UN Observer Can’t Attend Omar Khadr Hearing, Pentagon Says
The Pentagon has denied a request to send a United Nations observer to a hearing for Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr, a month after a UN representative raised concerns about the Canadian’s trial.
Khadr’s military lawyers had asked that a representative for Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations special representative for children in armed conflict, be given access to the U.S. base in Cuba for Khadr’s hearing, to start Feb. 4.
Coomaraswamy has told the U.S. State Department she’s concerned a precedent would be set by a war crimes trial for “alleged acts committed when (Khadr) was a child,” said her spokesperson Laurence Gerard.
“The denial smacks of retaliation,” said Khadr’s military lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler. “It’s difficult to see how Prime Minister Harper can defend the military commission as an appropriate judicial process when the U.S. refuses to let the leading international experts even watch.”
A Pentagon official was not available for comment.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the government will not intervene in the trial of Khadr, who was 15 when captured in Afghanistan and accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier.
Now 21, he faces charges of murder in violation of the laws of war, attempted murder, spying, conspiracy and providing material support to terrorism. His lawyers will argue his trial is in violation of international treaties that protect “child soldiers.” The Pentagon says international law allows for the prosecution of defendants over age 15.
France is joining critics calling for the U.S. to drop charges against Khadr, Agence France-Presse reported. A French foreign ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying “any child associated with an armed conflict is a victim and should be treated as such.”
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International treaties? Amerika don’t need no stinkin’ international treaties!
It pleases King George– and Stephen Harper, the king’s Viceroy of Canada– that his Star Chamber shall find Khadr guilty and pronounce the harshest sentence possible.
It’s not as if he were a US Marine charged with war crimes and atrocities, and thereby entitled to a Get Out of Jail Free card.
Democracy? Where? Not in the US! I wouldn’t want to watch a trial of some naked cuffed guy bent over a bench with a ball gag in his mouth while the court dishes out the sentence!
Canadians should feel well protected by the Harper government. Harper is a neocon and Bushite, who places his right wing ideology before his responsibility to protect the human rights of Canadian citizens. Unfortunately, after being fed the same crap as the American citizenry by big media, Canadians are no smarter and too many will continue supporting Harper against their own class interests.
What a blow to the war on terror, to hold a 15 year old kid for 6 years without a trial for throwing a grenade.
Is this all they have to validate the 1 trillion dollar sucking sound?
RE: - France is joining critics calling for the U.S. to drop charges against Khadr, Agence France-Presse reported.
Now this is interesting. I wonder who talked to France and convinced them that it was in their interest to speak out for Khadr.
The three Opposition parties: the NDP, the Liberals and the Bloc are all calling for Harper to intervene in Khadr’s case.
RE: - Unfortunately, after being fed the same crap as the American citizenry by big media, Canadians are no smarter and too many will continue supporting Harper against their own class interests.
Actually, Harper’s government would have been toppled by now if the Liberal did not chicken out each time.
Clearly, Americans are justified in imprisoning and torturing a Canadian child who helped Afghanis invaded by Americans who were getting revenge for Saudi Arabians , paid by Pakistanis, crashing a plane into a trade center for the World.
But if Americans happened to catch a Chinese or Russian citizen, you wouldn’t even hear about it, they would be released in one day. The U.S. doesn’t mess with anyone that can fight back. We prefer to bomb the snot out of Grenada, Panama, a starving Iraq, somebody small and weak like that.
But Canada ?
Canada is a girly man, too weak to stand up to its manly man neighbor. Shut up, Canada. And give us your natural gas, bioche.
Pretend it is justice, because that’s all you get.
You’re even weaker than England and France. Ha ha!
RE: - Canada is a girly man, too weak to stand up to its manly man neighbor. Shut up, Canada. And give us your natural gas, bioche.
Chapter 11 of NAFTA. Though your depiction of Mulroney and Harper are more than accurate (and this is not even a dig concerning Harper’s famous man-boobs), in which way are either Reagan or Bush “manly”?
If Omar Khadr’s father sold him into prostitution - though being a child soldier is a form of prostitution …
Canadians should be calling their representatives NOW. How can they allow this injustice to happen? See, they are no different than the apathetic USAns
How can a soldier, even a child soldier, murder someone when they are at war?
Because that “someone” is shooting at them?
There seems to be some speculation that either they know for sure that Omar Khadr did not throw the grenade or that they don’t know who threw the grenaide.
Omar Khadr’s biggest sin is being Ahmed Said Khadr’s son.
One shouldn’t be tortured just because whose one’s father is.
You should ask Almalki what he thinks of Ahmed Said Khadr:
http://www.mun.ca/serg/almalkichronology.pdf
Just another notch on the belt for US tyranny.
Khadr is charged with killing an amerikan soldier, in a war zone. Seems to me he was well within his rights to defend himself against an invading army. Where’s the crime in that?
Harper’s mishandling of this case, along with the Afghanistan misadventure, will most likely do him in come next election.
What charges should Harper face? He is nothing but a Bush functionary. I applaud the wisdom and compassion of France.
So it’s a war crime to “kill a US Soldier” when the US soldier is invading another country… but it’s perfectly ok for the US to kill millions of people worldwide in their quest for empire. Bloody Hypocrites! Also, SHAME on Stephen Harper for allowing the US to torture and detain a Canadian citizen. Just goes to show that he’s on the side of the US no matter what. He is a TRAITOR to our country and should be deported to the US where he belongs.
let’s not forget that Jean Chretien and Paul Martin deserve as much blame, and shame, for this gross injustice. They never protested Khadr’s detainment and torture during their time in office.