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TechnoratiGuantanamo Judge Threatens To Halt Canadian Case
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A Guantanamo war court judge threatened on Thursday to halt the case of a Canadian terrorism suspect captured at age 15 if the U.S. government fails to turn over records of his detention.
The judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, ordered prosecutors to give a classified daily prison-camp log to the military attorney for Omar Khadr, who is now 21 and facing trial on charges of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.
Khadr and his lawyer say he was mistreated by his U.S. captors and coerced into making incriminating statements. On Thursday, Brownback set a May 22 deadline for the prosecutors to obtain and hand over the log, referred to as "Binder 2," kept by the Guantanamo prison commanders.
He called it an essential hour-by-hour record of Khadr's treatment. "On the 22nd, you all will give them a copy of Binder 2. If you don't have it then at 1700 hours (5 p.m.) on the 22nd, we stop," he said.
Halting pretrial proceedings in the case, which is being followed intensely in Canada, would embarrass the U.S. government. Washington is fighting criticism about years-long delays in establishing a workable and fair trial system for prisoners captured in the war on terrorism launched by the United States after the September 11 attacks.
A halt could also lead to dismissal of one or more charges against Khadr, in a case seen as a test run for later trials against accused September 11 conspirators.
ABUSE ALLEGED
"The government has been beating on the military judge like a drum to set a trial date," Brownback said. But he said he could not until disputes over evidence and other issues are resolved. So far the task force running the prison has been unwilling to surrender the daily log.
Khadr is charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiring with al Qaeda, providing material support for terrorism and spying on U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Khadr's lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said, "This (case) is largely going to be about the reliability of statements that Mr. Khadr made while in detention."
Khadr was abused in Afghanistan while being interrogated by a U.S. soldier who was later court-martialed after the death of another prisoner there, Kuebler said. He added that Khadr was threatened with punishment at Guantanamo if he did not abide by his Afghanistan statements.
He said a U.S. Army investigation in 2006 ended after it began to uncover evidence that would corroborate Khadr's accusations that, for example, his arms were chained to a wall while he was held at the U.S. Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and was still recovering from gunshot wounds to the back and chest. An earlier Navy probe did not support the allegations.
Khadr, sporting a short, full beard and wearing a white uniform supplied by the U.S. military to signify his compliance with camp rules, sat between his lawyers at the defense table for Thursday's hearing. He is the last Western citizen to be held at Guantanamo and, unlike other detainees facing trial, he is cooperating with the process.
The Canadian government is facing increasing domestic and international calls to press the U.S. government for Khadr's release.
Editing by Jane Sutton; Editing by Eric Walsh
© 2008 Reuters
11 Comments so far
Show AllAmerica invades a country, Afghanistan in retaliation for 9/11 with the support of most of the free world.
But what about Saudi Arabia where most of the 9/11 terrorists had citizenship? Oh of course, the Saudi Royals are intimate friends of the Bush family.
Then this was hailed as a war on terror, however in any war it is to be expected that the invaded country will attempt to harass the invaders. The Geneva Convention guarantees that all captured combatants in a war be treated as prisoners of war and released when hostilities end.
This boy was seized apparently as an act of revenge, tortured, then spirited away to Guantanamo.
It seems to me that barbarism is gaining a strong foothold in the USA. Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and JFK must be spinning in their graves.
Clemsy writes: "America, where is your outrage?"
The message Americans have sent to the world by, first, rallying behind Bush when he invaded Iraq, then by approving of torture, then by accepting that non-Americans should be detained indefinitely without charge - just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time - and finally by voting Bush back into office in 2004, is that only AMERICAN lives matter. The lives of foreigners - and that means ALL foreigners! - are irrelevant to the American people.
Foreigners are merely these helpless, hopeless creatures that Americans give aid to.
In fact, Americans seem to view themselves as a new, more advanced, species of human. While the rest of the English-speaking world would proclaim that, "As a decent human being..." or "As a civilized person...", Americans invariably say, "As an American..."
Who want to bet that Kadr mysteriously dies on the 21st?
"the case of a Canadian terrorism suspect captured at age 15..."
"Khadr was abused in Afghanistan while being interrogated by a U.S. soldier who was later court-martialed after the death of another prisoner there, Kuebler said. He added that Khadr was threatened with punishment at Guantanamo if he did not abide by his Afghanistan statements."
America, where is your outrage?
My son is 15.
abuelito, thank you for the post. It does look like Omar is innocent - see below. The truth will not come out, however. Justice is not being done. The fact that Omar has been detained for six years under terrible conditions, has had no right to challenge his detention, and has very likely been tortured and abused, should make any trial against him null and void.
The trial will not be conducted fairly, professionally or meet international standards (apparently, secret evidence will be used against Omar).
This is not how any civilized country should conduct itself.
America has become a disgrace and a shambles of a nation.
Newspaper articles here about Omar Khader:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/category/omar-khadr/
IT DOES LOOK LIKE OMAR IS INNOCENT!:
"The day before Khadr's pre-trial hearings resumed last Friday, his tenacious military defense lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, duly raised these issues, telling journalists that the report of the circumstances that led to Khadr's capture, written by an officer identified only as 'Lt. Col. W.,' had been altered after the event to implicate the Canadian teenager. As Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler described it, the report initially said that the assailant who threw the grenade had been killed, but was then revised, about two months later, to say that the grenade thrower had been 'engaged' (a change that clearly implicated Khadr). 'We now know that story was false,' Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler told the reporters, adding, 'It's consistent with the proposition that the government manufactured evidence to make it look like Omar was guilty.'"
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2008/03/21/torture-allegations-dog-guantanamo-trials/
there is no evidence against Omar.There is lots of evidence against the u.s. armed forces- shooting this child soldier in the back, and then charging him with "murder" because with the mighty us armed forces spitting death from the ground and the sky, some unknown Afghan had the temerity to throw one
grenade. Our heavily overarmed crybabies wage war on innocent people and charge them with murder for shooting back.
In the whole history of warfare no one has been crazy enough to try this before. In any normal court of normal law any judge would throw out this non- case in 2 seconds
There is Man's law (perverted and twisted) which any wrong doer can escape - then there is God's law (the law of compensation - karma) which no one escapes - only delays.
Interesting that JC explained this over and over again and our Super Christo-fascists screaming that karma is witchcraft and anyhow, somehow, they are magically exempt. I guess no-one mentioned judgment day to them. A person has to be really stupid to think that torture and murder is going to get them a place in heaven. I don't think the "I was ordered to do it" is going to get them out of any punishment - my understanding of karma is that punishment delayed causes the "rewards" to just keep increasing and there are no details left out.
And there are special rewards for those who don't oppose the evil deeds of others.
The caption under the picture reads: "Khadr, now 21, is charged with murdering a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in a firefight when he was 15."
Is that all? America illegally invaded another nation, is directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and continues to pillage Iraq of its wealth.
This is an example of how America is being allowed to control the world. America can detain anyone it wants from anywhere in the world, for as long as it wants, treat them however it wants, and execute anyone it wants, whenever it wants, for any reason it wants.
Try to get an American before the International Criminal Court (ICC), and you will fail.
Aside from America, the other countries that refuse to sign up or ratify the ICC treaty are: Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq (which is not a sovereign state), and Israel.
Washington has apparently "signed deals" with dozens of small countries to ensure American personnel are guaranteed immunity.
In 2003, "the Bush administration suspended all military assistance to 35 countries that refused to pledge to give U.S. citizens immunity before the ICC."
Bush has threatened sanctions for countries that ratify the ICC agreement, and "has authorized the use of 'all means necessary' to free any U.S. national who might be held in The Hague for trial before the ICC."
"Mirror, Mirror On The Wall,
Who's The Biggest Rogue of All?"
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Rogue_State_US/Biggest_Rogue.html
In short, America rejects any other country detaining its citizens and subjecting them to their justice system.
America's concern for human rights is non-existent.
American soldiers who commit appalling crimes in Iraq are immune from prosecution in Iraq.
Watch this video of a US pilot dropping a bomb on the heads of a group of unidentified Iraqis walking down the street - a few of them, at least, definitely look like children:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/BUN410A.html
Such indiscriminate, cold-blooded murder by US military personnel is commonplace in Iraq.
Guantanamo Judge is a contradictory term. Since there is no justice in Guantanamo how can there possibly be a judge? The formula is already in place (Arab=Terrorist=Guilty). This stupidity is the same as the "all white juries" acquitting civil rights abusers in the 1960's.
can you spell k-a-n-g-ah-h-r-u-u-u court?
The judge can easily be replaced. He won't be allowed to disturb the plans of the empire.
Hoa binh