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Home Front: WoT
Military judge examines legality of Omar Khadr detention
2008-02-05
A MILITARY judge is examining the legality of a young Canadian held in Guantanamo Bay after being arrested at age 15 in Afghanistan. Omar Khadr was seized in Afghanistan in 2002 and taken to the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the drive to round up extremists in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Now in his early 20s, he is accused of killing a US soldier with a hand grenade as he was being arrested for making explosives.

Defense lawyers argue the special military courts set up in Guantanamo have no authority to try minors. They maintain that if Mr Khadr's case goes to trial it will be the first time in Western history that a person will have been tried for war crimes committed while still a child.
He was a child when he threw the grenade, right?
"In the six years since the first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo, the Bush administration has failed to bring a single military commissions case to trial because it insists on using a system with fatal due process flaws,'' Hina Shamsi, an attorney with the powerful American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said. "That one of the first tests of this illegitimate system is the prosecution for war crimes of someone captured as a child shows just how much of a moral and legal failure Guantanamo is.''

Canadian parliamentarians and law experts, as well as human rights groups, have all supported Mr Khadr's lawyers. "UNICEF is concerned that such a prosecution, in particular in front of a military commission not equipped to meet the required standards, would set a dangerous precedent for the protection of hundreds of thousands of children who find themselves unwittingly involved in conflict around the world,'' the UN children's fund said.
Posted by:Fred

#7  If they are marring off girls as young as 9, then this turd is more than of consenting age.

Killed medics and translators (while the armed soldiers stayed back in a show of trust is how I read it) on a humanitarian mission in a cold blooded ploy. He can go screw a fire ant den for all I care.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2008-02-05 12:18  

#6  He's a chip off the old block...

The Khadr family has provoked intense debate in Canada. Each of the five Khadr siblings, all of whom are Canadian citizens, has at one time or another been separately accused or investigated for alleged links to terrorism. Their father, Egyptian-born Canadian Ahmed Said Khadr, was an accused al-Qaida financier killed in a battle with Pakistani forces in 2003.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-02-05 11:38  

#5  How does a 15 year old Canadian resident end up fighting American troops halfway around the world?
Posted by: john frum   2008-02-05 11:24  

#4  Pop him right in the unibrow.
Posted by: Beavis   2008-02-05 08:54  

#3  Cute kid.
He'd look even better with a nice, big gaping hole in his forehead...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-02-05 08:45  

#2  Funny how they happen to have failed to mention this 'child' was actively engaged as an illegal combatant by throwing a grenade (and murdering killing a soldier) and planting roadside bombs as well as by conducting surveillance of U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan. Other than that he's a real angel of hell.

I'm sure its a simple oversight.....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2008-02-05 08:26  

#1  Canadian parliamentarians and law experts, as well as human rights groups, have all supported Mr Khadr's lawyers. "UNICEF is concerned that such a prosecution, in particular in front of a military commission not equipped to meet the required standards

because only they know the required standards. Kill him now. Should've killed him on the battlefield. Send Canada the bill
Posted by: Frank G   2008-02-05 06:52  

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