Khadr to face U.S. military tribunal

[CHIMO]

Source: Globe and Mail

Canadian Omar Khadr, the last westerner left in Guantanamo Bay, will face trial by military tribunal unlike the high-profile Sept 11, 2001, attacks plotters who will be brought to New York for trial in a civilian courts where they have far greater rights and protections, U.S. officials announced Friday.

Mr. Khadr's lawyer Barry Coburn, accused the administration of resorting to Bush-era injustice.

“We thought that the incoming Obama administration signalled a new day with respect to these cases, a new respect for civil liberties, an abhorrence of torture, a respect for the time-honored legal procedures and protections that are mandated by the Constitution and enforced by the federal courts,” he said.

Instead and despite the president's promises it has failed “to make these fundamental protections available to Omar Khadr, who was fifteen years old when he was detained in Afghanistan as a child soldier and has been locked away in Guantanamo ever since, is, quite frankly, devastating and shocking to me personally.



Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/khadr-to-face-us-military-tribunal/article1361934/

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U.S. opens door to Omar Khadr's return
http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/omarkhadr/article/725342--u-s-opens-door-to-omar-khadr-s-return?bn=1

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[struggle4progress]

2. The Khadr Files: A little background reading (CBC)

* November 13, 2009 4:35 PM |
* By Kady O'Malley

... courtesy of the House Subcommittee on International Human Rights, which tabled a report on the case of Omar Khadr, more than a year ago. It included the following recommendations:

1. Recommends that the Government of Canada demand the immediate termination of Military Commission proceedings against Omar Khadr.
2. Expresses its objection to the position stated by the United States that it reserves the right to detain Omar Khadr as an "enemy combatant" notwithstanding an acquittal or the possible termination of proceedings.
3. Recommends that the Government of Canada demand Omar Khadr's release from US custody at Guantanamo Bay to the custody of Canadian law enforcement officials as soon as practical ...

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepolitics/2009/11/the-khadr-files-a-little-background-reading.html

[struggle4progress]

3. Supreme Court Of Canada To Issue Friday Ruling On Return Of Gitmo Detainee (AHN)

November 13, 2009 7:38 p.m. EST


AHN Staff

Ottawa, Ontario (AHN) - ... The Federal Court of Canada decided in 2008 to order the return of the 23-year old half-Canadian, half-Afghan, but Ottawa elevated the case to the Supreme Court.

Whatever would be the court's decision, it will be a landmark ruling. The Supreme Court allowed 10 intervenors in the lawsuit, including Amnesty International, the Avocats sans Frontieres and the Canadian Bar Association.

Khadr is the only remaining western prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, which U.S. President Barack Obama ordered closed when he assumed the presidency in January this year. Khadr was imprisoned in Afghanistan since 2002 at the U.S. military facility in Cuba for murder and other terrorism-related charges. At that time he was only 15 years old.

In 2006 Khadr asked Ottawa to disclose to the public the 2003 interview he gave to Canadian officials in which the officials became aware the youth was deprived of sleep by his captors to get him to talk. The Supreme Court then decided in Khadr's favor to disclose the proceeds of the interview.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7016990777

[struggle4progress]

4. Ottawa fights repatriation of Guantanamo inmate (Reuters)

Fri Nov 13, 2009 5:54pm EST
By Randall Palmer

OTTAWA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Canadian courts grossly overstepped their authority when they ordered Ottawa to ask Washington to repatriate a Canadian held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a lawyer for the federal government argued on Friday.

The government wants the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn lower court decisions that ruled it had to ask the United States to repatriate Omar Khadr, who is accused of killing a U.S. soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan.

The court heard oral arguments on Friday, and Khadr's legal team asked it to give a speedy ruling.

The hearing before Canada's highest court coincided with an announcement from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that Khadr was one of 10 Guantanamo inmates -- among 215 held there now -- against whom prosecutions would proceed ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN13480741

[struggle4progress]

5. As Supreme Court hearing unfolds, Americans revive proceedings against Khadr

By Jim Bronskill (CP) – 3 hours ago

OTTAWA — ... Government counsel Robert Frater told a Supreme Court hearing Friday the Toronto-born Khadr's repatriation from a U.S. military prison in Cuba is a political choice as opposed to a legal obligation.

"In my respectful submission, we're in the realm of diplomacy here," Frater said to a courtroom packed with onlookers ...

Khadr, 23, is being held by the Americans at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan seven years ago.

The Conservative government strongly opposes his repatriation, but his lawyers and several intervener groups - including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Canadian Bar Association - argued Friday that Canada should seek his return ...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gcFo_GQopZ1Foy-2WUPx3yV1r6KA

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

6. Tapes reveal interrogation by Canadian officials

Videos at Link

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/15/khadr-tapes.html

A teenage Omar Khadr sobs uncontrollably as Canadian spy agents question him at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in interrogation footage released by his lawyers Tuesday.

The video is of poor quality and the voices are often inaudible, as it was never intended to be viewed by the public. But it shows the Toronto-born Khadr, 16 at the time, being interviewed by Canadian Security Intelligence Service officials over several days in late February 2003.

The footage is from five formerly classified DVDs consisting of 7½ hours of questioning that took place six months after Khadr was captured, following a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. Khadr, who is a Canadian citizen, has been held at Guantanamo Bay for six years on charges that he killed a U.S. medic during a firefight in Afghanistan.

[TrogL]

7. Khadr being transferred from Guantanamo Bay

Source: CBC

Omar Khadr will be transferred to the United States from Guantanamo Bay to face charges in a military commission as the Supreme Court of Canada considers a federal government appeal.

It is unclear where the 23-year-old inmate will be transferred, but he is one of 10 high-profile inmates to be sent to the U.S. to face justice, The Associated Press reported.

...

Toronto-born Khadr was captured by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15, and has been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre for seven years. The U.S. accuses him of throwing a grenade that killed U.S. soldier Christopher Speer, but leaked documents have called into question the Pentagon's murder case against Khadr.

In August, in a 2-1 judgment, the Federal Appeal Court agreed with a Federal Court judge's ruling that Khadr's rights under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — the rights to life, liberty and security of person — had been breached when Canadian officials interviewed him at the prison in Guantanamo in 2003 and shared the resulting information with U.S. authorities.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/11/13/omar-khadr-supreme-court-hearing.html?ref=rss

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The Canadian Conservative government has done almost nothing to get him released.

[buckrogers1965]

8. What I love.

Is how when we kill them we are at war, but when they defend their homeland they are murderers.

If we are at war, then they are allowed to kill our soldiers. It isn't murder. If they are murdering our soldiers because we aren't at war, then we have a lot of murders we are libel for.

[annabanana]

9. kick . . . n/t

[CHIMO]

10. KHADR TRIAL

Omar Khadr's road home to Canada just got a little bit bumpier.

The American Attorney General announced today that Canadian Omar Khadr, along with four other Guantanamo detainees, will face trial by military commission. Mr. Khadr is accused of killing a U.S. soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. Five other detainees who have been accused of orchestrating the September 11th attacks -- including the alleged mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- will be transferred to the United States for trial in a civilian court.

The announcement comes on the same day that the case of Omar Khadr is before the Canadian Supreme Court. Lawyers for the federal government are fighting a lower court ruling that the government must try to repatriate Mr. Khadr.

Barry Coburn was at the Supreme Court hearing today. He is Omar Khadr's lead American counsel. We reached him in Ottawa.
http://www.cbc.ca/radioshows/AS_IT_HAPPENS/20091113.shtml
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithappens/20091113-aih-1.wmv