Khadr's khangaroo khourt trial - khanadians khritical

101 posts / 0 new

Fri, 2008-11-14 11:26

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
Khadr was instead charged under the Military Commissions Act with murder and attempted murder “in violation of the laws of war.” While it is not a war crime to kill an enemy combatant on the battlefield, the prosecution insists that it becomes a war crime – a serious violation of the laws of armed conflict – if committed by an unlawful enemy combatant. Defense counsel Rebecca Snyder argued that a battlefield killing only becomes a war crime when a combatant – privileged or otherwise – targets a person with protected status, or uses prohibited methods of killing. Protected persons include civilians, all persons in custody, incapacitated military personnel, or military medical or religious personnel. Prohibited methods include the use of human shields, poison gas, or intentional deception designed to induce the enemy into believing that one is a protected person (which is known as perfidy). Therefore, unless the prosecution can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Sgt. Speer was a protected person when killed (which the prosecution does not contend), or that Khadr used prohibited methods of killing (which has also not been argued), his alleged actions could not constitute murder “in violation of the laws of war” even if he were an unlawful enemy combatant at the time.

The prosecution seems to claim that international law does not matter. It claims that Congress can create a new war crime under US law – and has in the Military Commissions Act – even if it has never been considered a war crime under international law in this century or the last.

- [url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2008/10/omar-khadr-case-redefining-war... Macklin, University of Toronto[/url]

Fri, 2008-11-14 19:39

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects [from Guantanamo Bay] to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require [b]creation of a controversial new system of justice.[/b]

During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.

Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.

A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final. - [url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gLy-7Qsm2KeE15rL6Is9p56BcWhwD94BVTE00...

So Obomba wants to create a new "terrorism court" to replace the military commissions. The only difference between his plan and what Bush wants to do is that the kangaroo kourt trials will be held on US soil.

This is what passes for a [b]big improvement[/b] in US political circles - or as the article goes on to call it, a "sharp deviation" from Bush's script.

Don't count on Khadr's being released before his January 26 trial date.

Sat, 2008-11-15 02:28

Fidel

Guantanamo: Military Oaths Confront the Constitution in the Omar Khadr Case

Quote:
In response to the events of September 11, the US government asked the Afghan government to extradite Osama bin Laden, who was a citizen of Saudi Arabia. As usual for such situations, the Afghan government asked to see the evidence against bin Laden. Instead of providing that evidence, President Bush declared "There’s no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he’s guilty" and began bombing Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. The US subsequently refused the Afghanistan government’s extradition offer. The US then invaded Afghanistan, destroyed its government, and began a military occupation. This attack had not been sanctioned by the UN Security Council; hence, this was an illegal act of aggression by the United States.

...more on Khadr and the phony global war on terror here

Mon, 2008-11-17 19:45

Fidel

M. Spector wrote:
He does not call for Khadr to be "brought to justice" in Canada, or in a US civilian court, or anywhere else, because the whole idea of prosecuting him for murder is illegal under international law.

We do know that one Liberal MP wanted him tried on charges of terrorism in 2003. Other than that I'm not sure that anyone wants Khadr arraigned on charges of murder in Canada today. The Liberals are trying to bury their their handling of the Khadr affair, and the blue people with a brand new exaggerated minority are just ignoring it altogether and breezing through 42 non-confidence votes in parliament since 2006. I don't know what else to say other than Khadr's life is still in uncle Sam's hands where it ought not to have been since Ottawa abandoned him to his own devices at Guantanamo.

Mon, 2008-11-17 20:41

jrootham

How do we decide who is required to take care of him when he gets to Canada? Neither dumping him on the street, nor pitching him into the embrace of his family seems appropriate.

Does he have to sue the government? Does Family court have jurisdiction now? Juvenile court?

If we are real lucky, he eventually sues and includes Chretien, Martin, and Harper as being personally responsible for him. Suing all 3 into bankruptcy would be just wonderful (if unlikely in the extreme).

Mon, 2008-11-17 21:54

Fidel

jrootham wrote:

If we are real lucky, he eventually sues and includes Chretien, Martin, and Harper as being personally responsible for him. Suing all 3 into bankruptcy would be just wonderful (if unlikely in the extreme).

It's a bad situation for any of those three. The Harpers are mesmerized by the American inquisition. There were promises from both Obama and McCain to release Khadr if and when our minority government makes an official request, and it looks like that will be a long time coming. I'm thinking Khadr could be stuck in US military custody for years to come and especially if Obama steps up the phony war on terror, which he has vowed to do.

Mon, 2008-11-17 22:49

Fidel

M. Spector wrote:

"We" don't have to decide how he's going to live his life any more than we have to decide how you are going to live yours.

So after abandoning a 15 year-old child to be tortured in an American gulag system for six years, the feds will likely abandon him all over again. That sounds typical of Ottawa. Will Khadr be in his right mind after having been tortured by mind control specialists for six years? What kind of support will this kid need after losing six crucial developmental years of his life to a living hell like Gitmo? I hope his family get some real killers for lawyers and nail Canadian taxpayers good for the stoogeocracy violating international law. Canadians need to know at least some of Ottawa's record for vicious toadying to Crazy George II and chickenhawks. I hope its plastered all over the news with liberal mention of the guilty party.

Tue, 2008-11-18 00:31

Fidel

M. Spector wrote:
You really think Harper won't try to subject Khadr to a trial if he's repatriated to Canada?

Anyway, we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. I don't see Khadr being allowed to come home to Canada any time soon, if ever.

Khadr is right where Harper thinks he should be. Harper would never betray the Liberal wing of the business party by bringing Khadr home and apologizing to his family. It would look bad for the phony opposition Harper clones as well as the Harpers. Must support the phony war at all costs

Tue, 2008-11-18 00:38

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/worthington2.html][u]20 Reasons to Shut Down the Guantánamo Trials[/u][/url]

(Omar Khadr is #4)

Tue, 2008-11-18 22:50

#10

Fidel

'Deradicalization' part of proposed Omar Khadr rehab

Quote:
As talk continues regarding closure of the controversial U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, lawyers for Canada's only detainee there, Omar Khadr, have turned their attention to mapping out a plan on how they would rehabilitate the alleged extremist in a program lasting years.

According to the proposed repatriation and rehabilitation program filed at the military commission where Khadr is being tried, the young Toronto-born man would spend years undergoing psychological treatment, formal education and a special deradicalization program

And anything less would be admital that the phony war on terror is real.

Wed, 2008-11-19 11:03

#11

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
The Canadian government would also require some legal process to keep Khadr in check. One option would be to use a so-called [b]"control order" under Canada's anti-terrorism law[/b], which is a form of house arrest that places restrictions on suspects' movements and requires them to report daily to a police station.

Anthony Doob, a University of Toronto criminologist, says the order may include [b]mental health treatment, restrictions on associating with certain people and instructions to obtain a certain kind of education[/b] as part of the process of re-integrating the person in Canadian society.

An order would impose incarceration on someone who violated the strict conditions, said Doob. "It is a pretty powerful set of controls that can be put on him," said Doob.

Once Khadr was back in the country, the proposed rehabilitation program would begin, starting with [b]six to 12 months in a secure residential facility for an evaluation of his mental state, followed by another six to 18 months in a minimum-security facility for treatment.[/b]

[b]Dr. Howard Barbaree[/b] has offered up his institution, Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, to conduct the psychological assessment and admit Khadr for treatment, in what may be a first for the clinic.

Bring on the psychiatric re-education camps!

And of course, Amnesty International Canada, the Canadian Bar Association, Michael Byers, the aptly-named Dr. Barbaree, and all the other faux-human-rights advocates will be right on board with that plan.

Not to mention the babblers who have "no problem" with bringing Khadr home to "justice".

With leadership like this from the Canadian "left" and human rights establishment, it's no wonder Canadians are so brainwashed that they support the continuing kangaroo court process against Khadr:

Quote:
While 42 per cent of those polled would bring Khadr back to Canada, [b]37 per cent believe he should face trial in Guantanamo Bay.[/b] As well, if U.S. president-elect Barack Obama shut down the facility, 48 per cent would repatriate Khadr to Canada while [b]41 per cent would transfer him to the U.S. to face prosecution there.[/b]

[IMG]http://i34.tinypic.com/x4rgwh.jpg[/IMG]

Wed, 2008-11-19 12:38

#12

Fidel

The CBC news item was interesting. His U.S. military attorney Bill Kuebler and psychic evaluators say Khadr has no interest in jihad or "terrorism" today, and that he just wants to come home and live a normal life. It's the feds in Ottawa who don't trust Khadr to be released into the general Canadian population and insisting that he could be a threat to public safety. No kidding, especially when they suggest he was more than likely tortured, as if there is any doubt. They made sure to interview his mother and sister in Canada, and who were wearing black religious garb, faces covered, and insisting on camera that Omar had done nothing wrong. Well, that's not going to go over so good with the 37% of pro-war Canadians and the Harpers who have an interest in legitimizing the phony war.

Viva La Revolución

Wed, 2008-11-19 14:12

#13

remind

What has that picture got to do with anything related to this?

___________________________________________________________
"watching the tide roll away"

Wed, 2008-11-19 15:21

#14

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Whoosh!

Wed, 2008-11-19 15:31

#15

Fidel

remind wrote:

What has that picture got to do with anything related to this?

I think M is referring to the extensive psychological counselling planned for Khadr if and when he is sent home to Canada. His lawyers and Canadian officials, I'm not sure who they are, have said Khadr would probably be placed somewhere in a minimum? security facility and on probation for a number of years. Either way I'm sure he is one screwed up individual by now after six years at Gitmo. No, he'll not be right as rain for a long time. I hope he hires some real sharks for lawyers

Fri, 2008-11-21 00:03

#16

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Even the Yemeni government has a more enlightened attitude towards justice than the Harpocons:

Quote:
President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces a major obstacle: Yemen. The Bush administration has transferred hundreds of Guantanamo prisoners to the custody of their home countries, but it's been unable to win assurances from Yemen — whose approximately 100 prisoners are the largest group still jailed at Guantanamo — that the men, if they're returned, won't pose a threat to the United States. By striking similar deals with nations such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, Bush administration officials have dramatically reduced Guantanamo's population over the past three years. Yemen, however, which has failed to stop homegrown militants from staging major attacks on American targets in the past decade, says it [b]can't continue to hold prisoners without charges.[/b] Yemeni officials say they're ready to try many of the men and imprison those who are convicted, but they complain that U.S. officials refuse to share evidence with them. [b]"Based on the information we have, some of the Guantanamo prisoners have nothing to do with terrorism," said the Yemeni foreign minister, Abu Bakr al Kirbi. "We cannot imprison them without a court sentence. We cannot do something that is against our laws. We are accountable to our own public."[/b]

- [url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/mi_comments/node/8683]source[/url]

Fri, 2008-11-21 00:16

#17

Fidel

But Khalid Sheik Mohammed is the mastermind behind 9-11, we can be sure of that much at the very least. We know it as matter of fact! He even confessed to it. After five years at Gitmo, he broke down and confessed everything. EVERY thing. The evidence is rock solid. Air tight. It goes without saying. Get your phony war on.

Fri, 2008-11-21 19:48

#18

jbgatkinkos

M. Spector wrote:
Quote:
President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects [from Guantanamo Bay] to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require [b]creation of a controversial new system of justice.[/b]

During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.

Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.

A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final. - [url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gLy-7Qsm2KeE15rL6Is9p56BcWhwD94BVTE00...

So Obomba wants to create a new "terrorism court" to replace the military commissions. The only difference between his plan and what Bush wants to do is that the kangaroo kourt trials will be held on US soil.

This is what passes for a [b]big improvement[/b] in US political circles - or as the article goes on to call it, a "sharp deviation" from Bush's script.

Don't count on Khadr's being released before his January 26 trial date.

Why in tarnation anyone would want that piece of crap released is beyond me.

People like Khadr are not your friends. These Muslims hate gays, females and even animals. They are the opposite of progressive.

Don't you understand or is it always "U.S. bad, enemies good"?

Fri, 2008-11-21 21:07

#19

Fidel

jbgatkinkos wrote:
These Muslims hate gays, females and even animals. They are the opposite of progressive.

Are you describing Muslims, or U.S. hawks and their lap poodles in Ottawa waging phony war?

Quote:
or is it always "U.S. bad, enemies good"?

You can say that again. Crazy George II is another Republican Party war criminal, and Liberal Democrats are already covering up those crimes.

Mon, 2008-11-24 17:39

#20

Fidel

Whatever the United semi-Socialist States of America says goes: our colonial administrators

Quote:

Even though U.S. president-elect Barack Obama has said he will close down the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it's unlikely he would lobby to have Canadian detainee Omar Khadr repatriated.

Addressing reporters at a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group in Peru on Sunday, Harper said Khadr's fate rests with U.S. prosecutors.

"The reason, as I understand it, for [Obama's] position on the closing of the prison is that most of the prisoners there are not charged with anything, and they are not subject to any legal process, and that is the controversy," Harper said in Lima.

"The case of Omar Khadr, as we all know, is not that. It is very different. He is charged … with very serious offences. He is subject to a legal process."

Snivelling 22 percent half-wits anyway. God help us.

Wed, 2008-11-26 22:02

#21

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/11/26/omar-khadr-newser.html][u]Today in the Commons:[/u][/url]

Quote:
Members of the New Democratic, Liberal and Bloc Québécois parties said they want the government to immediately begin the process of repatriation of Khadr [b]to face trial at home[/b] rather than waiting for the conclusion of his trial by the U.S. military commission set to begin in January.

"[Harper has] been very firm in ignoring this issue, but the time for ignoring is over and the clock has run out for Mr. Harper," said NDP MP Paul Dewar. "We hope that the clock hasn't run out for Mr. Khadr."

[url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gFZ6FigPUZw... to Paul Dewar, however:[/u][/url]

Quote:
Paul Dewar of the NDP [b]said Khadr shouldn't be in front of a tribunal at all.[/b]

"Both the Supreme Court of Canada and the U.S. Supreme Court, with the benefit of a full factual record, have found that the military commission proceedings to which Mr. Khadr has been subjected violate U.S. domestic law and Canada's international human-rights obligations," he said.

"Rather than engaging in this process, Canada should seek to arrive at an alternative resolution of Mr. Khadr's case, which relies on settled and secure legal mechanisms."

I wonder what that last sentence means?

[url=http://www.liberal.ca/story_15495_e.aspx][u]The Liberal Party has officially gone on record as calling for Khadr to face a trial in Canada:[/u][/url]

Quote:
...the Conservatives must take action to ensure that Mr. Khadr is transferred to Canada, where justice can be carried out before a fair and impartial tribunal.

Mon, 2008-12-01 01:50

#22

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Would a new Liberal PM ask Barack Obomba to release Omar Khadr?

Would the Liberals insist on subjecting Khadr to further legal prosecution or psychological "re-education" if he is repatriated before conviction in Guantanamo? Or perhaps slap a "security certificate" on him and detain him indefinitely?

Would the NDP caucus members who aren't in the cabinet be permitted (or even inclined) to criticize the coalition government's policy on Khadr? Or will Khadr become collateral damage in the NDP's rush to grab a small piece of quasi-power?

Mon, 2008-12-01 02:10

#23

Fidel

I think the CBC news diddy said his lawyers are already drafting up some plan for Khadr to be interred in a minimum security facility and placed on probation with lots of counselling.

Khadr has been tortured for six years in an American gulag. He's probably a basket case right now. As far as I can tell, no one has mentioned anything about releasing Khadr unconditionally to live with his mother much less release him into the general Canadian population, which I dont think would be a great idea anyway regardless. It's not a tendency toward terrorism that I would be concerned about - it's what he's been through at Gitmo. If he wasnt dangerous before, he could be now.

Mon, 2008-12-01 04:36

#24

Fidel

M. Spector wrote:
If he needs medical or psychological treatment, it should be provided to him free of charge, but on an entirely consensual basis.

Yes, "interned." I can't imagine what kind of counselling he will receive. The CBC news bit mentioned that a Canadian Imam would be assigned to Khadr in order to try to clear up any misconceptions he might have concerning militant Islam and the non militant kind. The US-CIA, Saudis, and Pakistani ISI know all about militant Islam, because they're responsible for aiding and abetting the spread of militant Islam since the 1980's war on secular socialism and basic women's rights in Central Asia began.

I imagine there will be psychologists wanting to get inside his head for a time as well. If Khadr does go bezerk at any time while back in Canada, it would be a trajedy. But might Khadr be able to claim temporary insanity considering he was tortured for six crucial years of his adolescence, if something like that was to occur? I imagine people will be held responsible other than Khadr. I think Khadr will end up suing the taxpayers for a lot of money.

Quote:
As far as I can tell, nobody said Maher Arar should be institutionalized against his will or kept from his family because of the trauma he had suffered. Why is Khadr's freedom up for bargaining away?

Arar is also a mature male adult who may have been better able to cope with the torture over a shorter period of time. I don't know. What I do know is, no country in the world knows more about torture than the U.S. does. MK Ultra was extensive and involved mind control experiments conducted in countries from the U.S. to Canada to West Germany. There were several US scientists involved in that and various other sub programs of MK Ultra who were murdered for what they knew, and-or, for refusing to continue with conducting the experiments for personal and ethical reasons. I think our boy from Toronto is going to be effed up for quite some time. And I really don't think he needs to live with his mother anymore. Both his mother and sister hold extremist views. But then again, so do some of us. But that should Khadr's his decision as well.

Mon, 2008-12-01 04:39

#25

Cueball

Sorry, that counselling buillshit is still bullshit. There is no evidence that Khadr has done anything untoward to anybody, except be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was sickened when it came up for a number of reasons, for one thing the idea that there is an officially approved version of Islam that is ok, seems to me to be an infringement upon the concept of seperation of Church and State.

fidel wrote:
which I dont think would be a great idea anyway regardless. It's not a tendency toward terrorism that I would be concerned about - it's what he's been through at Gitmo. If he wasnt dangerous before, he could be now.

Your a fucking freak. Sorry people have to do things to be incarcerated. Its a simple thing called "human rights".

Mon, 2008-12-01 04:43

#26

Fidel

I'm just regurgitating what I heard during a news broadcast. I don't agree with their views. Apparently his US military lawyer doesnt believe he's a terrorist threat either. But I also think he's fucked up right now psychologically. He wouldn't be human if he isnt. MK Ultra is said to have been as big or bigger than the Manhattan Project. A few former Nazis taught them certain things and even had hands in authoring torture manuals used by School of the Americas whackos in training Latin American death squad leaders and mercenaries for hire.

Fri, 2009-01-09 22:54

#27

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Khadr couldn't possibly have thrown the grenade that allegedly killed SFC Speer.

He was found [url=http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/OmarKhadr/article/553305][color=m... under rubble from a collapsed roof[/u][/b][/color][/url] before he was shot in the back by US troops.

His trial starts in two weeks' time.

Fri, 2009-01-09 23:21

#28

Fidel

Agents of the American inquisition have abducted people from a wide range of countries, from Afghanistan and Britain to Haiti and Canada. It's part of the phony war on terror and propping up the illusion of an enemy. Khadr was one of those used to project the illusion.

When the Soviets ceded the cold war, they stabbed the military-industrial complex in the back. Upside-down socialists are now reduced to fending off a new formidable enemy created by their own shadow government planning department - an enemy without so much as a physical address. It's sad really.

Sat, 2009-01-10 21:18

#29

Hoodeet

The Canadian government might well NOT try Khadr, but place him under virtual house arrest --limited human contact, no access to internet, travel restrictions, electronic monitoring-- which seems to be the current way of dealing with embarrassing cases involving Islamic Canadian citizens suspected of close connections to potential enemies of the state.

Sat, 2009-01-10 21:37

#30

Fidel

Hoodeet wrote:

The Canadian government might well NOT try Khadr, but place him under virtual house arrest --limited human contact, no access to internet, travel restrictions, electronic monitoring-- which seems to be the current way of dealing with embarrassing cases involving Islamic Canadian citizens suspected of close connections to potential enemies of the state.

Our stooges in Ottawa didnt object when Muslims from as far away as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Turkey, and even Brooklyn, NY joined the CIA's Islamic Gladio operations in 1980s Afghanistan. Why should they object to it happening now? Did they think it wouldnt happen?

Mon, 2009-01-12 18:46

#31

Fidel

Dallaire urges Obama to stop Khadr trial

Proof positive that Canada's senators are not as useless as tits on nuns afterall.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v697/rabblerabble/1r9lpy.gif[/IMG]

Wed, 2009-01-14 02:47

#32

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

So Angus Reid does a poll to find out what Canadians think should happen to Omar Khadr.

What are the only two choices that respondents could select from?

[b]1. Demanding Khadr's repatriation to face due process under Canadian Law[/b]

[b]2. Leaving Khadr to face trial by military commission in Guantanamo Bay[/b]

The idea that this child soldier ought not to face trial at all, given the known circumstances of the case, as detailed in this and other threads, apparently never occurred to Angus Reid or the client who commissioned the poll.

This is a classic case of using rigged polls to achieve a predetermined result.

[url=http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/32615/canadians_still_split_on_omar...

Wed, 2009-01-14 03:48

#33

Fidel

Door number one, Monty. The inquisitors have to save face in order to project a larger facade of a legit global war on terror. Khadr is a patriot in the eyes of Afghans. For the fascist invaders, Khadr represented terror to the imperialist occupiers. For some large minority of Canadians, Khadr is a danger to society and the face of terror. And after six years of Gitmo, I would have to agree that Khadr is probably not your normal young man. And so goes the phony war. Gonna leave you, woman, Gonna leave you, woman

Thu, 2009-01-15 14:42

#34

thirusuj

I am very disappointed and annoyed with the behaviors of the successive governments of Canada since the detention of Khadr. The US military has given conflicting stories of how they captured Khadr and that alone is enough to prove him not guilty. He was detained as a kid who was in a wrong place at the wrong time, and the US military is trying to build a story around him to justify any future involving of under aged Muslim youths. It's totally disgusting and it's more disgusting that the government of Canada has just handed his rights with a blank check regarding his future to the US military's unethical "war on terror".

Thu, 2009-01-15 17:25

#35

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
In an extraordinary public declaration, [b]the top military judge overseeing the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay[/b] admitted two of the principal charges long made against the Bush administration-[b]that prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp have been tortured, and that the torture was carried out in accordance with an official policy set in Washington.[/b]

[url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR200901... an interview with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward[/u][/color][/url], Susan Crawford said that prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani had been so systematically abused through isolation, sleep deprivation, forced nudity and exposure to cold that he was in a "life-threatening condition."

"We tortured Qahtani," she told Woodward. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And [b]that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.[/b]

A 61-year-old former Army counsel and former Pentagon inspector general, Crawford served from 1991 to 2006 as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. In February 2007, Defense Secretary Robert Gates named her the convening authority of the military commissions. In May 2008 she dismissed war crimes charges against Qahtani, without giving her reasons publicly.

While saying that she did not know any specifics of the treatment of the five other Guantanamo prisoners accused of 9/11 offenses, Crawford said, [b]"I assume torture,"[/b] noting that Bush administration officials have admitted that several of the prisoners, including alleged 9/11 organizer Khalid Sheik Mohammed, had been waterboarded.

[b]Crawford made clear that the abuse of prisoners was not the result of lower-ranking interrogators being overzealous, but the consequence of policies set at the top.[/b] The techniques used against Qahtani were approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "A lot of this happened on his watch," she said.

[url=http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/tort-j15.shtml][color=mediumblue][...

Thu, 2009-01-15 17:39

#36

Fidel

from M. Spector's linked to World Socialist article above:

Quote:

While saying that she did not know any specifics of the treatment of the five other Guantanamo prisoners accused of 9/11 offenses, Crawford said, "I assume torture," noting that Bush administration officials have admitted that several of the prisoners, including alleged 9/11 organizer Khalid Sheik Mohammed, had been waterboarded.

And they've done more than waterboarding, we can be sure. Not many investigative news journalists allowed around Gitmo. After five years in the torture gulag, they prolly could have extracted the Kennedy assassination and more from KSM. KSM and a few more alleged "al Qa'eda" represents all of the American inquisition's case for phony war on terror.

Quote:
The suffering was so intense that Qahtani was hospitalized twice with bradycardia, a severe lowering of the heart rate which can be fatal. At one point his heart rate was only 35 beats per minute. According to his attorney, Qahtani suffers from loss of memory and ability to focus, as well as paranoia. Still imprisoned at Guantanamo, he maintains his innocence and denies any connection to Al Qaeda

What about Allah and martyrdom? Or does that only come after years and years' worth of US army mind control specialists working on him?

Fri, 2009-01-16 15:43

#37

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2008/omarkadr/#][color=mediumblu... U.S. vs Omar Khadr[/u][/color][/url]

This documentary, which can be seen online at the above link, will also be rebroadcast next Monday, January 19 at 10 p.m. EST/PST on CBC Newsworld. It was first aired last October.

Fri, 2009-01-16 16:12

#38

Fidel

I thought all our stooges in Ottawa had to do was ask for Khadr's release and the Americanos would grant our wish ? What's happy now?

Fri, 2009-01-16 16:15

#39

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

I guess we're never going to find out for sure, since Harper is never going to ask Obomba to do that.

Fri, 2009-01-16 18:10

#40

Fidel

I think his lawyers should initiate a sue job now. I mean why wait? And they should be naming some high ranking officials dating back to when a teenaged Khadr was merrily handed over to the Americanos for imprisonment at Gitmo, and then tortured for several years.

Sun, 2009-01-18 19:55

#41

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
A top United Nations official has appealed to U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's transition team to halt the trial of Canadian Omar Khadr, arguing that it would set a bad precedent to prosecute a child soldier.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations' Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, issued an urgent appeal to Obama's advisors just days before his inauguration and the scheduled start of Khadr's trial.

"We agree that the trial of Omar Khadr will be a bad precedent and will undermine international legal protection for children," a spokesperson for Coomaraswamy wrote in a letter to the ACLU Sunday.

Coomaraswamy has been involved in Khadr's case for over a year but her appeals to the Bush administration went unanswered and the Pentagon denied a request to send a UN observer to Khadr's hearings.

[url=http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/omarkhadr/article/573178][color=m... Star[/u][/color][/url]

Sun, 2009-01-18 20:13

#42

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
All it takes is one phone call from Ottawa and Omar Khadr would be back in Canada, the detained Canadian's lawyer said on Thursday.

In an impassioned speech Thursday night to a crowd of about 100 at Brock University in St. Catharines, Dennis Edney made what he described as a plea from one father to another, directed squarely at Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"How would he like to have his children abused like Omar Khadr?" Mr. Edney asked the crowd, which included members of Mr. Khadr's family....

Talking bluntly to his audience, Mr. Edney described Guantanamo Bay as one of the worst places he has ever been to, and his client as one of the worst-treated.

"In my experience, I've never before represented anyone who has been so badly treated and so abandoned by so many people who should know better," he said, describing how his client's first interrogation took place as he lay in a hospital bed at age 15, recovering from multiple bullet wounds. He told the audience Mr. Khadr was put in stress positions until he urinated on himself, and was then used as a human mop to clean up the urine.

Many audience members could be seen crying as Mr. Edney described some of his Guantanamo Bay experiences. In one instance, he explained to the crowd how some prisoners at the Naval base tried to kill themselves, even as their hands and feet were shackled.

"You commit suicide by chewing on your wrists," he said.

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090116.wkhadr0116/B... and Mail[/u][/color][/url]

Mon, 2009-01-19 14:51

#43

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:

Defence lawyers for Omar Khadr focused Monday on what prosecutors called a "mistake" over the recent withdrawal and re-laying of charges against the Canadian-born terror suspect, saying it was grounds for starting again almost from scratch.

At a hearing in Guantanamo Bay on the last full day of the Bush administration, Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, Khadr's Pentagon-appointed attorney, called on the judge to "terminate these proceedings."

It emerged last week that Susan Crawford, the Pentagon official overseeing charges under the military commission tribunal system at the U.S. navy base in Cuba, had in December withdrawn charges against all indicted Guantanamo detainees, then later "re-referred" them.

Crawford's office said she aimed simply to administratively update the names of the military commissioners - or jurors - who would sit on the trials, but defence attorneys, noting that could have been done with a simple amendment, asked whether a more sinister motive was in play.

Some suggested Crawford, a Bush administration appointee, had been attempting to tie the hands of Barack Obama, the incoming president, who is expected following his inauguration Tuesday to begin the process of closing the detainee camps.

[b]The underlying aim, the defence attorneys suggested, was to clear the slate so that five accused co-conspirators of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks could plead guilty at their hearing Monday - as they have indicated they seek to do[/b] in order to force the United States to execute them.

According to some, [b]this would enable the Bush administration to claim an 11th-hour victory in the controversial court system,[/b] which members of Obama's incoming administration have said needs to be dramatically revised or ended because it does not meet international standards of fairness.

At the Khadr hearing, marine Maj. Jeff Groharing said the "intent" of Crawford's office had been to review the commissioner lists.

[b]"People make mistakes," he said.[/b]

Kuebler argued that regardless of intent, the "consequences" involved a full withdrawal of charges against Khadr.

[url=http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Khadr+lawyer+calls+trial/1194293/story....

[color=red]UPDATE:[/color]

Quote:
A military judge ruled Monday proceedings against Omar Khadr will continue despite a call by the Canadian terror suspect's lawyers for a halt based on an administrative re-shuffling of his charges - described even by the prosecution as a "mistake."

Mon, 2009-01-19 17:42

#44

Fidel

Yes, KSM the alleged mastermind "confessed" after five years of denying anything to do with 9-11. KSM himself has described the US military tribunal at Guantanamo a total farce.

James Petras said in August:

Quote:

The FT’s principle source of information, an anonymous informant “familiar with the CIA interrogation program” states categorically two crucial facts:

(1) How little the CIA had known about him before his arrest (my emphasis) and

(2) that Khaled held out longer than the others.

In other words, the CIA’s only real evidence was extracted by torture (the CIA admitted to ‘water boarding’ – an infamous torture technique inducing near death from drowning). The fact that Khaled repeatedly denied the accusations and that he only confessed after 5 years of torture in secret prisons renders the entire prosecution a case study in totalitarian jurisprudence

There still hasnt been a legitimate trial conducted wrt 9-11. Why should Canadians care? Because the basis for a US-led global war on terror is premised on 9-11 - that no country is safe from militant Islam and "al Qa'eda" - which is a US creation. And Canadian troops are in Central Asia and fighting a Crazy-Crazy George the Second-led phony war on terror, a ruse for vicious empire expansion in the long colder war waged for the encirclement and eventual economic and military strangulation of China and Russia ie. global domination and totalitarian global government. It's Orwell's 1984 and really, a war "of" terror on democracy.

Mon, 2009-01-19 17:43

#45

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Just out of curiosity I used rabble's search engine to look for extant babble threads containing the words "Crazy George". There are 35 at last count.

Mon, 2009-01-19 17:50

#46

Fidel

No worry, M. It's senator Romeo to the rescue. You kept telling us that our senators werent as useless as tits on nuns. And now I guess I'd have to agree a tiny little. It's a great day for democracy everywhere, for sure

Mon, 2009-01-19 18:33

#47

Fidel

Who can say al Qa'eda five times fast without mincing syllables?

Tue, 2009-01-20 11:00

#48

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
Accused terrorist Omar Khadr identified Maher Arar as someone he recognized who appeared at an al-Qaida-run "safe" house in Afghanistan, an FBI agent testified at a Guantanamo Bay military commission Monday.

Robert Fuller said Khadr made the identification when he interrogated the Canadian-born terror suspect at Bagram in Afghanistan in October 2002.

[url=http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=1195141][color=med...

No doubt, under torture at [url=http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/01/13-0][color=mediumblue][u]B..., Khadr also identified Santa Claus and Bozo the Clown as people he saw at an al-Qaida safe house.

Canadian Press:

Quote:
The agent told Khadr's war-crimes hearing in Guantanamo Bay that he put the question about Arar to Khadr on Oct. 7, 2002, during an interrogation in Afghanistan.

[b]It was early the next day when the Americans, having detained Arar in New York, sent him to Syria, where he was tortured.[/b]

Tue, 2009-01-20 11:06

#49

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, Khadr's Pentagon-appointed lawyer, said Tuesday that Khadr didn't really know Arar.

"What you have here is a 15-year-old kid who basically would say that he shot John F. Kennedy because he believes that's what he needs to say in order to be free from abuse and to have some chance of getting out of U.S. custody," Kuebler told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday.

"...The kid's smart and he said what they wanted to hear."

According to an affidavit filed last year with the war crimes court, Khadr said Canadian agents also questioned him about Arar when they visited Guantanamo in 2003 and 2004. But he does not say what he told them.

"They showed me pictures and asked who people were. I told them what I knew," Khadr said in the affidavit.

"I tried to co-operate so that they would take me back to Canada," he said. "I told them that I was scared and that I had been tortured."

Kerry Pither, who has written about Arar's case, called Fuller's testimony "inexcusable" and "immoral."

"There's been a deliberate campaign not just by Canadian officials but by American officials as well to smear Maher Arar's reputation in an attempt to justify sending him to be tortured in Syria," Pither told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Pither said the swipe comes as Arar's civil case against U.S. authorities is before American courts.

[url=http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090119/Khadr_Arar_09012...

Tue, 2009-01-20 17:31

#50

al-Qa'bong

Quote:
Why on earth would the military prosecutors offer this evidence without checking to see if Arar really was in Afghanistan in September/October 2001?

This could be linked the the lawsuit Arar has against the USA.

Tue, 2009-01-20 18:21

#51

Kara

M. Spector wrote:

Why on earth would the military prosecutors offer this evidence without checking to see if Arar really was in Afghanistan in September/October 2001? It couldn't be that hard to figure out, given the enormous public record that now exists concerning Arar's personal history and movements in the last decade.

It was the October 2001 luncheon meeting that Maher Arar had with (???? - cannot remember the guy's name) in Ottawa that was supposedly the basis for the wrong assumption that Arar had terrorist links.

Fuller, the FBI agent who testified that Khadr told him Arar was in Afghanistan in late 2001, has now admitted that Khadr did not immediately make that identification and that Khadr only said that he though he might have seen him in Afghanistan. Arar is documented as being in the USA in September 2001 and was under RCMP surveillance in Canada in October 2001 so the ID is clearly false and was no doubt extracted from a desperate Khadr who wanted his suffering to end.

There may never be an end to attempts to smear Maher Arar's name, at least not until lawsuit against the US government is resolved. What happened to him was appaling but the fact that he keeps facing questions is unforgiveable. I'm sickened by the right wing nuts around here, the majority of whom were all too willing to jump on the Arar is guilty bandwagon again without checking any of the facts first. That is exactly what created this terrible situation in the first place.

As for Khadr, kudos to Romeo Dallaire for taking up his cause and trying to shame the Canadian and US governments into doing the right thing. Also, the former US military prosecutor who resigned over the way the trials are being rigged and the defendants are being denied their most basic rights. And, also a mention for the US serviceman who was there on the night in question and dared to state that there was no way that Khadr could have thrown the grenade in question, that Khadr was not the only person alive when US troops entered the building (although Khadr was the only one alive by the time the troops left) and that US troops shot and killed the person who actually threw the grenade. Both of these US servicemen deserve praise for standing up to the substantial pressure to go along with the agenda of the higher ups.

Khadr's khangaroo khourt trial - khanadians khritical

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