killed, and returned to Canada after a high profile campaign by his family in April 2004. "He's OK, he's picking up. He's in school," his mother said, adding he spends more time playing computer games than anything else.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #12 LOL, SPOD! Excellent! |
| Posted by: Regnad Kcin 2005-11-08 20:29 |
| #11 Come to think of it, I distinctly recall that the wife of the KIA soldier and one other soldier, possibly the WIA, successfully won a lawsuit against the family. :D |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2005-11-08 18:03 |
| #10 Sockster : I am going to have to drop a old coke bottle down from heaven on her head. RIP N!Xau the Bushman December 16, 1944 - July 1, 2003 |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-11-08 17:48 |
| #9 I am going to have to drop a old coke bottle down from heaven on her head. As everyone knows I am a god. Just don't ask my Wife or Daughter. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2005-11-08 17:32 |
| #8 Whom "gods" destroy, they first make to look incredibly silly. |
| Posted by: Mike 2005-11-08 17:05 |
| #7 Can I be the Duke of Oil? My ambitions are modest, you see... |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-11-08 16:16 |
| #6 Speaking as an American, someday I hope to be promoted to "god of non-dairy whipped topping". But there are thousands of more qualified American candidates ahead of me, so for the time being I guess that being the god of page 27 of the Readers' Digest, August 1987 issue will have to do. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-08 15:35 |
| #5 I believe the Khadr' 15 minutes of fame were used up a few years ago. Must be a metric conversion problem. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-11-08 15:27 |
| #4 She's an Islamic woman, someone should find her owner and tell him to muzzle her. |
| Posted by: UnPC 2005-11-08 15:18 |
| #3 Khadr was just 15 when he allegedly threw a hand grenade that killed an American soldier and wounded another during a firefight with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in July 2002. Too bad you didn't actually get to meet GOD over that act of friendliness you piece of Kanadian kak! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-11-08 15:07 |
| #2 "He's a production of the CIA, what do you expect?" Yet another variation of the "cultural timebomb" excuse. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2005-11-08 15:05 |
| #1 He arrived in Guantanamo Bay as a 16-year-old, the youngest enemy combatant detained there, and has been held at the base on Cuba amid accusations from supporters that he has been tortured. KEY WORDS: ENEMY COMBATANT |
| Posted by: ARMYGUY 2005-11-08 14:56 |