lrrp

The problem is here, there is one witness, said witness was another grunt putting down the threat. Most of the time, as a legal arguement, that will be the only witness you have...no other sane person would wait around to see who wins. The witness gave testimony... Is that a fucked up deal? Sure it is, but that is all we have, and we all we had for Nuremburg and the Japanese unit 731 (first bio-weapons intentionally loosed on civilians) Unless I see other evidence to the contrary, I have to take the grunt at his word, there is no other person to disprove his story. Taking the kid to Gitmo was wrong, I don't know how many times I need to say that. I will not defend a war criminal president. But barring that, what exactly are troops in the field supposed to do with these people? Anyone?

serum114

I think we agree for the most part. But saying that I think back to the Johnny Taliban thing in the beginning of all this. He was tried and convicted here. So Michele has an excellent point we should be able to rely on the canadians to punish their own. But it is unexceptable in my opinion to hold him so long without a fair and just trial all this time. And just like our soldier's fighting for their own lives so are the guys on the other side. It was an unnecessary war in my opinion. Bush completely screwed up this whole thing. Getting lawyers together to decide wether or not the geneva convention applies, the congress going to war without a declaration and giving W way to much executive power. Our government is so far out of line it makes all these decisions way to difficult when they should be cut and dry.
I don't know what the troops in the field are suposed to do with these people. It shouldn't be up to them. Again our government has failed the troops on so many levels it makes me want to knock Bush on his ass.

__________________

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
Hunter S. Thompson

"The bad news is, the aliens have landed. The good news is, they eat Mormons and piss gasoline!"
Utah Phillips

lrrp

Now there is a post I can easily agree with. I do think tho, the fact he was caught killing American soldiers makes him accountable to US courts first. After all, we are the country on the receiving end of his terrorism, but he should have been handed back to Canadian authority at some point. I do not support holding ANY prisoners at gitmo... period. I can't change that right now, but I'm trying... We as a nation need to come up with a plan for what we do with these guys after bush is gone. I'm leaning towards a UN tribunal, but I have no idea how practical that is...I DO know that we need to be thinking about it tho...

michelemichele

This isn't a smart-ass question: how did I fall short with my posts, didn't explain myself thoroughly enough, too pissed, ...?

I'll get back to you re the extradition issue tomorrow or the day after, me tired

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(((start the music)))

serum114

Canada Should Uphold the Rule of Law, Even in Khadr Case
Editorial
The video of Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents questioning 16-year-old Omar Khadr in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba revealed many things. As has been said, it gave Canadians a glimpse of a CSIS interrogation and of the CSIS’s methods of gathering intelligence.

But it also revealed something much more troubling: That the Canadian government — both Liberal and Conservative — far from merely acquiescing in the United States’ decision to hold enemy combatants without charges or legal counsel, has been an active participant in the process.

In the video, which was shot in 2003, not long after the U.S. opened the prison in Cuba, Khadr appears elated upon first meeting the agents, saying he had long requested a hearing with the Canadian government.

But after realizing that the agents were not there to help him, Khadr, who had been sleep-deprived before the interrogation, collapsed into sobs, saying what has variously been interpreted as “kill me,” “help me” and “ya ummi” (”Oh mother” in Arabic).

The interrogation itself isn’t particularly harsh, although the agents did play on Khadr’s belief that they could help him. And they should have taken more seriously Khadr’s claims that he was not receiving proper medical treatment for his injuries, and should have inquired into whether he had been tortured.

What is most troubling is not the content of the interrogation, but that it occurred at all. To begin with, the CSIS agents interrogated Khadr without first advising him of his right to counsel, a violation of his basic legal rights.

More fundamentally, while Canada is not directly responsible for the treatment — or mistreatment — of Khadr in Cuba, the government’s willingness to participate in the process, and the agents’ cavalier dismissal of Khadr’s complaints, means that Canada bears some legal and moral responsibility for what happens in Guantanamo Bay.

This is in stark contrast to the governments of other western countries. Khadr is the only western national remaining in Guantanamo Bay, as all other countries with detainees in Cuba struck deals with the U.S. government to have them released.

Similarly, Khadr is the only remaining detainee who was a child when he was captured by U.S. forces. Introduced by his father to al-Qaida officials when he was 10, Khadr was captured at the age of 15 and brought to Guantanamo a few months later.

And Canada’s support for the detention and military trial of child soldiers is not only in stark contrast to the attitude of other western countries, but to its international obligations and its express support for the rehabilitation of child soldiers.

Indeed, Canada was a leader in the drafting and adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires parties to the protocol to provide assistance for the physical and psychological recovery of child soldiers and to facilitate their social reintegration. Similarly, the “Paris Principles,” which Canada supports, state that child soldiers “should be considered primarily as victims of offences against international law,” and calls on states to emphasize restorative justice and social rehabilitation when dealing with underage combatants.

By actively supporting the detention and treatment of Khadr in Guantanamo, Canada, for all its high-minded talk about child soldiers, has made it clear that it is just that — talk.

Faced with the spectre of a real child soldier, Canada seems content not only to ignore its commitment to children of war, but its commitment to protecting the fundamental legal rights that are due to all Canadians, regardless of age.

All Canadians ought to be concerned about this. If Canada is not genuinely committed to its domestic and international obligations, and to the rule of law, then no Canadian is safe.

__________________

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
Hunter S. Thompson

"The bad news is, the aliens have landed. The good news is, they eat Mormons and piss gasoline!"
Utah Phillips