Guantanamo court to review Canadian's torture claim

[kpete]

Source: Reuters

Guantanamo court to review Canadian's torture claim

(Reuters) - A military judge presiding over the first Guantanamo tribunal of the Obama era will seek to determine this week whether U.S. forces tortured a confession from a Canadian accused of murdering an American soldier in Afghanistan.

The judge will decide what evidence can be used against Omar Khadr, 23, one of six prisoners at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo in eastern Cuba that the Obama administration has designated for trial by military tribunal.
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Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound near the Afghan city of Khost in July 2002, has spent a third of his life locked up with adult prisoners at Guantanamo.

He could be jailed for life if convicted in the first war crimes tribunal since World War Two to prosecute someone for acts committed as a child.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63O0Z420100425

[Solly Mack]

1. k/r

[OnlinePoker]

2. I'm conflicted with the whole Khadr issue.

On the one hand, he was raised in and out of Canada as a radicalized Muslim. He believed, because it was taught to him by his parents, that the west was evil and he was fighting for a just cause. He had an unstable early childhood, moving back and forth from Canada to Pakistan several times. In killing the American soldier (if he even did so...there's arguments on both sides about that) he was fighting a war, not murdering someone. Because he wasn't in a uniform (one could argue the traditional Muslim dress is their uniform and there was a clear hierarchy among the guerrillas)the alliance has skirted the Geneva Conventions.

On the other hand, if he is released, where does he go? It is unlikely his attitude towards the west will have changed with his years of incarceration. I'm worried that he will only seek ways to attack his oppressors in the future.

He was a kid when he taken prisoner, acting in the manner he was raised. He is a 23 year old man now, shaped into an adult by his life experience. It will be very hard to change his beliefs at this late stage.