Canada dismisses pressure over Guantanamo inmate (Omar Khadr)

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

OTTAWA, July 16 (Reuters) - Canada said on Wednesday it would not press for the return of a young Canadian inmate held at Guantanamo Bay despite the release of video footage that showed him weeping and calling for his mother.

The film prompted mounting calls from politicians and commentators for Ottawa to intercede with Washington on behalf of 21-year-old Omar Khadr, who is charged with killing a U.S. medic in Afghanistan in 2002 at the age of 15.

Secret video of his interrogation by Canadian agents over four days in February 2003 shows him moaning in despair and crying out for his mother.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Khadr faces serious charges and should go on trial.

"Our position has not changed and it's not going to. We're not going to blow in the wind on something as fundamental as this," Harper's chief spokesman Kory Teneycke told Reuters.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16395221.htm

[TrogL]

1. Hardly a surprise - Harper is Dubya's lapdog

[redqueen]

2. Something as fundamental as the lack of due process?

[Jefferson23]

3. Such a disgrace, but no surprise here.

[irislake]

4. I'm alarmed that 50% of Canadians

agree with Harper on this. I'm too old to leave the country and have four children and four grandchildren. Otherwise would head to NZ or a Scandinavian country. He has a minority government but is doing lots of harm. If he's still sucking up to Bush now what does he know that we don't know? Paranoid.

[daleo]

12. Has there been a recent poll on this issue?

I am not aware of one that indicates 50% support.

[irislake]

15. Not officially

I just read a headline in one of the major papers that said "Canadians are still divided." So I drew conclusion from that. But to tell truth I felt too rotten to read any more. I bought the paper but haven't had the stomach to read it.

I've had too much bad news in my personal life to want to hear about cruelty to a child soldier in Guantanamo Bay. How anybody could bear to watch that video and wish to inflict more grief is beyond me. Thank god (or Zeus or The Great Goddess) that he has a decent lawyer.

[daleo]

16. I read that article

It was just a "representative" series of posts from websites. The term "split" could have meant anything. I have a hunch Harper is badly misreading the public on this one.

[ann_american2004]

5. no sympathies for his delusional blood lust - like father like son

"Khadr was taken to Afghanistan by his father Ahmed Said Khadr, an alleged al Qaeda financier and close friend of Osama bin Laden. Khadr senior was killed in a battle with Pakistani forces in 2003."

His father financed al Qaeda. The young adult, killed a medic.
He killed a medic who had the potential to save thousands in the course of his/her lifetime.

Reflecting on this, I visualize this young adult who knows taking a human life is wrong now crying for his mother after he shot a humanitarian down, and then next to him I visualize the suffering thousands who are crying and will not find the benefit of this humanitarian, this medic for their wounds and needs. A vast sea of faces this medic could have helped and nursed for all his/her years.

The young adult is a selfish being crying for his own misfortune. The masses are more important than his single self. He deprived the world of this medic. He may deprive the world of more. Detainment is appropriate.

[Jefferson23]

6. Maybe you meant he deserved a trial and not torture too,or did you

forget that part? He was 15 years old at the time, now he is 21.

[ann_american2004]

9. nope. I meant detainment is appropriate, as I said.

I am not opposed to his detainment whatsoever. He shows no remorse for what he did, only that he got caught.
He is a member of Al Queda. The Canadian authorities had every right to detain and question a member of Al Queda.

[Caradoc]

7. Here we go....

Killed a medic, did he? Has that been proven beyond a reasonable doubt? This is what's known as 'due process.' My sympathy, too, is strained, but what was it Jesus said about 'whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers?' Jail time may well be appropriate...so let's give him his day in a proper court (you know, the one without the Kangaroo) just like any other Canadian citizen. You presume guilt...what about presuming innocence? Is the law so weak it can't stand on its own? Yes, his father was a dangerous fool, and his mother equally foolish for not seeing the risks and taking a stand against her naiive husband. But the law is the law...once you deny it to one, especially one so young, we all take a step towards the top of a very slippery slope.

[ann_american2004]

10. Hmm I suppose if he were in Canada going to school

like a good boy, playing vid games at recess and minding his manners instead of being in Afghanistan as a member of Al Queda, a terrorist organization, and in the middle of Al Queda's terrorist actions. I really dont give two flying F's about him at that point.

[sabra]

8. and what about the new witness account?

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/02/05/khadr-account.html

Lawyers for Omar Khadr called on U.S. authorities Monday to dismiss a murder charge against the Canadian, saying a newly revealed eyewitness account that had been covered up by the Pentagon casts doubt on the official version of events.

Khadr, now 21, is charged with hurling a grenade that killed American Sgt. Christopher Speer during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002. He's been in custody at a U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since then.

According to the original U.S. military version of events, Khadr ambushed American soldiers with a grenade following a four-hour fight at a mud compound in Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials later backtracked slightly after it was revealed nobody witnessed Khadr throw the grenade. Pentagon officials said an eyewitness wasn't needed, because Khadr was the only al-Qaeda fighter left alive and the only person who could have thrown the grenade.

However, a classified document, inadvertently released to reporters at the military prison by a Pentagon official Monday, provides a different eyewitness account of the events.

A U.S. soldier at the battle said in sworn testimony that two al-Qaeda fighters were alive after the fatal grenade attack.

The unidentified soldier says he killed the first al-Qaeda fighter before spotting Khadr, whom he said was wounded, on his knees and facing away from him. For reasons he does not go into, he says he shot him in the back twice.

The Pentagon says American soldiers fired on Khadr in self-defence after he tried to attack them.

Khadr's military lawyer Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler suggests that the U.S. military may have been involved in a coverup.

[daleo]

13. There is no proof that he killed a medic

Just some testimony, that has been disputed by other witnesses.

[Pastiche423]

14. Why are you spreading unthruths on a democratic board?

There have been no trials. There has been no evidence. Yet, you spew rw crap.

[ann_american2004]

17. nope. try again

no rwinger here.

But I guess according to you the prerequisite to be a true Dem. is to sympathize with terrorists? no thank you!!!
That kind of crap our party can do without. please. there I said it nicely. Keep it to yourselves.
I am fine being an American-loving, patriotic Obama-supporter, thank you. And anyone who sides with terrorists can kiss my ass.
He is Al Queda. As was his father. He was in Afghanistan fighting with them. I dont give a crap about him. And like it or not, most other rational Democratic Americans dont give a crap about him either.

Obama '08

[Pastiche423]

18. THERE HAS BEEN NO TRIAL!

WTF don't you understand about that? You, nor anyone else has any proof that the young man is a terrorist. You do not know he was in Afghanistan fighting. Were you there? Did you see him fighting? If no, then how, precisely, do you positively know he is a terrorist?

I agree, your kind of crap our party can do w/o.

[ann_american2004]

19. what makes you think I do not understand that?

tell me did every nazi soldier in world war 2 get a trial when they were taken prisoner? Should that member of Al Queda, a terrorist organization, have more rights than a soldier of WW2?

and your idea that he was just 'hanging around' is a big joke and you know it. ridiculous.

[WriteDown]

11. What was he doing in Afganistan in the 1st place?

I am not supporting his interrogation, but I have a feeling that the other alternative would've been to be killed on the battlefield.

[CHIMO]

20. And Straight from The Horse's Mouth

So to say.

KHADR TAPES: GOVERNMENT
Deepak Obhrai is the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the MP for Calgary East, and we reached him at his office in Calgary.


http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithappens/20080715-aih-1.wmv
Starts at 11:41

http://www.cbc.ca/radioshows/AS_IT_HAPPENS/20080715.shtml

[struggle4progress]

21. Canada won't seek return of Gitmo detainee

By CHARMAINE NORONHA – 4 hours ago

TORONTO (AP) — Canada will not seek the return of a young detainee at Guantanamo Bay, officials said Wednesday, a day after the release of a video showing the teenage prisoner sobbing for his mother and pleading for Canada's help.

A spokesman for Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper said footage of Toronto-born terror suspect Omar Khadr being interrogated by Canadian officials in 2003 will not affect his government's position.

"These videos were in possession of the previous government when they decided to pursue the judicial process for Mr. Khadr to have his day in court in Guantanamo," Harper's chief spokesman Kory Teneycke told The Associated Press.

"We can't ignore the serious charges Mr. Khadr is facing," Teneycke said. "The proper forum for determining his guilt or innocence is a judicial process not a political process. We're not affected by what's on the cover of newspapers" ...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hotDtVCEf5QHuOnCDHTfrq31PKAAD91V95TO4