The guilty plea (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 11:45 AM - 0 Comments

Amy Davidson considers the fate of Omar Khadr.

The war crime charges Khadr accepted include working with Al Qaeda, helping to plant roadside bombs, and, in the firefight in which he was captured, in July, 2002, throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier, Sergeant Christopher Speer. Tabitha Speer, Christopher’s widow, was at Guantánamo today; according to Rosenberg, she “wore a black dress to court and sat weeping when the portion about her husband’s death by grenade was mentioned.” One feels a great deal of sympathy for her, and for her loss. But it is hard to see how the Khadr saga has served anyone well.

On Khadr's guilty plea

By John Geddes - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 9:46 AM - 0 Comments

To anyone tempted to imagine that Omar Khadr’s acceptance of a plea bargain somehow means everything the U.S. government has done to him, and the Canadian government’s refusal to intervene on his behalf, is just fine after all, I recommend a close reading of Dan Garnder’s column from today’s Ottawa Citizen.

The guilty plea

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 9:37 AM - 0 Comments

Andrew Sullivan considers the fate of Omar Khadr.

I don’t know how anyone who cares about the integrity and moral standing of the United States can absorb the full details of this case and not be profoundly ashamed.

Khadr "felt happy" when his grenade killed U.S. medic

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at 12:22 PM - 0 Comments

A summary of facts read in court at the war-crimes tribunal of Omar Khadr reveals new details about the five war crimes to which the Guantanamo Bay prisoner has confessed. The summary states: “During an interview in October 2002, Khadr stated he felt happy when he heard that he had killed an American. Khadr indicated that when he would get “pissed off” with the guards at Bagram, he would recall his killing of the U.S. soldier and it would make him feel good.” Khadr also confirmed that he was a member of al-Qaeda and that the “happiest moment of his life” was when he built and planted roadside bombs aimed at killing Americans and other ‘unbelievers’ who were then in Afghanistan. The summary also describes Khadr’s father Ahmad, who was killed in raid in 2003, as a “trusted senior member of al-Qaida” who “helped raise funds and provided the funds in support of al-Qaida operations.” It also confirmed that Khadr does not fit the definition of prisoner of war under the Geneva conventions.

Montreal Gazette

Globe and Mail

'People show empathy'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 25, 2010 at 1:25 PM - 0 Comments

On the eve of Omar Khadr’s guilty plea, his lawyer vents.

“People show empathy,” Edney said of Canadians’ reaction to Khadr’s life story, which for the past eight years has seen him held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ”(After) the fact, nothing happens. I feel, not only the Canadian government, but the Canadian people have let down a citizen, a most vulnerable citizen.”

The Harper government has apparently agreed that Mr. Khadr will be moved to Canadian custody after a year of his sentence.

Khadr pleads guilty to all charges

By macleans.ca - Monday, October 25, 2010 at 11:22 AM - 0 Comments

Omar Khadr has pleaded guilty to all five terrorism charges against him as part of a deal that would limit his sentence. Khadr admitted he conspired with al Qaeda and killed a U.S. soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan. The terms of his deal were not released, though lawyers have reportedly talked about him serving one more year in Guantanamo Bay, before spending another seven in Canada.

National Post

Under what treaty would Khadr come home?

By John Geddes - Monday, October 25, 2010 at 11:10 AM - 0 Comments

News that Omar Khadr pleaded guilty this morning to war-crimes charges before a U.S. military tribunal comes with reports that, after serving another year in Guantanamo Bay, he will be allowed to apply to spend the rest of an eight-year term in a Canadian prison.

There are many questions left to be answered about the details of the plea bargain and the stance of the Canadian government on this disturbing case. But here’s one that springs to mind: Under what treaty would Khadr be repatriated to serve out a sentence in Canada?

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Should Ottawa allow Omar Khadr to serve a prison sentence in Canada?

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 22, 2010 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

Ottawa denies involvement in Khadr talks

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 12:59 PM - 0 Comments

Officials in both Canada and U.S. are denying reports U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had arranged to speak with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon about Omar Khadr’s repatriation to Canada. “Media reports to the effect there would be a Canadian agreement are not correct,” said Catherine Loubier, a spokesperson for Cannon’s office. “There is no such agreement. Omar Khadr is facing serious charges in the U.S. These serious charges would have to be addressed in the U.S.” CNN is reporting Clinton and Cannon had arranged to discuss the case Wednesday night, with further negotiations scheduled for Friday. But a spokesperson for Clinton said “There was no such call.”

Metro

CNN

In the balance

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 1:04 PM - 0 Comments

While the Prime Minister’s Office continues to distance the Harper government from any decision in the case of Omar Khadr, Michelle Shephard reports that discussions are taking place between officials in Washington and Ottawa. John Ibbitson figures the final decision Mr. Khadr’s fate will rest with Stephen Harper, at least so long as Barack Obama asks Mr. Harper to make a decision. But any deal would first, of course, have to be accepted by Mr. Khadr, who is due to meet with his lawyers today.

One way or another, here perhaps is the start of an ending to what Scott Horton described last month as both a “rollercoaster ride” and a “train wreck.”

Is Omar Khadr coming back to Canada?

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 5:22 PM - 0 Comments

More than eight years after being shot and captured on an Afghanistan battlefield—at the tender age of 15—Omar Khadr could be on his way back to Canada. Or not. It all depends on which source you believe: the anonymous kind, or the prime minister.

The ever-unreliable Khadr rumour mill started churning again this morning when Al Arabiya, a news channel in Dubai, reported that a settlement has already been reached: in exchange for pleading guilty to terrorism charges, the station said, the Toronto native will be allowed to leave the notorious U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and serve the remainder of his sentence (whatever it is) in a Canadian jail.

Nathan Whitling, one of Khadr’s Edmonton-based lawyers, would only say “that there is a potential deal in the works” and refused to provide further details. But “unnamed sources” are filling in the blanks. According to the Toronto Star, the deal was proposed by Khadr’s defence team and approved Wednesday night by the convening authority for war crimes tribunals at Gitmo. The National Post goes one step further, saying Khadr will plead guilty to all charges he faces—including murder—and will serve eight more years in prison, seven of them in Canada.

Continue…

A deal?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 1:25 PM - 0 Comments

The Star, Globe and CBC all now report the possibility of a plea deal in the case of Omar Khadr. Postmedia says he’ll be moved to Canadian custody.

Mr. Khadr rejected a deal earlier last spring—later saying openly that he would not plead guilty. The Harper government, which has long refused to intervene in Mr. Khadr’s case, distanced itself from any talk of a plea bargain when one was last rumoured (and, indeed, seems to be doing so this time as well), while other sources said a deal was unlikely so long as the White House remained silent.

Plea deal could finally send Omar Khadr home

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 1:19 PM - 0 Comments

More than eight years after being shot and captured on an Afghanistan battlefield—at the age of 15—Omar Khadr could be on his way out of a Guantanamo Bay prison cell. His lawyer confirmed today that a deal is in the works that would see Khadr plead guilty to terrorism offences in exchange for serving the remainder of his sentence in a Canadian jail. Exactly how much longer he will spend behind bars—or what specific crime he will confess to—has yet to be determined, and Nathan Whitling, one of his Edmonton-based lawyers, would only say “that there is a potential deal in the works.” Now 24, Khadr is charged with five military commission offences, including “murder in violation of the laws of war,” in connection with the death of U.S. Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer. According to prosecutors, the teenaged Khadr was among a group of insurgents engaged in a firefight with American soldiers in July 2002, and tossed a grenade that fatally wounded Sgt. Speer. Omar is the third son of the late Ahmed Said Khadr, a Canadian citizen and reputed al-Qaeda financier who once lived with Osama bin Laden.

The Globe and Mail

A parliamentarian

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 20, 2010 at 11:52 AM - 0 Comments

A short note on unfortunate news.

Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde announced last week that she has been diagnosed again with cancer and, as a result, she will not be seeking reelection. Over the last three years of observing Parliament and its players, Ms. Lalonde has distinguished herself in these eyes as a passionate, insistent voice pushing this place to consider difficult matters: euthanasia, the treatment of Afghan detainees, Omar Khadr. Last week she was part of a Public Policy Forum discussion on the role of Parliamentary committees and indeed, whatever her original reason for entering federal politics and whenever an election does bring her time in Ottawa to an end, she will depart as a parliamentarian, a title that should be reserved for those most honourably committed to this institution as a true and valuable forum. The House will be poorer in her absence, but made richer by her time here.

Khadr's trial delayed at least a month

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 13, 2010 at 1:36 PM - 0 Comments

Omar Khadr’s trial is postponed for at least a month after his lawyer collapsed yesterday, the first day of the Canadian’s war crimes trial. Khadr’s lawyer, Army Lt.-Col Jon Jackson, 39, began coughing about 10 minutes before the court was set to end and had asked the judge for a brief recess before collapsing. He was taken to a hospital by ambulance and is now being airlifted off the island for medical care. Jackson had undergone gall bladder surgery six weeks ago and doctors believe that complications from the surgery led to his collapse. “The most important thing is nothing has changed with the Omar Khadr case except for the timing,” said Guantanamo’s deputy chief defense Bryan Broyles to journalists Friday morning. Khadr is
accused of five war crimes and faces a life sentence if convicted at the Guantanamo court.

Toronto Star

Toronto Star

The state adrift (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 13, 2010 at 12:21 PM - 0 Comments

Chris Selley considers civil liberties and partisanship.

In all these cases, the real villains are governments that believe, with ample justification, that they can do whatever they want to whomever they want, whenever they want. Governments don’t care what party you voted for, or what you think about the war in Afghanistan, or whether your bookshelf’s stuffed with Noam Chomsky or Ayn Rand. If they think it’s in their best interests to steamroll you, they will. Ideological partisanship dilutes by half the democratic force of the revulsion we feel — or should feel — when they do. It enables the very thing we all claim to detest when it happens to people we like. The answer lies in sticking up for people we don’t like too.

Omar Khadr is innocent, says his lawyer

By macleans.ca - Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 2:33 PM - 0 Comments

In a military commission trial in Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr’s defence lawyer is arguing that the Canadian is innocent and that there is no forensic evidence to prove he killed a U.S. soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002. The Toronto-born Khadr faces accusations of throwing a deadly grenade, and is being tried on five charges, including murder in
violation of the laws of war. But his lawyer, Lt.-Col. Jon Jackson, argued that Khadr did not throw the grenade and was at the scene of the firefight because his father asked him to be there. Furthermore, Jackson said Khadr’s confessions to the crime were the result of torture and threats of rape and murder during his interrogation.

CBC

Why our highest court seems afraid to take on the Harper government

By Philip Slayton - Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

Tom Hanson/CP

For a moment last January, the Supreme Court of Canada was flexing its muscles. In its decision Canada (Prime Minister) v. Khadr, it seemed ready to rein in the federal government in a serious way. The court came within a hair’s breadth of telling the Prime Minister to seek Omar Khadr’s repatriation from the United States, because his Charter rights had been breached by Canadian officials.

The Khadr case echoed a similar but more dramatic faceoff between executive and judiciary in the United States. In his January state of the union address, President Barack Obama criticized the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission with five of the judges sitting there while he did so (“not true,” mouthed Justice Samuel Alito, as the President spoke). The Citizens United case held that the First Amendment protects the corporate funding of political broadcasts. The New York Times has called the President and U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts “intellectual gladiators in a great struggle over the role of government in American society.”

Continue…

Khadr's pretrial hearing underway at Guantanamo Bay

By macleans.ca - Monday, August 9, 2010 at 3:51 PM - 0 Comments

At a pretrial hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr’s military-appointed lawyer told a U.S. military court that an interrogator’s threat of gang rape and death should render Khadr’s confessions unreliable. Lt.-Col. Jon Jackson made the argument at Khadr’s military tribunal hearing, at which Khadr pleaded not guilty, in an attempt to have Khadr’s statements deemed inadmissible. A ruling on the evidence is expected later on Monday. Jackson cited the fact an interrogator—the former U.S. army sergeant Joshua Claus—admitted telling Khadr another young inmate in American custody at Bagram prison in Afghanistan had been raped by other inmates, possibly to death. “Once he said those words, the well is poisoned,” Jackson said. “The government can’t cleanse the well.” Claus was later convicted of detainee abuse. These are the final pretrial motions and the trial is expected to begin on Wednesday.

UPDATE: Military judge Patrick Parrish has denied the defence’s request to throw out the alleged confessions made by Khadr, which Khadr’s lawyers had argued were made under duress.

CBC News

AFP

The meaning of citizenship

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 9:56 AM - 0 Comments

Alex Himelfarb ties together disparate strands.

What do the Omar Khadr case, the census controversy and taxes all have in common?  All, I think, in one way or another, tell us something about the value of our common citizenship. With citizenship, as with most things, we get what we pay for.  It seems today we are being asked to pay less and, no surprise, we are being offered less.  Is that what we really want?

'After careful consideration'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 12, 2010 at 3:20 PM - 0 Comments

In not-at-all surprising news, the government will appeal last week’s Federal Court ruling on Omar Khadr.

“After careful consideration of the legal merits of the July 5, 2010, ruling from the Federal Court, the Government of Canada will appeal the decision to the Federal Court of Appeal.

“This case raises important issues concerning the Crown prerogative over foreign affairs. “As the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in an earlier case involving Mr. Khadr, ‘it would not be appropriate for the Court to give direction as to the diplomatic steps necessary to address the breaches of Mr. Khadr’s Charter rights.’ “Omar Khadr faces very serious charges, including murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, material support for terrorism, and spying. The Government of Canada continues to provide consular services to Mr. Khadr.”

The business of Guantanamo, meanwhile, is proceeding as smoothly as ever.

Khadr turned down plea bargain

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 12, 2010 at 1:32 PM - 0 Comments

Omar Khadr revealed Monday he had spurned a plea deal offered by U.S. prosecutors that would have seen him serve five years of a 30-year sentence provided he admitted to war crimes charges. “I will not take any of the offers because it’ll give the U.S. government an excuse for torturing me and abusing me when I was a child,” Khadr told a military tribunal holding pre-trial hearings at Guantanamo Bay. Khadr also told the tribunal he wouldn’t mount a defense after attempting to fire his lawyers last week. (The judge refused to allow him to fire Lt.-Col. Jon Jackson after Khadr fired his two American civilian lawyers on Friday.) “It’s going to be the same thing with lawyers or without lawyers,” Khadr said. “It’s gonna be life sentence.” Khadr’s trial is due to begin this August.

AFP

CBC News

Khadr fires American lawyers

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 6:00 PM - 0 Comments

Omar Khadr has fired his American lawyers, reportedly because he does not trust that they will represent him fairly. “We’re devastated, absolutely devastated by this. We cared deeply about Mr. Khadr,” said Washington attorney Barry Coburn, to the Toronto Star. Khadr’s legal team had been negotiating with the Pentagon a possible plea deal for months, but were unable to reach a consensus. If convicted, Khadr faces a life sentence. Canadian lawyer Dennis Edney said that Canadian-born Khadr feels that Canada has not come to his aid. The 23-year-old Guantanamo detainee was captured when he was 15 fighting in Afghanistan. Khadr’s last pre-trial is scheduled to begin Monday. His August 10 trial this summer will be the first war crimes trial under the Obama administration.

Toronto Star

'The steps taken to date were found not to remedy the breach'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 5, 2010 at 3:53 PM - 0 Comments

The federal court rules on a review of the government’s response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the treatment of Omar Khadr.

Omar Khadr sought judicial review of Canada’s response to the Supreme Court of Canada’s declaration in Canada (Prime Minister) v. Khadr (2010) that Canada had breached his Charter rights.  Canada responded by deciding that it would continue to refuse to request his repatriation from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and by requesting, by way of diplomatic note, that the United States not use any of the information Canada had supplied it in its prosecution of Mr. Khadr.

The Court concluded that Canada’s decisions were amenable to judicial review, even though they involved the executive’s exercise of a royal prerogative, because they affected the rights and legitimate expectations of Mr. Khadr.  The breach of his rights remained ongoing and the Court concluded that he had a legitimate expectation, following the Supreme Court of Canada’s declaration, that Canada would take steps to remedy its breach.  The steps taken to date were found not to remedy the breach.

The full ruling is here.