Omar Khadr Leaves Guantanamo, While Press Refuses to Report His Water Torture. Omar Khadr as he looked when he was first sent to Guantanamo. (photo: Sherurcij / wikimedia) On a pre-dawn Saturday morning, September 29, the youngest prisoner in Guantanamo, Omar Khadr left the harsh US-run prison where he had been held since October 2002. At the time of his incarceration he was fifteen years old.
According to a CBC report, Khadr was flown to Canadian Forces Base Trenton, where he was to be transferred to the Millhaven Institution, a maximum security prison in Bath, Ontario. Khadr is supposed to serve out the remainder of an eight-year sentence, part of a deal his attorneys made with the U.S. government, with Khadr agreeing to plead guilty to the killing of SPC Christopher Speer during a firefight at the Ayub Kheil compound in Afghanistan, in addition to other charges such as “material support of terrorism” and spying.
Khadr never should have been brought to Guantanamo. Covering-up Crimes Dr. Wilson: Talking Dog Interview. March 7, 2006The Talking Dog Blog Interview with Rick Wilson On February 22, 2006, I had the privilege of speaking with Professor Rick Wilson of American University's Washington College of Law, one of the civilian attorneys representing Omar Khadr, a 19-year old Canadian national now detained at Camp 4, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mr. Khadr was first detained a few months before his 16th birthday, and transferred to Guantanamo Bay shortly after his 16th birthday, and is, as far as anyone is aware, currently the youngest detainee still held there. Mr. Khadr is one of a handful (10 are charged) of detainees scheduled to be tried in military commissions, with his next proceeding scheduled for the first week of April.
The following reflect my interview notes, as corrected where appropriate by Professor Wilson. Rick Wilson: I was at the law school, in a supervisory session with two students discussing their cases. The Talking Dog: The law school, of course, is in Washington, D.C.. Guantanamo Bay: Who cares for this boy? Cageprisonersby Moazzam BeggAugust 2, 2008 His hair has grown, his voice sounds a little deeper and his wounds appear to have healed somewhat. But what isn’t clear from the first ever Guantánamo interrogation video to be released for public consumption is that Omar Khadr is blind in one eye. The Bagram airbase lies some 30miles north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Inside the airbase is a prison, a converted machine-factory built by the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan. Inscriptions in Russian are still visible on the walls and doors. During the day, this place is usually deathly quiet. But at night, the sounds of soldiers as they patrol, chains clinking along the concrete floor as prisoners are frog-marched to and from interrogation rooms and screams of interrogators and interrogated usually keep you awake.
I never really understood why but our military police guards would always refer to Khadr as 'Buckshot Bob' or simply ‘Buckshot’. Get original here. Detained like me: The Guantanamo Ordeal of Omar Khadr. Jurist Hotlineby Moazzam BeggMarch 17, 2008 In January this year, a training document produced by the Canadian foreign ministry, which referred to Guantanamo Bay, listed the United States as a country known to practice torture. Despite this assertion, the only Westerner remaining in the world's most infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay is the Canadian, Omar Khadr. Omar is one of the youngest people to have been captured and detained by US authorities since the invasion of Afghanistan.
He had only just turned fifteen when he was first brought into the Bagram Airbase detention facility, horribly wounded. That is where I first met him. Chunks of his chest and shoulder had been blown out - or so I'd assumed; he was also unable to see through one of his eyes because of the injuries sustained in an attack by US troops. His chest looked like he'd just had a post mortem operation performed on him - alive. Omar was later accused of causing the death of a US Special Forces operative with a grenade. The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr. In July 2002, a Special Forces unit in southeast Afghanistan received intelligence that a group of Al Qaeda fighters was operating out of a mud-brick compound in Ab Khail, a small hill town near the Pakistani border.
The Taliban regime had fallen seven months earlier, but the rough border regions had not yet been secured. When the soldiers arrived at the compound, they looked through a crack in the door and saw five men armed with assault rifles sitting inside. The soldiers called for the men to surrender. The men refused. When the soldiers got close, they saw that he was just a boy. "Kill me," he murmured, in fluent English. His name was Omar Khadr. At Ab Khail, a sergeant later said, every U.S. soldier who walked by Omar longed to put a bullet in his head.
At Bagram, he was repeatedly brought into interrogation rooms on stretchers, in great pain. At Guantanamo, Omar was led, his senses still blocked, onto a bus that took the prisoners to a ferry dock. Omar's chair was removed. Orwellian Circus: Khadr’s Trial. Omar Khadr was taken as a child from his home in Canada to live in Afghanistan.
When he was 15, he was caught in a battle with US forces. He lost his vision in one eye, was shot in the back twice, and was confined in US torture camps from the time he was 15 until he was 24, without a trial, and without access to a lawyer for years. Despite years of UN protests that he should be rehabilitated as a child soldier, not tried, he was brought before seven US officers in a military trial for committing “murder in violation of the law of war.” Yes, that’s right, seven officers in the US military. Who haven’t obeyed any of the rules of war since we have been watching. The “murder”, a 15 year old boy throwing a grenade in a battle at a professional killer and invader, is one he has denied for the duration of his imprisonment despite constant “interrogation” since he was 15 years old. Here are some of the more bizarre items coming out in the tweets and reports from attendees at the trial d.
G. I. Some Guantánamo detainees are security threats. Omar Khadr isn’t one of them. Heather Marsh | “Punitive post-conviction confinement” [4|4] | FREE Omar Khadr. This article is in lieu of the long delayed fourth part of the Omar Khadr series written on WL Central last May. The original fourth part consisted of hours of interviews regarding the astoundingly corrupt and illegal military process which culminated in a verdict which allows the Canadian press to refer to Omar Khadr as a ‘convicted terrorist’.
One day the information in those interviews will be widely known, but today we are still prevented from publishing any of it for fear of retribution to those we do not wish to harm. Today, Omar should be at home in Canada, as promised by the Canadian government as a term of his acceptance of a plea deal. Today, he is still in Guantanamo Bay serving what the US military terms “punitive post-conviction confinement.”. Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg writes, But Bahlul and Qosi, Khadr and Noor are segregated because they are “serving punitive sentences,” says Navy Cmdr.
Omar was sentenced in October of last year. Heather Marsh | “The world doesn’t get it” [3|4] | FREE Omar Khadr. “Dennis you always say that I have an obligation to show the world what is going on down here and it seems that we’ve done every thing but 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, and if the world doesn’t see all this, to what world am I being released to?
A world of hate, unjust and discrimination! I really don’t want to live in a life like this.” – Omar Khadr in a letter to defense attorney Dennis Edney. Omar Khadr was the first child soldier to be charged with a war crime since world war two. The non-existent crime that he was charged with, “murder in violation of the law of war” can be summed up as: It is legal for US soldiers to kill children.
The plea deal The entire trial process was filled with irregularities. His own defense was determined by the prosecution: The petition for clemency In an initial phone call, Dr. Dr. Heather Marsh | Canada, the entire world is still watching [2|4] | FREE Omar Khadr. “There would be virtually no political blowback domestically for the Conservative Party if the government chooses to pursue an appeal, making this a strong likelihood.”
The above statement from US State cable #09OTTAWA629 sums up the last decade of Omar Khadr’s life. The Canadian government, under the last three prime ministers, two Liberal and one Conservative, have done nothing about the plight of a tortured fifteen year old Canadian boy imprisoned with no trial in the world’s most notorious torture camps. They have contributed nothing to his education, nor to his emotional or psychological welfare. They have expressed no concern for his well being. They have not requested his repatriation, nor have they requested that the illegal and amoral conditions of his confinement be improved. “I was very hopeful that they would help me. “After the Canadians left and I told the Americans that my previous statements were untrue, life got much worse for me.
Complicity, lies and endless lawsuits. Heather Marsh | “Omar Khadr is a lovely young man” [1|4] | FREE Omar Khadr. Omar Khadr (centre in the picture) was born in Toronto, Canada on September 19, 1986. His father was an Egyptian born Canadian who ran charities to provide food and education for orphans, and was an old friend of Osama Bin Laden. His mother was a Canadian of Palestinian descent. Omar spoke four languages fluently. When he was 15, his family sent him to accompany a group as a translator. The US military identified that group as Al Qaeda. In July 2002, US Special Forces attacked the camp where he was staying. When US military entered the site, Omar was buried face down under rubble, blinded by shrapnel and crippled. During the attack on the camp, a US special forces soldier was wounded and later died.
From Lawyers Rights Watch Canada: February also saw the accidental release of a five-page “OC-1″ witness report to reporters, which revealed that Omar had not been the only survivor in the compound, as previously claimed, and that nobody had seen him throw the grenade. Part 2Part 3Part 4. Heather Marsh | Toronto Star coverage of Omar Khadr since his Guantanamo military trial | FREE Omar Khadr. Posted july 20, 2012 by Heather Marsh In a case like Omar Khadr’s, where one full decade of complicated legal evidence and misinformation have combined to make a quick assessment of the facts impossible for the average Canadian, the tone of everyday mainstream media coverage is all important. Every quick article updating news on the case also serves as an opportunity to present a simple sketch of Khadr. This is the first installment of what will be a very large spreadsheet charting coverage of Omar Khadr for the last ten years. Subjective keywords with emotional impact are tallied by article.
No, a word count does not tell everything; sometimes a word is used when the writer is arguing against its use or because it is necessary to a certain story. Unfortunately, there is almost no diversity of message in Canada’s one voice mainstream media which uses a faux debate over Omar’s return to drum the identical message about Omar from almost every single outlet.
Like this: Like Loading... Heather Marsh | Petition for Clemency and Dr Sageman’s rebuttal of Welner | FREE Omar Khadr. Posted on July 23, 2012, by Heather Marsh Reference Documentation:Petition for Clemency.Dr. Sageman letter.Appendix A. This week, Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews requested unredacted copies of videos and interviews that psychiatrists Michael Welner and Alan Hopewell conducted with Khadr at Guantanamo Bay to determine his mental state. Besides the fact that Canada has now had one decade to determine Khadr’s mental state, the implication of the request is that Canada’s new prisons are not equipped to defend against an inmate about whom professional prosecution witness Welner said “future risk is actually more in a capacity to inspire” than to do violence himself. But that is not the most incredible aspect of this latest stalling tactic. In March 2011, Omar Khadr’s defense submitted a Petition for Clemency.
Dr. There is no research that comes to the conclusions Welner insists on in Omar Khadr’s case, so he relied on the opinions in this book by Nicolai Sennels’ instead. Dr. The Silence Surrounding Omar Khadr | FREE Omar Khadr. Omar was not supposed to be in the compound on the day he was injured. A family acquaintance had taken 15 year old Omar with him as a translator as he was fluent in four languages. According to multiple sources close to him, Omar says he was the first person wounded in the attack on the compound he was in. He says the others carried him to shelter throughout the hours of fighting until he was shot twice in the back.
He survived so long because he was not in the active fighting. His story, the only firsthand account possible, still has not been heard by the Canadian public or Canadian courts. At Guantanamo, his conversations with other captives, guards and even his lawyers were strictly controlled. Omar refused for eight years to sign a plea deal confessing his guilt to a crime he says he did not commit as he told Edney repeatedly, “What would Canadians think of me?” Omar told Edney during the August 2010 Guantanamo commission trial, “We’re embarrassing ourselves by being here.” FACT SHEET | FREE Omar Khadr. [+] FACT SHEET Omar Khadr ( PDF) At the tender age of 15, Omar began a nightmarish journey that lasted 11 years of his life, from Bagram to Guantanamo Bay. The trauma continues due to Canada’s continuation of its citizen’s incarceration in maximum security prison. Canada is the only Western country that refuses to stand up for the rights of its citizen. All other Western countries have repatriated and freed their citizens immediately from Guantanamo Bay.
The case in a nutshell In 2002 the 15-year-old Canadian Omar Khadr was brutally attacked, wounded, shot in the back and captured by US Armed Forces in Afghanistan. The Canadian government never lifted a finger to help its juvenile citizen. Since this “conviction” politicians and journalists, who are ignorant of the circumstances, refer to him as a ”terrorist”, “war criminal” and “convicted murderer” where as, the facts show “an abandoned and tortured Canadian child convicted in a miscarriage of justice”. There was no fair trial Like this: