B. McPherson

Ten years ago during the invasion of Afghanistan by US forces, a child soldier was apprehended. He was the only survivor of Afghani  fighters . An American medic was killed in the firefight. That child soldier was Omar Khadr. He was 15 at the time. Those facts it seems that all can agree on.

What we can’t seem to agree on is whether Khadr threw the grenade that killed the American. The evidence that an adult who subsequently was killed was first blamed for the death. More than a year later the evidence changed and Khadr was blamed. After nine years in a “black prison” Khadr confessed in a military trial to all charges against him. He was promised one more year at the offshore prison of Guantanamo Bay and then he could be repatriated to Canada.

That year passed last November and he still is in Gitmo prison. Now the federal government seems to be using all its available tactics to stall his repatriation. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has asked for a psychiatrist report compiled two years ago. Others in the federal government are making noises that they were duped into agreeing to take Khadr back. He is a Canadian citizen and the last remaining detainee from the western world to be incarcerated in the US prison in Cuba.

While many have worked over the years to see justice done in the former child soldier’s case, he remains behind bars. Now Canadian senator Romeo Dallaire has taken action to spur his return to Canada. Dallaire is a retired brigadier-general who has taken up the cause of child soldiers and is circulating an on-line petition to prompt the Canadian government to fulfill their part of the deal which saw Khadr “confess” to all charges with the understanding that he would be repatriated. After only a few days, over 28 000 people have signed urging the federal government to bring him home to Canada.

A child soldier is a person under the age of 18 as defined by the UN.

During the fight in the compound in Afghanistan, Khadr was  shot in the back and lost sight in one eye. He alleges torture during his incarceration. He has grown up in a “black prison”. He could very well be angry and resentful of the country that failed to lift a finger to repatriate and rehabilitate him.

It makes me wonder about the real issue here. Is the federal government seeking to punish Khadr for the actions of his hostile and toxic family? His father was a close companion to Osama Bin Laden. His mother is an outspoken enemy of Canada, except when she is claiming the benefits of Canadian citizenship. The Khadrs are an unlovable group.

Or

Is the issue about child soldiers?  Share the petition on Facebook and ask your friends to sign  

From Child Soldier Initiative: 

"any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers, and those accompanying such groups, other than purely as family members. It includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and forced marriage. It does not, therefore, only refer to a child who is carrying or has carried arms."

B. McPherson
Long time prisoner at Gitmo prison, Majid Khan, has pleaded guilty to all charges against him. He has been held in the offshore American prison since 2003 and was considered a high value prisoner. In exchange for a promise that Khan will be released sometime, he has agreed to talk about all he knows about al-Qaeda operations.

“Prosecutors said Khan plotted with the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to blow up fuel tanks in the US, to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, former Pakistani president, and to provide other assistance to al-Qaeda.” Al Jazeera

In spite of having confessed to crimes and agreeing to provide information about his and other’s terrorist activities, he will not know until 2016 what his prison sentence will be. It could range from a minimum of 19 years to 25. There is, of course, no guarantee that the American jailers will ever free Khan. Guantanamo is a “black” prison which means that inmates have no rights.

A Canadian, Omar Khadr, was captured after a firefight in Afghanistan when he was about 15. He spent years at the offshore prison in Cuba. He struck a deal to be released to a Canadian prison within a year if he would confess to killing an American soldier in Afghanistan. More than a year later he remains in Gitmo.

This January marks a ten year anniversary of Gitmo. There have been allegations of torture and murder of the unfortunates incarcerated there. Some people caught up in the anti-terrorism fervor that hit the US after 9/11 were ‘sold’ to the military for rewards and later found to have no connection at all to terrorist activity.

American president Obama campaigned on a platform that would close the offshore prison by 2010. Not only has Obama failed to close the facility, he has allowed the resumption of military tribunals. Obama has gone even further in signing a bill that exposes American citizens to seizure without warrants and suspends the rule of habeas corpus. The most recent example of creeping repression in the USA is the new bill that provides for the arrest of protesters if they demonstrate(peacefully) when a government official is present(whether they know it or not).

American citizens working and living within their own country are now subject to the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA) which suspends their civil rights. I wonder how many shoppers at Walmart or dining at McDonalds are aware that they can now be ‘disappeared’ just like in those other totalitarian states.

"No president," said the ACLU, "should have the power to declare the entire globe a war zone and then seize and detain civilian terrorism suspects anywhere in the world---including within the United States---and to hold them forever without charge or trial." Global Research