omar khadr
catefrances
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http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/20 ... ng-a-trial
'Child soldier' pleads guilty at Guantánamo, averting a trial
A Guantánamo detainee who was 15 when he was captured, pleads guilty to five charges, including murder. The plea allows US prosecutors to avoid a trial, and offers the 'child soldier' an endpoint for his incarceration.
Monday’s guilty plea at the Guantánamo trial of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr offers a bargain for both sides in the controversial case of a 15-year-old caught up in a war between the US military and Al-Qaeda.
For Khadr, the plea deal establishes an endpoint, as yet unspecified, to his open-ended imprisonment at Guantánamo.
For the government, it provides guilty verdicts on each of five charges – from murder to conspiracy to engage in terrorism – without having to face the uncertainty and potential criticism of a military commission process that is yet to be thoroughly tested.
“What the government gets is closure on a case that was not a slam dunk for them,” says Fordham Law Professor James Cohen, a former federal prosecutor who represents two detainees at Guantánamo.
The Khadr plea brings to five the number of Guantánamo detainees who have been convicted or pleaded guilty under the special military commission process.
In addition to obtaining guilty verdicts, the plea deal eliminates any opportunity for Khadr’s lawyers to file an appeal challenging the fairness of commission procedures.
Legal analysts say that two of the charges against Khadr – conspiracy and providing material support – are not recognized as war crimes.
Amnesty urges inquiry
Focusing on Khadr’s age when captured, Amnesty International urged the US government to investigate whether his treatment violated the UN Convention on the Right of the Child.
“While military trial proceedings may be coming to an end in Khadr’s case, the obligation of the US authorities to address serious concerns about human rights violations suffered by him does not end,” said Rob Freer of Amnesty International.
Critics charge that the commissions are unfair, with stripped down protections for defendants and a government option of open-ended detention even for those who are acquitted.
Supporters say military commissions feature generous safeguards for defendants. They say the military courts are essential to prosecute international terrorists without endangering US intelligence sources and methods.
Khadr’s trial was set to begin on Monday. Instead, he appeared before Military Judge Col. Patrick Parrish and admitted that he killed a US Army Special Forces medic and conspired with Al-Qaeda to carry out terrorist attacks against US service members in Afghanistan.
Khadr, now 24, has already spent nearly nine years at the terror detention camp at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in southeast Cuba. Under his plea agreement, he is to spend one more year at the detention camp and then be transferred to Canada to serve the rest of his term.
Full details of the plea agreement have not been disclosed. Press reports say the plea deal requires Khadr to serve seven additional years in prison in Canada.
Closely followed case
Khadr’s case is being closely followed because at the time of his capture by US forces he was 15 years old. He was detained under harsh conditions and subjected to aggressive interrogation tactics.
Lawyers for Khadr argued that he was a “child soldier” who should not have been put on trial and treated as a war criminal. They suggested he was forced into the conflict by his father, an associate of Osama Bin Laden.
Military prosecutors disagreed. They said he was a willing participant in actions that amounted to war crimes.
Khadr was charged with murder for throwing a hand grenade that killed US Army Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer in a July 2002 firefight near Khost, Afghanistan.
He was also charged with conspiracy to engage in terrorism by preparing and planting improvised explosive devices targeted at US forces. In addition, Khadr was charged with attempted murder, conducting surveillance of US military convoys for Al-Qaeda, and providing material support to Al-Qaeda.
He pleaded guilty to all five charges.
Had he fought the charges at trial and lost, Khadr would have faced life in prison.
With Khadr’s guilty plea, the military commission now turns its attention to the length of his sentence. On Tuesday, a seven-member military jury will begin to hear testimony and evidence related to Khadr’s sentence. The panel may not impose a sentence longer than the term called for in Khadr’s plea agreement, but they are free to suggest a shorter sentence, officials say.
'Child soldier' pleads guilty at Guantánamo, averting a trial
A Guantánamo detainee who was 15 when he was captured, pleads guilty to five charges, including murder. The plea allows US prosecutors to avoid a trial, and offers the 'child soldier' an endpoint for his incarceration.
Monday’s guilty plea at the Guantánamo trial of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr offers a bargain for both sides in the controversial case of a 15-year-old caught up in a war between the US military and Al-Qaeda.
For Khadr, the plea deal establishes an endpoint, as yet unspecified, to his open-ended imprisonment at Guantánamo.
For the government, it provides guilty verdicts on each of five charges – from murder to conspiracy to engage in terrorism – without having to face the uncertainty and potential criticism of a military commission process that is yet to be thoroughly tested.
“What the government gets is closure on a case that was not a slam dunk for them,” says Fordham Law Professor James Cohen, a former federal prosecutor who represents two detainees at Guantánamo.
The Khadr plea brings to five the number of Guantánamo detainees who have been convicted or pleaded guilty under the special military commission process.
In addition to obtaining guilty verdicts, the plea deal eliminates any opportunity for Khadr’s lawyers to file an appeal challenging the fairness of commission procedures.
Legal analysts say that two of the charges against Khadr – conspiracy and providing material support – are not recognized as war crimes.
Amnesty urges inquiry
Focusing on Khadr’s age when captured, Amnesty International urged the US government to investigate whether his treatment violated the UN Convention on the Right of the Child.
“While military trial proceedings may be coming to an end in Khadr’s case, the obligation of the US authorities to address serious concerns about human rights violations suffered by him does not end,” said Rob Freer of Amnesty International.
Critics charge that the commissions are unfair, with stripped down protections for defendants and a government option of open-ended detention even for those who are acquitted.
Supporters say military commissions feature generous safeguards for defendants. They say the military courts are essential to prosecute international terrorists without endangering US intelligence sources and methods.
Khadr’s trial was set to begin on Monday. Instead, he appeared before Military Judge Col. Patrick Parrish and admitted that he killed a US Army Special Forces medic and conspired with Al-Qaeda to carry out terrorist attacks against US service members in Afghanistan.
Khadr, now 24, has already spent nearly nine years at the terror detention camp at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in southeast Cuba. Under his plea agreement, he is to spend one more year at the detention camp and then be transferred to Canada to serve the rest of his term.
Full details of the plea agreement have not been disclosed. Press reports say the plea deal requires Khadr to serve seven additional years in prison in Canada.
Closely followed case
Khadr’s case is being closely followed because at the time of his capture by US forces he was 15 years old. He was detained under harsh conditions and subjected to aggressive interrogation tactics.
Lawyers for Khadr argued that he was a “child soldier” who should not have been put on trial and treated as a war criminal. They suggested he was forced into the conflict by his father, an associate of Osama Bin Laden.
Military prosecutors disagreed. They said he was a willing participant in actions that amounted to war crimes.
Khadr was charged with murder for throwing a hand grenade that killed US Army Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer in a July 2002 firefight near Khost, Afghanistan.
He was also charged with conspiracy to engage in terrorism by preparing and planting improvised explosive devices targeted at US forces. In addition, Khadr was charged with attempted murder, conducting surveillance of US military convoys for Al-Qaeda, and providing material support to Al-Qaeda.
He pleaded guilty to all five charges.
Had he fought the charges at trial and lost, Khadr would have faced life in prison.
With Khadr’s guilty plea, the military commission now turns its attention to the length of his sentence. On Tuesday, a seven-member military jury will begin to hear testimony and evidence related to Khadr’s sentence. The panel may not impose a sentence longer than the term called for in Khadr’s plea agreement, but they are free to suggest a shorter sentence, officials say.
hear my name
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
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what a wonderful little empire the Unites States has created.
The kid was born in Canada and lived in Pakistan for some time as well. He and his father have ties to osama bin laden and abu musab al-zarqawi and had family ties with al-Qaeda.
they essentially broke this kid down every which way ... by numerous accounts - he is not likely to be guilty of many of the charges against him ... but torture will break most people ... especially children ...
i really don't know how americans can feel good about their form of freedom and justice when torturing kids is acceptable and charging them with crimes they didn't actually commit ... a fair bit of shame on the canadian gov't for basically letting him rot ...
both of the examples of execution and torture are abhorrent IMO...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
You can't bribe a prisoner with money, but you can bribe him with his freedom....and at the same time avoid having your dirty laundry aired publicly.
The poison from the poison stream caught up to you ELEVEN years ago and you floated out of here. Sept. 14, 08
oh yeah ... his father definitely is the main reason he is where he is ...
So, if you are considered a "child soldier" what can happen to you? Anyone know?
i believe if he is deemed a child soldier - he is supposed to be treated differently under the geneva convention ... that is the original convention which the americans did sign way back when ... it's sort of the difference between calling something a genocide ... it would by law force the americans to act ...
in any case - based on the actions of the US gov't over the last decade or so ... these points are moot as there are loopholes which the bureaucrats have no problem using ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_medic
Sorry if my heart don't bleed for this dude...he was 15 an age in which you know right from wrong.
For those Americans that continually blast your country for proceeding with this case, do you get involved and contact your congress person or senator every time they put someone on trial as an adult who is under the age of 18 and they get adult sentence's.
My heart goes out to the Mr. Speer widow and children.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - The widow of Omar Khadr's hand-grenade victim looked squarely at the man who killed her husband and lambasted him as a killer.
Testifying through tears at Khadr's war-crimes sentencing hearing, Tabitha Speer told Khadr he had deprived her two kids of their dad.
"You will forever be a murderer in my eyes — it doesn't matter what you say — from this day on," Speer said calmly but forcefully.
"You made a choice; my children have no choice."
Khadr, in a dark suit and tie, kept his head bowed throughout, barely lifting his eyes to hers.
Some spectators in the courtroom wept as she testified.
Speer, who still keeps her husband's cellphone so she can hear his voice on voicemail, was with her dying husband on the last days of his life in hospital in Germany.
She said she had promised her 3-1/2-year-old daughter Taryn she would be going to bring her dad home.
"I broke that promise," she said.
She described telling Taryn later how her dad would not be coming home.
"She let out a scream," she told the military commission court.
"A part of my daughter died with my husband."
Now 11, Taryn still remembers her dad, she said, sharing his love of Elvis.
"Someone who is so unworthy stole all of this from her," Speer said.
She read for the court a letter Taryn wrote, addressed to Khadr.
"I'm mad at you because of what you did to my family," Speer quoted the letter as saying.
"You make me really sad. I'm mad at you because of that."
"It took everything in my daughter to write this," Speer said.
Speer, 29, a special forces medic, died 12 days after shrapnel hit him in the head during a raid on an Afghan compound in which Khadr and a terrorist cell was holed up in July 2002.
Khadr, 24, admitted on Monday to having thrown the grenade, and pleaded guilty to murdering the soldier in violation of the law of war.
"I heard over and over how he's the victim, he's the child," Speer testified of Khadr, who was 15 at the time of his crimes.
"I don't see that: the victims are my children, not you. They are the ones hurting."
She described her husband as "generous, loving," and said he would have laid down his life for her. She couldn't have asked for a better father for their two kids.
Jurors were shown photographs of Speer and his two children. Tabitha Speer said he always spent as much time as he could with them.
"If he were home, he did as much for the caring of the children as I did," she said.
"They did not deserve to have their father taken by someone like you (Khadr)."
Her son, Tanner, who was 10 months old at the time, has no memories of his father. Now, eight, he, too, wrote a letter to Khadr recently which Speer read in court.
"Omar Khadr should go to jail because of the open hole he made in my family by killing my dad," he wrote.
"Army rocks. Bad guys stink."
Earlier in the day, Navy Capt. Patrick McCarthy, who interacted extensively with Khadr in the detention camps of Guantanamo Bay, testified for the defence that the detainee was always respectful and happy.
McCarthy, a senior staff lawyer in the camps between May 2006 and July 2008, said he came to believe over time that Khadr had "rehabilitative potential."
He was struck by Khadr's "pleasant demeanour."
Under cross-examination, McCarthy did say he didn't know details of the five war crimes to which Khadr pleaded guilty.
Nor had he heard of times Khadr swore at prison guards.
But testifying via video link from deployment in Afghanistan, McCarthy cited Khadr's age as a "fact that I can't get past."
He noted Khadr was barely into his teens when his late father, Ahmed Khadr, an associate of Osama bin Laden, took him to Afghanistan.
"The fact that his father took him to become involved with the al-Qaida leads me to believe that he has rehabilitative potential."
"Mr. Khadr was a child," McCarthy said, but added that he did think Khadr should be punished.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
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St. Paul 2014
i feel bad for the widow speaking out but she has got to ask herself how many widows have americans left in iraq and afghanistan? ... how many crippled children? ...
Nuremburg Defense: I Learned It By Watching You, Dad!!!!!
Wash me in the blood of Rock & Roll
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
we don't even let 15 year olds drive in canada ... yet, somehow they are capable of making choices against a radical doctrine imposed by his own father? ... it's easy to pass judgement - but if all the world had so much free will, we probably wouldn't have suicide bombers and mass genocide ...
That was running through my head as I read her comments as well.
Eight years after his capture as a teenager on an Afghan battlefield, a long-delayed trial has started for Guantanamo Bay's youngest detainee.
Khadr is accused of killing a US soldier after throwing a grenade at the end of a four-hour US bombardment of an al-Qaeda compound in the eastern Afghan city of Khost.
His lawyers deny that he threw the grenade and contend that the prosecution is relying on confessions extracted following abuse.
His lawyers had argued that his statements to military interrogators were illegally obtained through torture and had asked a US war crimes court to throw them out.
"Potential jurors were asked if they had previous knowledge of the case? If they had any formed opinion about Guantanamo Bay and the way this base and prison has been run?" Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar said, reporting from Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday.
"The defence lawyer asked if jurors had any type prejudice towards Muslims.
He even asked the specific question: if they ever sat next to a Muslim on an air plane, if the thought ever crossed their mind that this person was going to take over the flight?" our correspondent said.
Opening arguments are planned for Wednesday, with the trial expected to last roughly three weeks.
Child Soldier
US forces captured Khadr, 23, in Afghanistan in July 2002, when he was just 15 years old.
Khadr, who has refused a plea deal, faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.
"Omar Khadr could potentially be the first child soldier to be prosecuted for war crimes in modern history," our correspondent said.
"Under international law, children captured in war should be treated as victims and not perpetrators."
In a rare interview, Zeynab Khadr, Omar's sister, told Al Jazeera that she still sees Omar "as her younger brother".
Zeynab said her family did not have an unusual life, but her and Omar did play with Osama bin Laden's children in Afghanistan.
Khadr's case is the first to go to trial under the system of military commissions for detainees captured by US forces in a global campaign following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
Obama's role
Obama had sought to close the detention centre that has been the object of international condemnation, but he has faced congressional opposition on transferring the detainees to US soil.
The president has introduced some changes designed to extend more legal protections to detainees, but the tribunals' long-term future remains uncertain.
But Navy Captain David Iglesias, a lawyer and spokesman for the military commission's prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay, told Al Jazeera that the tribunals have improved and that Khadr can get a fair trial.
"It is a case that has been pending for many, many years," he said.
"The government is ready to go forward. To what extent it has international repercussions is beyond anybody's guess.
"The Military Commissions Act has been revised. It is a much better law than what it was under the 2006 Act.
"I believe based on my experience it is a fair system."
'Sham process'
Our correspondent said that Khadr's attitude has changed drastically since his first court appearance in 2006.
Obama is facing legal and political obstacles in trying to shut down Guantanamo Bay
"He was very co-operative with the military system [but] now it is completely different," she said.
"Khadr's lawyer told me recently that he is trying to convince [Khadr] to be co-operative: to show up in trial and not [to] fire his only military defence lawyer who was assigned to him.
"Khadr has expressed in the past that he want to be convicted, [to] show the world how unfair this system is ... and to show that the US will eventually convict child soldiers."
In a letter to Dennis Edney, his Canadian lawyer, published in newspapers in Canada and the US, Khadr said the trial may show the world how unfair the process is.
"The world doesn't get it, so it might work if the world sees the US sentencing a child to life in prison, it might show the world how unfair and sham this process is," Khadr said.
"And if the world doesn't see all this, to what world am I being released to? A world of hate ... and discrimination."
'Secret' plea
Separately on Tuesday, the Pentagon is also preparing to hold a military commission for the sentencing of Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi, a Sudanese detainee at Guantanamo.
Al-Qosi is accused of acting as accountant and aide to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda chief, in the 1990s when the network was centred in Sudan and Afghanistan.
He is also accused of later working as bin Laden's bodyguard.
Al-Qosi pleaded guilty last month to one count each of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorism as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
The 50-year-old had faced a potential life sentence if convicted at trial.
On Monday, a US military judge ordered that the plea deal, which put a cap on al-Qosi's sentence, be sealed.
The judge, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Paul, said the deal limiting how much more time detainee al-Qosi spends in confinement will not be revealed until after his release.
She said that condition of the plea bargain was requested by the government and agreed to by the detainee's lawyers.
A jury of military officers is expected to begin deliberating al-Qosi's sentence on Tuesday, but officials overseeing the tribunals will reject their decision if it exceeds the terms of the plea bargain.
A longer sentence could be applied, however, if al-Qosi did something to break the terms of the plea agreement.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
there is a million Iraqis dead and over 4000 US troops dead. Are we prosecuting every case?
US soldiers are quickly found not guilty of any wrong doing in any incident, but we detain, torture and prosecute whoever the fuck we want? For an endless amount of time?
It is really hard to believe they don't like us?
I still don't get it.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
I am sure everyone single one of them was a terrorist....no worries.
well of course.. why else would they be in an al qaeda compund.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
And where does the Geneva Convention stand on the issue of wars of aggression and occupation?
I guess so, but to me it doesn't matter.
An invasion of another country and the deaths of a million people, I am surprised the whole world isn't against the US. (outspending the entire rest of the world on the military is the only reason) It was Illegal and Bush Rummy, Wolfy, Cheney et al. should be the ones in Prison instead of enjoying their lives. Personally I couldn't live with myself knowing I was responsible for a million deaths.
I just want to deal with this part. Wow and I mean wow when you can't see the other side of the fence. Soooooo, if her husband and his unit were up on murder charges in Afgan she would easily understand it. Right!
The poison from the poison stream caught up to you ELEVEN years ago and you floated out of here. Sept. 14, 08
Yeah, you can easily feel for her and understand her feelings, but it does certainly show the emotion that occurs on the "other side" and all the hatred.