Regular readers will know full well that I have no love for Stephen Harper, considering him a feckless, short-sighted and generally mean-spirited individual. His stance on the repatriation of Omar Khadr does nothing to change this opinion.
Let us recap: Omar Khadr was arrested as a child soldier in the Afghanistan war when he was fifteen. International commitments signed by both Canada and the United States recognize that individuals below the age of eighteen cannot be legally considered “soldiers,” and even if you ignore the optional protocol that was signed in 2002 (and is thus a binding commitment on both countries) Khadr would still be toeing the line of the 15-year-old age limit for child soldiers. But he’s still in Guantanamo.
His lawyers have shown that evidence against him – specifically the evidence responsible for his charge of killing a soldier with a grenade – has been altered after the fact. The Pentagon itself has accidentally released conflicting evidence. But he’s still in Guantanamo.
We know that Khadr has been subjected to extended sleep deprivation. Extended sleep deprivation is torture – it deliberately and systematically breaks down a person’s mental health, forcing them into a state akin to psychosis. But he’s still in Guantanamo.
And Stephen Harper’s defense for allowing this to continue? “The previous government took a whole range, all of the information into account when they made the decision on how to proceed with the Khadr case several years ago.” Yes, Stephen Harper’s argument is that the Liberals didn’t do anything when they were in office. By this logic, of course, no elected official can ever do anything about a situation that began before they took office. It’s idiotic and cowardly, which coming from Stephen Harper should prove no surprise.
But one more point:
“Harper added that Canada: “frankly, has no real alternative” to the U.S. legal process. “
This is a lie. Plainly and simply, it is a lie. We know this because Omar Khadr is the sole remaining prisoner in Guantanamo who is a citizen of a Western country. The Brits and the Aussies have already removed their citizens and dealt with them as they see fit. Canada has “no real alternative” because its Prime Minister doesn’t want there to be an alternative.
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Shorter Harper: “I had no option.” So much for the Accountability Party.
I’m disappointed by Bob Rae’s spinnage on this topic, too. While the troglodytes on the CBC’s message boards, in addition to endorsing the torture of minors, think that Rae’s one o’ them Osamas for saying that Khadr shouldn’t be left in the gulag, I note that Rae effectively defends the Liberals’ failure to get Khadr shipped home.
Also: the “crime” he’s charged with? Shooting back. Jesus Christ, are the U.S. Marines such a pack of sissies that they call the cops when someone returns fire? Because the people they work for clearly are.
Bonus: the CSIS footage. They went in there with their interview subject happy to see them and they still didn’t get squat. Flunk. All we can get from that is that the guy’s basically innocent and/or that CSIS isn’t up to the job — so we’ve learned nothing new.
The real question that always bugged me was why the US would be so keen on keeping a 15-year-old boy in a cage for years on end. He has no useful intelligence, he isn’t exactly a serious national threat, he’s got all the political clout of a 15-year-old boy, and he had to be hospitalized right after they caught him.
There really is no other reason to hold him, save for two that come to mind. First, he’s an excellent test case for the Unified Executive (read: Dictatorship) government Bush was aiming for. If you can keep a kid like this indefinitely, you can realistically keep anybody. Second, releasing him is a tacit admission that the system is flawed and the administration failed. Ergo, you have to keep him forever because letting him go means admitting you were wrong.
Of course, the price for legalizing an American dictatorship involves turning your Justice Department into a giant joke. Prosecutors are forced to argue the most outlandish theories and the entrenched judges currently running the American Court System are going to lose all respect for you very, very quickly. So you pick a fight with the Judicial Branch very quickly. And the Judicial Branch has really been the only functional check on the Administration’s powers.
This is all a fucking tragedy, and we can’t reach November soon enough here in the States. As pathetic as your conservative party is at trying to pass the buck of the Bush Doctrine, just be glad you’re not in a position to start living under it. Our conservatives are worse than your conservatives. :-p
Even if Omar’s actually guilty, he doesn’t deserve this. For one thing he was a minor as you pointed out, MGK. For another, I don’t think anybody deserves this kind of treatment, even the guilty. DEFINITELY not for as many years as Omar’s been subjected to it.
This is a disgrace.
This is more proof, as if any more was needed, that Stephen Harper is a worthless douchebag.
I hope that the Liberals get their shit together, because the thought of a Conservative majority under Stephen Harper fills me with a cold dread.
Well, I really hope that the NDP somehow takes the reins of power, but the chances of that are… yeah…
Thing is, too, if Stephen Harper would step up to the plate, then the US would have an out so they could save face without looking like a failure. They could just say, “We did it because we owed Canada a solid, and as Americans we pay our friends back. Our policy still stands.” Harper looks good because he got this kid out, America gets to look like it’s being a nice guy for its good buddy Canada. Everybody smiles.
I propose we exchange Harper for Khadr. Win win situation there.
In seriousness, the fact he was a child soldier should have gotten him home years ago. I think Romeo Dallaire made a point about that, and history has proven it unwise to ignore him.
Word, MGK. Word.
Whenever I try to talk about this situation, I get so angry I can barely articulate myself. The whole situation is morally reprehensible and intellectually… nonsensical.
All I can say is that as a citizen of the US, I really really cannot wait until January 20, 2009.
http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2008/07/copying-a-faile.html
Canadian Mercenaries! Whoa-hoo!
Hypocrisy of the “Repatriate Omar Khadr to Canada” Movement
As soon as the Gitmo interrogation tape of Omar Khadr hit the Internet, the blogosphere was flooded with demands to repatriate him to Canada. This wave is reminiscent of a Soviet campaign to free Luis Corvalán from the “fascist regime” of Augusto Pinochet thirty five years ago. The scenario is strikingly similar. A “victim” held by “fascist regimes” this time run by Bush and Harper, and a public outcry for justice. Except for the fact that Luis Corvalán didn’t kill anyone and didn’t fight for a terrorist group that wants to impose Sharia.
The “repatriate Khadr” crowd describes him as “a child”, “a kid”, “a boy”, and even “a torture victim”, with no facts to substantiate the torture claims notwithstanding. They complain about Khadr being mistreated, again, without anything to back up their claims. Some of them are outraged about “child abuse.” And they all scream for justice.
They want justice? OK, let’s talk about JUSTICE. What about justice for Sgt. First Class Christopher J. Speer, who was (according to an eyewitness) murdered by this “child”? What about justice for Tabitha Speer, who is a widow because of this “kid”? What about justice for Taryn and Tanner Speer, who are left without a father by this “a boy”? And what about all those Afghani civilians and NATO troops who are a little bit safer because this “torture victim” is behind bars? How many of these “repatriate Khadr” hypocrites concern themselves with justice for real victims? In literally hundreds of posts, we couldn’t find a single one.
One would ask, what is the reason for this idiocy? The answer is simple. Ignorance. Complete and utter ignorance. Let’s forget for a second that Omar Khadr killed Christopher Speer. Let’s forget that Khadr’s father was an al Qaeda financier. Let’s forget that Khadr’s family is known for it being al Qaeda sympathizers. Let’s just remember what this “child” was fighting for in Afghanistan.
This is what Taliban-imposed Sharia looks like in real life: http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2000/07/hypocrisy-of-repatriate-omar-khadr-to.html
Why don’t all of you, bleeding heart demagogues go to Afghanistan and spend a day in a Taliban-controlled territory? And let’s talk about Khadr when you get back. If you get back.
[…] Muslims like doing, it’s defending Michael Savage). They’ve seen fit to issue a drive-by comment, reprimanding all of us who might believe that Omar Khadr be given such trivialities as “due […]
He called his kids Taryn and Tanner? Ewwww! Then he was hardly blameless in all this either, was he?
“What about justice for Sgt. First Class Christopher J. Speer, who was (according to an eyewitness) murdered by this “child”?”
Murdered? I thought he was an “enemy combatant”, aka a “soldier” or “insurgent”, making that one of the risks of war… Or are we not opening that up due to the fact that so many of your own could then be tarred as murderers as well?
Perhaps we should respect the trade of Sgt Speer and actually recognise there was a risk to, y’know armed invasion of another sovreign nation? Or is that too much to ask, to respect one’s soldiers for being willing to fight on the orders of one’s government and the risks that come with that?