(11AM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
I want to point you to this very nicely written piece by HRW’s G’mo attendee, Andrea Prasow:
It’s not very long and she neatly recaps the back story for you, then touches on a couple of key points as well. Go read it. I’ll wait. Okay, here’s a teaser:
Khadr’s trial was about to begin in January 2009, when the newly-inaugurated President Barack Obama ordered a stay of all military commission proceedings. Many believed that Obama would scrap the military commission system altogether, but that May, he announced his plan to revive an improved version of them. The resulting legislation did have better rules limiting the admission of hearsay and evidence obtained through coercion. So Khadr was charged yet again — this time with murder, attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism, and spying. A military judge ruled this week that almost all of the statements Khadr made to interrogators were reliable, including those made following a threat of rape, and would be admissible at trial.
I, like most people, have dropped off the whole topic of Guantanamo and, brain like a sieve, I need the refresher. But I am also wondering about a few of those key points.
And so Khadr remains at Guantánamo, in largely the same predicament that he has been in for years — trapped on a legal road to nowhere. Khadr is essentially being tried for being the enemy. Battlefield killings by irregular fighters have not historically been considered war crimes.
But the legal theory underlying the prosecution’s case seems to be this: U.S. forces can attack the enemy, but, if enemy fighters like Khadr shoot at U.S. soldiers, they are committing a war crime.
If he’s convicted, the United States could end up regretting its argument: Setting such a standard could implicate CIA officers and other non-uniformed U.S. personnel who either intentionally or inadvertently take part in combat operations.
1. Why are we even “trying” a child soldier for War Crimes? (instead of the real war criminals… never mind)
2. Why isn’t he treated as a P.O.W. and managed under those conventional international rules?
3. Why the hell isn’t The Left (professional, amateur, or otherwise) screaming their our bloody heads off over this? (3.5. while we still can… with our Free Press and open public Internet)….?
We have a month (at least) to consider that now. The trial is now on hold due to sudden illness of his Defense Attorney. I wish him a rapid and strong recovery.
from FB The Campaign for JUSTICE for Omar Khadr: If you would like to send “Get well” wishes for Omar Khadr’s defense lawyer Lt Col Jon Jackson, email them to [email protected] and I will ensure they are forwarded to him! Please put “get well messages for LtCol Jackson” in the subject line.
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It’s time.
Time for The Left (professional, amateur, or otherwise)… while we still can… with our Free Press and open public Internet)…. to publicly, in the court of public opinion, try, convict, and sentence any terrorist who has bragged about and publicly confessed to “‘trying’ a child soldier for War Crimes“.
a child. Who was following his father’s instructions.
It’s despicable.
for prosecution. Obama does not decide he’s going to prosecute Khadr based on the merits of the case. Like anything else he evaluates the political pressures. First in line to pressure him are men and women with guns pointing at him; in other words the covert ops people within and without government who have considerable power. These people are no different from thugs that worked for Saddam Hussein or Joe Stalin or A. Hitler. These are American thugs no different from any others that have ever lived. They prosper, in large part, because Americans refuse to believe that underneath the surface the current oligarchy rules by physical force, i.e., the ability to hurt and, ultimately, kill their enemies. That power counts for a lot in Washington or anywhere.
The various cliques that make up this mob of thugs are in the military, in the various intel services and all the other investigative and security services and they have been partners in power for a long time. Khadr and the whole Guantanomo caper had very specific goals but they boil down to this: terrorizing people. America is the main source of terror in the world and the idea is to make people scared who would oppose imperialism and predatory capitalism. Khadr emphasizes the arbitrary and thoughtless way American justice now operates–this is intentional. The policy makers want the world to think we are crazy and unbalanced and capable of any crime. Official denials that they are doing anything wrong in the face of obvious evidence is part of the stance of cultivated evil.
In a sense, this clique which came out of the Wall Street banking millieu early in the 20th century is about as close to evil as you can get. My sense is that they are actively cultivating evil as an almost magical force much like the Emperor and Darth Vader did in the Star Wars series. You can see this reflected in some of the writings of the Neocons (closely associated with that community I speak of) which explicitly stated in the 90’s that they wanted the U.S. to appear to be unbalanced and capable of anything in order to inspire fear, i.e., terror.
If we look at the solid evidence for this clique’s involvement with some of our most violent episodes (the assassinations of the 60’s and 9/11) we can get a sense of the magnitude of this evil. I hate to use the term “evil” because I don’t actually believe these individuals are “evil” but rather that a force we can call evil works through these people as it could work towards us if we had made different decisions in life. My guess is that most of these people believe they are doing the right thing.