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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 2:32:36 PM |
Dropped charges in 2 cases puts U.S. terror trials in limbo
Last Updated Tuesday, June 5, 2007 | 7.17 AM ET
CBC News
The White House is being urged to re-examine the way it tries war-crimes suspects at Guantanamo Bay after American military judges dropped terrorism charges against two prisoners.
On Monday, the U.S. judges abruptly dropped all charges against two men being held at the prison in Cuba — Omar Khadr, a Canadian accused of killing a U.S. soldier, and Yemen's Salmi Ahmed Hamdan, who was accused of being al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's chauffeur.
In the two separate cases, the judges based their decisions on a technicality that throws the military commission trials process into doubt.
Khadr, a 20-year-old from the Toronto area who had been facing charges of murder and terrorism, appeared on Monday before a military commission in Guantanamo, where he was expected to be arraigned.
Instead, the judge, army Col. Peter Brownback, dismissed the charges for technical reasons.
Under the Military Commissions Act that was revised and passed by the U.S. Congress in October 2006, military commissions only have jurisdiction to try "unlawful enemy combatants." However, Khadr was classified by a military panel in 2004 as only an "enemy combatant" — which is what led the judge to dismiss the charges on Monday.
'Procedural games'
The military judge hearing Hamdan's case later dropped all charges against him as well, similarly reasoning the Pentagon had failed to classify him properly.
Lt.-Cmdr. Charles Swift, who represents Hamdan, said that "if we go back to a system that's tried and true, the court martial," then lawyers can resume proving their clients' innocence or guilt, "rather than playing these procedural games."
None of the roughly 380 detainees at Guantanamo have been classified as "unlawful" enemy combatants.
Audrey Macklin, an associate law professor at the University of Toronto, told CBC News on Tuesday that the military commissions are viewed among most legal experts she knows — American or otherwise — as "a travesty.
"There is no such thing in law as an 'unlawful combatant' or 'unlawful enemy combatant,'" she said, adding that Monday's rulings bespeak "the larger disarray of the military commission" resulting from an "ad hoc concoction of a process that doesn't really exist."
'It's a failure'
Macklin also noted that since Khadr was a minor when he allegedly killed a U.S. medic, he should be subject to a different set of culpabilities than the adult prisoners at Guantanamo — an argument also posed by some international human rights groups.
Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and imprisoned in Guantanamo. He was accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American medic, Sgt. First Class Christopher J. Speer.
U.S. army Sgt. Layne Morris, who says Khadr wounded him in a battle in Afghanistan in 2002, reacted on Tuesday to published reports of Khadr's sister's concern over her brother's health
"Whiney terrorists are probably the most irritating thing I've heard," he said.
"I mean this is a person who has indicated that her greatest goal in life was to become a martyr for the cause. So to hear her whining about the treatment of her brother, how he has got to be locked up, this is a kid who begged to be killed. I don't have any sympathy for her or him or anybody in that outfit."
Col. Dwight Sullivan, the chief of U.S. defence lawyers at Guantanamo, told CBC News "the experience of the military commission system demonstrates that it's a failure.
"Rather than trying to revive these charges, it seems time for the United States to take a new look and find a new way to deal with these cases," he said.
Sullivan suggested using the U.S. federal court system as an alternative.
Appeal within 72 hours
Officials at the Pentagon said the rulings exposed flaws in the military commissions and that they would consider appeals. The U.S. Defence Department said Monday that there would be an appeal of the judge's decision within 72 hours, but if appeals failed, the department could redesignate the detainees.
Despite the rulings, however, it's unlikely to mean freedom for either Hamdan or Khadr — the only Canadian at the U.S. prison — or any of the other detainees there.
Khadr and Hamdan are two of only three Guantanamo prisoners who faced charges under the new system.
Hamdan, charged with conspiring to harm U.S. citizens, has admitted to being a driver for Osama bin Laden but denied taking part in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against the United States.
David Hicks pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al-Qaeda. He was released from Guantanamo and is serving out his nine-month sentence in his native Australia.
With files from the Associated Press
Now, if they will release him (doubtful since the US gov't has already set itself up with the excuse that, even if acquited, detainees can still be held).
The dropping of charges, especially since he has been held since 15, should be all the impetous the Canadian gov't needs to demand he be returned to his family. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 2:37:38 PM | | Or at least be held in a Canadian facility while he awaits trial... which should take place within a reasonable set time limit. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 3:07:29 PM | "The dropping of charges, especially since he has been held since 15, should be all the impetous the Canadian gov't needs to demand he be returned to his family."
The charges were dropped because of a legal technicality.
Cretien got burned for standing up for this guy's father,don't expect any political help for the Khadrs (Canada's first family of terrorism).Until they can deport him back to Pakistan he should remain in Guatanamo. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 3:30:37 PM | Omar's parents hail from Egypt and Palestine. Omar was born in Canada to Canadian Citizens. He was apprehended in Afghanistan.
Where does 'deport him back to Pakistan' come from?
Sounds like an expression of a sentiment rather than an opinion, which usually has at least some basis in facts and intellectual discourse.
By all means, Omar should be held every bit accountable for his deeds. However, your statement is a perfect illustration of what is completely wrong with his current disposition.
There is no victory or higher moral ground when we succumb to the very ignorance that we claim to be against. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 3:55:15 PM | My apologies,he was indeed born here in Canada.His father was released from Pakistan by Cretien's pleadings.
Here's an article about Omar:
THE STORY BEHIND OMAR KHADR
By Michelle Malkin · February 10, 2005 01:07 PM
Drudge linked to a story last night, still up today, which he headlined: "CANADIAN TEEN WAS ABUSED AT GUANTANAMO, LAWYERS SAY..."
Now, here's the rest of the story. The teen is Omar Khadr, member of an infamous clan in Canada with close ties to al Qaeda. In a CBC documentary, Omar's brothers acknowledged:
“I admit it that we are an al-Qaida family. We had connections to al-Qaida,” said Abdurahman Khadr, who says he resisted his father’s urgings to become a suicide bomber.
But another son, 22-year-old Abdullah Khadr, backed the idea of martyrdom for Islam.
“Every Muslim dreams of being a shahid (martyr) for Islam,” he said. “Everybody dreams of this, even a Christian would like to die for their religion.”
I wrote about Omar here and here.
Refresher:
Before you cry buckets over the poor, abused tots at Gitmo, let's make one thing clear: We are not talking about hordes of peace-loving, cherubic grade-schoolers (like the kind who were freed from Saddam's prisons by American troops). We are talking about four male juveniles captured as active enemy combatants against U.S. forces – and suspected of having links to the al-Qaida terrorist network of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime.
These "children" weren't playing Nintendo or lolling around in a sandbox when they were taken into custody. They were at war, armed and dangerous, carrying out jihad.
One of the youths reportedly in custody at Gitmo is 16-year-old Omar Khadr, who, as I noted last week, is a suspected al-Qaida soldier accused of lobbing the hand grenade that killed Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, a 28-year-old medic with the U.S. Special Forces. At least one eyewitness said Khadr was no confused little boy. He knew exactly what he was doing: trying to kill Americans.
And:
[Omar]is in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay for his alleged role in an ambush of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan last summer. Omar is accused of lobbing the hand grenade that killed Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, a 28-year-old medic with the U.S. Special Forces.
"That wasn't a panicky teen-ager we encountered that day," Sergeant First Class Layne Morris of South Jordan, Utah, who lost his right eye in the ambush, told the Boston Globe last month. "That was a trained al-Qaida who wanted to make his last act on earth the killing of an American."
Speer left behind a wife and two children, ages 3 and 11 months. Just days before his murder, Speer had selflessly walked into a minefield to rescue two wounded Afghan children.
Judi MacLeod at Canada Free Press has excellent coverage of the press conference the Khadr family and their lawyers held yesterday:
According to U.S. law professor Muneer Ahmad, who had visited Khadr in November and co-authored a subsequent affidavit, the physical and mental abuse of Omar Khadr is "horrific", "immoral" and "illegal"
"We have evidence that one of Canada’s children has been tortured by the United States, Ahmad said.
With his mother weeping in the background and Edney demanding that the federal government fight more vigorously to protect Khadr’s human rights, a fusillade of questions about the Khadr family’s checkered past all but dominated the news conference.
Khadr may be "one of Canada’s children" to Muneer Ahmad. To many Canadians, he’s the scion of a family, three members of who camped out at Osama bin Laden’s terror training camps in Afghanistan.
Ahmed Said Khadr, the family patriarch--once set free from Pakistan by the intercession of Prime Minister Jean Chretien--was a well-known al Qaeda financier who raised four Toronto-born sons in the world of radical Islam.
It was in bin Laden’s terror training camp that Omar Khadr was captured in July, 2002 after allegedly tossing a grenade that killed a U.S. Army medic.
Khadr’s outspoken mother and sister cried no tears for the fallen army medic.
Following Khadr’s capture, his sister said the death of Sgt. 1st Class Christopher J. Speer was no "big deal". His mother, who said she would rather see her sons at al-Qaeda training camps than "be on drugs or having some homosexual relation" in Canada, insulted some Canadians.
Yesterday, Mrs. Khadr let her lawyer do the talking by reading a statement that asked "every Canadian mother and father to help me get justice for my son and bring him home."
Reporters wanted to know why Canadians should care about her son’s plight in consideration of her family’s open disdain for the West and their close ties to terrorism.
Edney responded with an admission that there is no doubt that there is a lack of sympathy toward the Khadr family, but chided inquiring reporters with, "It’s the principle you’re fighting for".
"We need to be very clear," Ahmad, added. "The U.S. did not torture the Khadr family. They took the body of a boy and subjected it to horrific conditions. So how can we forget about that because of a history that the Khadr family has in the public conscience of Canada?"
With evidence that has yet to be proven, Ahmad did not use the word "alleged" when he spoke about the U.S. subjecting Khadr’s body to "horrific" conditions.
Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has conceded that Ottawa is still concerned that Khadr has been imprisoned for almost three years without being charged with a crime.
Sgt. 1st Class (ret.) Layne Morris, who was injured in the firefight that ended with Khadr’s capture, is skeptical about Khadr’s allegations of torture.
"The best defence is a good offence," he said yesterday, referring to al-Qaeda training manuals that urge members to allege abuse if they are arrested. "He might be youthful-looking, but he is certainly not youthful-acting. You don’t get to Afghanistan in a firefight with U.S. forces on a whim."
Spare your tears for Omar Khadr. Save them for Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer, his widow, and his young and fatherless daughters. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 4:23:55 PM | From your posted article . . .
Before you cry buckets over the poor, abused tots at Gitmo, let's make one thing clear: We are not talking about hordes of peace-loving, cherubic grade-schoolers (like the kind who were freed from Saddam's prisons by American troops). We are talking about four male juveniles captured as active enemy combatants against U.S. forces – and suspected of having links to the al-Qaida terrorist network of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime.
These "children" weren't playing Nintendo or lolling around in a sandbox when they were taken into custody. They were at war, armed and dangerous, carrying out jihad.
(Pardon me if I missed any sections that pointed out what we are dealing with as far as this thread is concerned).
At issue here is not who is worth the tears. That useless exercise can quickly degenerate into countless anecdotal references and counter references. If there is a crime committed, get on with the business of holding a fair trial and dishing out the prescribed punishment. The status quo does little more than create a living martyr to be held up as an inspirational example to naive future recruits. It is clearly not working as a deterrent, if that was the grossly misguided objective.
Any society that holds itself to represent a more desirable and just way of life that is beneficial to everyone, must live within that character at all times. We cannot create friends by differential treatment depending on our objective of the moment. We also cannot abdicate our responsibility to our citizens by simply stating 'send them back to where they came from'. Omar came from Canada. He is our problem and needs to be held responsible and dealt with accordingly. In the process, we get to grow and learn how we can stop failing our future generation and allowing such a situation to arise in the first place. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 4:45:28 PM | "Any society that holds itself to represent a more desirable and just way of life that is beneficial to everyone, must live within that character at all times."
Citizens of that society also have a responsibility to uphold the laws of that society.Canada became a convieient place for the Kadhrs to escape to when they needed help ,were they grateful?have they made an iota of an attempt to follow basic Canadian values? Read the article below .
"Omar came from Canada. He is our problem and needs to be held responsible and dealt with accordingly. In the process, we get to grow and learn how we can stop failing our future generation and allowing such a situation to arise in the first place. "
Nice politically correct sentiment.We can stop failing our future generations by not allowing terrorists back into Canada.
The house of Khadr
Canada's 'first family of terror' is caught between two worlds -- hoops and holy war, infidels and the Internet, movie scripts and martyrdom
MICHAEL FRISCOLANTI | Aug 04, 2006
See also:
>> The Khadr Bunch
Who's-who in Canada's 'first family of terror'
Kareem Khadr is kneeling on the living room carpet, a short crawl from his wheelchair. He is barefoot, dressed in a bright yellow soccer T-shirt -- BRAZIL -- and a pair of beige shorts that expose his limp, crippled legs. His mother and sister are sitting nearby, talking to one another as he flips, page by page, through a pile of old photo albums. Every so often, he interrupts their conversation to point and smile at a specific snapshot from the past. His father. His brothers. Afghanistan.
Years ago, long before 9/11, the Khadr family lived briefly with Osama bin Laden. Today, home is the second floor of a low-rise apartment complex in east end Toronto. Inside the main room, a light brown couch, second-hand, sits near the balcony window, right beside a matching chair and small flat screen television. Most of the walls are lined with colour posters, each of a different mosque. Near the front door, on the opposite side of the kitchenette, a narrow hallway leads to three tiny bedrooms and a bathroom. Depending on the day, up to six people sleep here. "We look like sardines," says Zaynab, Kareem's 26-year-old sister.
At 17, Kareem is the youngest of the four Khadr boys, the obedient son who -- at age 14 -- was famously caught in the crossfire when Pakistani troops killed his terrorist dad, Ahmed Said Khadr. Paralyzed from the waist down, Kareem said goodbye to jihad and headed home to Canada, flashing the peace sign to photographers when he landed at Toronto's Pearson Airport on April 9, 2004.
And that was the last anyone saw of him. His notorious family was never far from the headlines: his sister under RCMP investigation. A brother in a Toronto jail cell. Another brother locked up at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But for two years, Kareem managed to avoid the spotlight -- until a few weeks ago, when he showed up at a court hearing for the so-called "Toronto 17," Canada's alleged homegrown terror cell rounded up by police in June. His black hair long and curly, Kareem sat in the front row, waving at some of his shackled friends while brushing aside reporters. He was dressed like a typical 17-year-old: brown sandals, blue pants and a T-shirt emblazoned with a gun-toting Stewie, the cartoon baby from The Family Guy. "VICTORY WILL BE MINE!" the shirt proclaimed.
Two weeks later, Kareem is kneeling on his apartment floor, finished with the photo albums. Until now, he has never spoken publicly about that morning in October 2003, when Pakistani soldiers and Cobra helicopters demolished the rural compound where he and his father were living. One bullet hit his arm; another pierced his lower back and came out the other side. When he tried to stand up and run, his legs wouldn't listen. "There were no muscles anymore," he tells Maclean's.
At an age when most teenagers are learning to drive, Kareem cannot venture too far from home without a catheter. He tries to walk, using leg braces and a pair of crutches, but progress has been slow at best. Yet he insists he holds no grudge against his beloved father, a man who could have raised his kids in Canada but chose holy war instead. "I never blamed him," Kareem says. "I'm proud of him. I know I had to be in that spot because there is a reason for it. Almost everything happens for a reason. And I'm still pretty happy that I didn't get paralyzed from a car accident or a gang shooting or something. You know, at least I was there helping my father. I had a cause to be there."
A senior RCMP investigator once wrote, in a sworn affidavit, that Ahmed Khadr "created his own 'terrorist cell' and indoctrinated his children from an early age in the values and beliefs of criminal extremists, specifically al-Qaeda." Three years after his death, those children (most of them, at least) remain the apple of his radical eye, railing against the evils of the same Western world that signs their welfare cheques. Despite all the public backlash and all the police investigations, the family is as outspoken and unapologetic as ever -- proclaiming their innocence in one breath and warning of an attack on the innocent in the next. Few Canadians were shocked to learn that some of the Toronto 17 counted the Khadrs among their closest friends.
Still, not everything in the Khadr household revolves around jihad. When they aren't blaming the infidels or influencing the next batch of aspiring extremists, the family struggles with the same day-to-day battles as most Canadians. Car payments. Exams. Disobedient children. Sibling rivalry. Their hypocrisy is almost humorous. Zaynab -- divorced with a six-year-old daughter -- muses about martyrdom, then discusses her plans to go to university. Her mother, Maha, complains almost as much about U.S. foreign policy as the fact that Kareem was cut from a wheelchair basketball team. And then there is Abdurahman, the self-proclaimed "cancer" of the clan, the black sheep brother who turned on his father and worked as a spy for the United States. The others can barely stand him, yet, in a typical Khadr twist, he continues to live in the family's crowded apartment. He smokes. He gambles. And he sleeps until noon. Next year, his life story is scheduled to hit movie theatres.
Zaynab Khadr answers the door. It is just after 10:30 a.m., a scorching summer morning in Toronto. She is dressed in black, in a head-to-toe burka that reveals only her hands and her dark brown eyes. Her mother, Maha, smiles from the kitchen. She is wearing white, with a matching hijab that, unlike her daughter, reveals her face. The Khadr women don't shake hands with men. But they are courteous and welcoming, as is Kareem, waiting on the carpet in his World Cup shirt.
Canadians first met the Khadr family more than a decade ago, when Ahmed Khadr, an Egyptian-born Ottawa engineer, was arrested by Pakistani police in connection with the 1995 bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. Authorities accused him of financing the operation, funnelling the cash through a Canadian charity. He denied the allegations, embarking on a high-profile hunger strike that made such ripples back home that Jean Chrétien, then the prime minister, lobbied on his behalf during a state visit to Pakistan. He was released three months later. Next stop for the family was Afghanistan, where all four of his Canadian sons underwent weapons and explosives training. After Sept. 11, authorities froze Khadr's assets, declaring him an al-Qaeda money man and a wanted fugitive. According to the FBI, bin Laden himself personally tasked his Canadian associate with organizing local militia south of Kabul in anticipation of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
Of course, his family denies all this. He was a charity worker, they say, a man so dedicated to the orphans and widows of war that he stayed in Afghanistan to help, bombs be damned. "If you run away, what's the point of being an NGO?" Zaynab asks. Seven years ago, bin Laden was a guest at her wedding. Today, back in Toronto, she and her six-year-old daughter live with the rest of her family. During the week, she attends high school classes, hoping to one day go to university. "If we are different, it does not mean we have to be enemies," she says. "You don't have to fear me."
Eighteen months ago, the Mounties searched Zaynab's belongings, seizing thousands of computer files, CDs and audio cassettes, some containing "graphic images of an extreme nature." Ironically enough, the RCMP had used Zaynab's own words -- broadcast in a CBC documentary -- to convince a judge to sign the search warrant. On suicide bombers: "I don't have the guts to do that yet." On accusations that her brother, Omar, killed a U.S. army medic before being shipped to Gitmo: "Big deal." On martyrdom: "I'd love to die like that." She remains under investigation "for participation and facilitation of terrorist activities," yet she is fearless, taunting detectives, ever so subtly, from the comfort of her home. "If carrying my father's beliefs -- and I believe that my father had great beliefs and he did not do anything wrong -- is supposed to be poison, then maybe all of us need to have poisoned heads," she says now, sitting cross-legged on the floor. "I am proud of who I am. I don't regret anything that my family or anybody that I knew did. And I am proud that I will stand up for my belief regardless of what anybody else thinks."
There was a time, Zaynab says, when her family had nothing against Canada. The Americans were the enemy, the aggressors "muddling in everybody's business." It was the United States who built bases in Saudi Arabia, who invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Who bomb Muslim children and torture Muslim prisoners. Who unequivocally support Israel. "If anybody ever said something about Canada, we'd all say: 'You know what, we've lived there. People are very nice and the government stays out of things it is not included in and it does not interfere in people's business,'" Zaynab says. "But then all of a sudden, when they started acting the same, what are you supposed to say? They are not the same? But they are killing us."
Zaynab is certainly not the only Canadian who disagrees with the country's mission in Kandahar, where hundreds of troops are hunting and killing Taliban insurgents. But she takes the debate to an uncomfortable level, suggesting that Canada, like its U.S. ally, is now deserving of a terror attack. "Everybody reaps what they plant," she says. "If you follow in the steps of the Americans, you will reap what they did." Not that she would ever do something herself. Of course not. But someone might, she says, and Canadians should consider themselves warned. "Violence is not justified, but it should be expected, is what I am trying to say," she explains. "No one likes it, but it happens. And should the Canadians expect it with the strategy that's being taken? They should expect it. Would it be justified or would it be good or would it be nice? No. Would I justify the person doing it? I wouldn't justify the means, but I could justify his reasons."
"Get the troops of out of Afghanistan," her mother adds. "Don't declare war in Afghanistan."
"Just go back to who you were 10 years ago," Zaynab says. "Withdraw the troops. Stop being America's shadow. Start being yourself."
Kareem, now lying on his stomach, joins the conversation. Killing civilians, he says, is not the answer. "They didn't do nothing to us. They didn't harm us."
"But they are harming people that are our families and are our friends," Zaynab says. "I might be able to hold more pressure than someone else, but someone else might snap."
When asked how she would react tomorrow if someone planted a bomb at, say, a large public building, her answer is hardly encouraging. "I would need to know why first," she says. "Even if I told them it was not the right thing to do, I would understand why they did it."
Zaynab is not naive. She knows that most Canadians cringe at her every word. How, after all, can someone so thoroughly enjoy the spoils of life in this country -- free money, free health care, free schools -- while implying that the very same country is a prime target for terrorism? "All I want from the Canadians is to get me out of here," she answers. (The RCMP seized her passport in the raid, so she is technically stuck here.) "Hopefully, I see myself out of here as soon as I can, because I don't fit here. I don't fit here, not even with the Muslims. I walk around and I don't feel that anybody understands me or that I can blend with anybody or fit with anybody."
AMcDonald's restaurant sits across the street from the Khadrs' building, the golden arches visible from the front lobby. Seven months ago -- Saturday, Dec. 17 -- an RCMP detective phoned the apartment and asked if Abdullah, the eldest of the family's four sons, would mind meeting him at the fast food joint for a few minutes. By then, the 25-year-old had been in Canada for all of two weeks, a free man after spending more than a year in a Pakistani prison and many years before that on the run. He was thrilled to be back, telling reporters that fellow citizens have nothing to fear. "I just want everybody to know that I have nothing to do with anything," he said, sitting in his lawyer's office, wearing a green shirt he borrowed from his cousin. "I am not an al-Qaeda suspect. I was never in al-Qaeda, and I do not support some of their doings."
A week later, Abdullah crossed the road and walked into McDonald's, accompanied by his mother and his younger brother, Abdurahman. He had no idea that a judge in Boston had already signed a warrant for his arrest. According to the FBI, Abdullah admitted during his imprisonment that he was an al-Qaeda weapons broker who supplied front-line fighters with thousands of dollars worth of guns, grenades, rockets and explosive material. Authorities say he also confessed to his role in a plot to assassinate Pakistan's prime minister. Mounties arrested him on the spot; when his mother tried to intervene, officers pinned her to the floor.
"After they arrested Abdullah, I felt so deceived," Maha says now. "How do you expect me to love or respect or care or even feel anything toward a government that is deceiving me? Why should I care?"
"It becomes very difficult for us to deal with," Zaynab adds. "You would say: 'Would that give you the right to do anything?' Eventually, I'm not going to care anymore. Eventually, you are so hurt that you just don't care."
As she speaks, Abdurahman wakes up and walks into the living room, unprepared for what he sees: his brother, sister and mother sitting on the carpet, talking to a reporter. He says hello, but then berates the others for being so blind. He is not your friend, he says. He is a journalist. Then he walks outside for a cigarette, slamming the door behind him.
"It's okay," Zaynab says. "It's regular."
"We can't get him out," her mother adds. "I have to go to court to get him out, and I don't want to do that because I don't like the courts. I don't like the officers."
Abdurahman was always the outsider. In 2004, when the CBC aired its explosive documentary about the Khadrs, he was the one who admitted that his was "an al-Qaeda family." To the outrage of the others, he told the world about his father's close relationship with bin Laden, and how his dad repeatedly urged him to become a suicide bomber. He also confessed to working as a mole for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency -- a claim that caught the attention of a Hollywood production company. In January 2005, he sold the film rights for a reported US$500,000.
Unlike the rest of his family, Abdurahman is media savvy, a 23-year-old who knows full well how to exploit the press for his own benefit. Last year, when the federal government denied him a passport, he took Ottawa to court -- and invited reporters to come. The day the judge ruled in his favour, he held his umpteenth news conference. "I'll prove that [I'm] the perfect citizen," he said. One journalist asked where he planned to travel with his new passport. Barbados, he answered.
Maclean's had other questions for him. Questions about his family. About his future. About rumours that he gambled away a huge chunk of his money. But Abdurahman declined to be interviewed. Not yet, at least. Not until his movie -- Son of Al Qaeda -- reaches the big screen.
After reading the script, you can't blame him for keeping his mouth shut. Written by Keir Pearson, the man behind Hotel Rwanda, the screenplay portrays Abdurahman as nothing less than a Hollywood hero, an intelligent, compassionate young man who rejects radical Islam and happily helps the Americans track down the bad guys. He drives fast, drinks vodka and takes his new colleagues on a "five-star tour" of al-Qaeda safe houses across Afghanistan. His CIA handlers nickname him Ricky, rewarding each fresh tip with cigarettes and other perks. "My father believed one thing," his character says in one scene. "I believe another."
The film begins in the days after 9/11, with the Khadrs fleeing their Afghan home just before American troops arrive. Defiant as ever, Abdurahman refuses to jump in the pickup truck with the rest of his family. "Leave him!" his father yells to the others (the script is still being revised, but Maclean's has obtained a draft version). As the movie unfolds, Abdurahman is captured in Kabul, transported to a prison in Bagram, and interrogated by a CIA agent named Michael Gray. After days of sleep deprivation, he finally admits who he really is: the son of Ahmed Khadr, al-Qaeda's "Secretary of State."
Abdurahman eventually joins forces with his father's "sworn enemy," working undercover in Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay and Bosnia. "We caught one of bin Laden's personal guards," Gray, the CIA agent, tells him at one point. "We're going to put you in a cell with him. After a while, chat him up. Get him to tell you where Osama's hiding."
"What makes you think he'll tell me?" Abdurahman asks.
"You're Ahmed Khadr's son," the agent answers. "It has its benefits."
The script includes more than one flashback to Abdurahman's younger days, including a pivotal memory of his father pleading with him to become a martyr. "So what's it going to be?" his dad asks in one dramatic scene.
"Don't ask me this," Abdurahman answers. "I'd never betray you."
"That's not the question," dad barks back.
"It's the only way to redeem your family name," says another al-Qaeda elder, sitting in the room.
"I don't care," Abdurahman pleads. "I'm not going to strap a bomb to myself and blow up a bunch of innocent people."
"Shaheeds bring honour to all," his father says. "It's sacrificing the one for the many. It's Allah's will."
"It's insanity."
"I'm your father, damn it! And I command you to do it!"
What is most compelling about the script is Abdurahman's attempts to have it both ways. He is the disloyal son, more than willing to tattle on his father's old friends to save his own skin. Yet all the while, he repeatedly -- and conveniently -- insists that he never sold out his old man. In fact, when his character first agrees to help the CIA, he demands a concession: "My family is off limits," he says. Later, after his father is killed and his brother is paralyzed, the agents assure him it was not his fault. "Nothing you told us resulted in your father's death, Abdurahman," Gray says. "We had multiple tips."
Back in the real world, Abdurahman returns to the apartment, finished his morning cigarette. Moments later, his cellphone rings. He takes the call on the balcony.
"He has very different views," Zaynab says.
"Very different," Kareem adds.
"It's human nature," his mother says. "He always had different beliefs since he was very young."
Abdurahman was at McDonald's the night police handcuffed Abdullah and held their mother on the floor. He watched, snapping photos with his camera phone. "He's a coward," Zaynab says.
"Why couldn't he tell them: 'Don't touch my mother. You can't do this to her,' " Maha says. "I mean, she's your mother!"
The Khadrs have saved all of Omar's handwritten letters from prison, each one asking for their prayers and their love. Some are signed with hearts. Earlier this month, he wrote home to tell his family that he fired his American lawyers. "Please dear mom don't be mad," he wrote. "Allah is our defender and helper."
At age 15, Omar Khadr allegedly tossed a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic in Afghanistan. Now 19, he has spent the past four years locked in a cell at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, charged with murder and aiding the enemy. Omar "is a thoroughly 'screwed up' young man," wrote one Foreign Affairs official, who visited him at the seaside prison in 2003. "All those persons who have been in positions of authority over him have abused him and his trust, for their own purposes."
Omar's lawyers, including the ones he just fired, claim he has endured bouts of systematic torture: beaten. Drugged. Short-shackled to the floor for hours at a time. Used as a "human mop" to clean up his own urine. The abuse allegations have -- despite his actions and his infamous kin -- transformed Omar into a cause célèbre, Exhibit A of all that is wrong with the war on terror. Not even daddy could have imagined such a public relations coup.
But then the Khadrs showed up at the Brampton courthouse, proclaiming their support for the Toronto 17. "Everybody was angry with us again," Maha says. Zaynab has been to every hearing so far, sitting with the wives and children of some of the accused. New to the public spotlight, the others seem to look to her for advice. "These people are Muslims," Zaynab says. "They are my friends. I believe in their innocence, and just like I would love to have someone stand with me when I was in a time of need, I will stand with those people when they are in a time of need. And I will support them. Until they prove them guilty, they are innocent -- by law and by religion."
The Khadrs first met some of the accused two years ago, when Kareem returned home. Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal saw the news reports on television and looked up Maha's number in the telephone book, offering any help she could. Her husband, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, is now among the accused, one of the six suspects who allegedly planned to use truck bombs to destroy buildings in downtown Toronto. Two of the group's alleged ringleaders -- Fahim Ahmad, 21, and Zakaria Amara, 20 -- were also friends of the family. Before the arrests, their wives had helped organize fundraisers for the Khadrs.
The Globe and Mail has also reported that some of the women were regular contributors to a virulently anti-Western online chat room, where they spoke of holy war and their hatred for Canada. "If he ever refuses a clear opportunity to leave for jihad, then I want the chance of divorce," wrote Amara's wife, Nada Farooq. Earlier this month, Farooq posted a jailhouse letter from her husband. "I beg you," Amara wrote. "DO NOT FEEL SORRY FOR ME. I'm Allah's slave and he does whatever he wishes with me."
"They were very nice, friendly people," Zaynab says. "Very, very nice people." She insists she had no indication that her friends were planning an attack. If anything, they only spoke of how difficult it is to be a committed Muslim in Canada, where the distractions of modern life often clash with Islam. "In school, they have to go through a lot of peer pressure just to be a Muslim and be proud of who they are," she says. "They wished that one day they would be able to go through life with their families somewhere where it would be easier for them to practice their religion."
As for the charges, Zaynab says the whole thing is "ridiculous." Paintball guns. Ammonium nitrate. Beheading the Prime Minister. "It is just unbelievable," she says.
"I don't believe it," Kareem adds.
"They are making a fool out of RCMP, CSIS and all the intelligence," Maha says. "If there is somebody planning something, he is out there doing something, and they are capturing all these very naive, young boys."
"Yeah," Kareem says. "And whoever is actually doing something is going to do it."
"With these guys, now that they're arrested, I'm pretty sure it goes through their mind that they wish they'd done something," Zaynab says, a few minutes later.
"To justify all the suffering," her mother adds.
"In their minds," Zaynab continues, "maybe it would have been worthwhile that we'd done something, so at least then we'd be punished for something we did, instead of being punished for something we didn't do."
Like his three older brothers, Kareem spent time in Afghanistan's training camps, washing clothes and firing Kalashnikovs. "A lot of our friends used to go there, so we were like: 'Dad, I want to go there because of my friends,'" he says. "There is nothing else to do there, right, and those camps were the best way to get out of trouble." Today, Kareem attends a Toronto high school, two years away from his diploma. He spends hours on the computer, follows the NBA (he's a Miami Heat fan) and plays competitive wheelchair basketball. "I'm good," he says, smiling. Recently, he tried out for an all-star rep team, but the coach cut him. He has no proof, though he is pretty sure his last name had a lot to do with it. "They didn't say that," he says, "but there were players that I played better than."
"I have been to many games, and he is good," Zaynab adds. "But he's never picked."
The West has certainly rubbed off on Kareem. His clothes. His cellphone. Shaquille O'Neal. Like all mothers, Maha worries about her teenage boy, about how much time he spends on the Internet and what he watches on TV. She wishes, too, that he would practise his walking exercises a little more often.
But her worries go beyond the typical angst of most Canadian mothers. She dreads, every day, that the Mounties will kick down her door. That Omar will never leave Guantánamo. That Abdullah will be extradited to the U.S. That Zaynab will be arrested. "Every time I'm late, she's calling me, making sure I'm okay," Zaynab says. A few months ago, Maha accompanied her granddaughter on a school field trip to the Ontario Science Centre. At the end of the day, the class went to the closet to retrieve their coats. "Only my jacket was gone!" Maha says. "There were 30 kids with their teachers, and only my jacket was gone!" Must have been the infidels.
"We can't even talk at home without knowing that everything we say or do is being watched and monitored," Zaynab says.
"The phone is bugged," Maha adds. "You feel so helpless."
"Can you imagine," Zaynab continues, "that if you ever wanted to say something that you think they don't need to know, that you would have to go outside to say it? It's ridiculous. And we're supposed to be living in a free country."
"Sometimes," Maha says, "when I am very, very angry, I say: 'May God punish them severe. Whoever caused Omar and Abdullah this pain, may God punish them so severe.' I'm a mother -- I don't care, you can write this or say it -- I'm really hurt in my heart for my children. And when I see Abdul-Kareem crawling at this age, or having to catheterize and all this mess, I really pray really hard that God punishes them. And when they captured Abdullah that day, I prayed really hard, really loud: 'May God burn your heart!' I prayed so hard, so loud, that I wanted to make sure they hear that. I know many of them don't believe in God or anything. But I do."
It is, for the most part, a lonely life for the Khadrs. Years ago, when the kids returned home for a visit, fellow Muslims were envious, impressed that they were willing to leave Canada to help the poor. "All of a sudden now, everybody stays away from the places you go, doesn't want to talk to you, doesn't want to know you," Zaynab says. "Even people who know you pretend they don't." Old friends from Ottawa stopped calling. At the mosque, some worshippers look the other way when they see the Khadrs coming. "I go to school, he goes to school," Zaynab says, pointing at her brother. "We talk to people at the school. But do we have friends? No."
"We had friends," Kareem says.
"We had," Zaynab agrees. "Now they put them in jail. Whatever friends we had are gone."
The Khadrs like to portray themselves as the victims of an Islamophobic conspiracy, one that stretches from the courts of law to the basketball court. They honestly cannot fathom why the RCMP watches them so closely. "I'm one of those persons that if you don't cross my line, I don't cross yours," Zaynab says. "But if people hurt me, if you really cross my line, I probably would." When asked if fellow Canadians should consider her a threat, she laughs. "I wish," she says, quickly correcting herself. "No, I'm not." | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 6:32:06 PM |
Citizens of that society also have a responsibility to uphold the laws of that society.Canada became a convieient place for the Kadhrs to escape to when they needed help ,were they grateful?have they made an iota of an attempt to follow basic Canadian values?
This is answered at the conclusion of the very article that you posted in support of your position.
They honestly cannot fathom why the RCMP watches them so closely.
This illustrates the failures, bet it in screening the applicants BEFORE they were granted citizenship or fostering and nurturing an environment that allowed them to develop the mindset they present now. Again, it is general ignorance and xenophobia that needs to be addressed widely. I agree with you completely in that where laws of the land have been violated, the perpetrators need to be dealt with swiftly and justly.
Nice politically correct sentiment.We can stop failing our future generations by not allowing terrorists back into Canada. Leaving a criminal out there only allows that person to come back and harm us another day. Out of sight will not make it out of mind. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. No one developed any character by shoving instances of failures out of sight. It is in facing these very failures that we find solutions.
The solutions are deceptively simple, though very challenging to implement. Criminal actions must be proving and then appropriately dealt with in accordance with the law. "Radical" ideologies must be challenged through education and exposure to fundamental untruths they must rely on to flourish.
As Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind".
As SentientIncantation says, "Turning a blind on a problem by sending it out of sight, in this case, will only get us all killed". | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 7:08:35 PM | Who the hell let these people into our country?? My wife had to undergo
serious and lengthy criminal record searches...she had to disclose names
and phone numbers of people she'd known covering 2 decades and 2 decades
of where she worked, schooled etc. This Kadhr family is so conspicuously
odd and just EVIL. I say strip them of their citizenship based on misrepresentation
of their affiliation with terrorists groups. What a sick twisted bunch. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 7:16:23 PM | | It's scary that the charges were dismissed because of a legal definition, not because he was proven to be innocent of the charges. I'll sleep better in my bed tonight knowing that. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/5/2007 9:02:14 PM | "Leaving a criminal out there only allows that person to come back and harm us another day. Out of sight will not make it out of mind. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact."
As a matter of fact deporting criminals was standard practice for centuries.I'd much rather have to-day's terrorist travel halfway across the world to set off a suicide bomb than walk cross a street.
"No one developed any character by shoving instances of failures out of sight. "
Not if he was blown up by a instance of failure suicide bomber.
" "Radical" ideologies must be challenged through education and exposure to fundamental untruths they must rely on to flourish. "
Only a naive teacher could believe that education will convert terrorists to law abiding citizens. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/6/2007 3:33:07 AM | I say strip them of their citizenship based on misrepresentation
of their affiliation with terrorists groups. What a sick twisted bunch.
I second that, and since Omar's father did indeed misrepresent himself, that would affect any living children and his wife who would normally be affected by his immigration application. However, Omar was born here, and that does prove tricky. The only thing I could see happening, if it is legally possible, would be to strip his mother of her citizenship, which would be retroactive, thus Omar would not be born a Canadian citizen because his parents would no longer be considered as having been in the country legally when he was born due to the misrepresentation.
My feeling is that something might already have been done by now, and it hasn't. Part of my studies last year were on immigration and despite what many think, our immigration department is very tough on reviewing applications. You would not believe the high number of applications that are refused. They follow the letter of the law (I have the leglislation book behind me if any of you want me to look into something for you). They very often remove citizenship that was granted based on immigration applications that were not forthcoming.
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/6/2007 4:21:27 AM |
I'd much rather have to-day's terrorist travel halfway across the world to set off a suicide bomb than walk cross a street. Radical ideologies can travel twice around the globe faster in this information age than the time it would take one person to cross a street. Home grown terrorism is sad reality that we better learn to face and address at the root cause level, and quickly. It is also naive to think that any part of the planet we share is suitable and appropriate to send terrorist to. That isolationist ideology is what creates marginalized populations. The whole planet is our home.
Not if he was blown up by a instance of failure suicide bomber. Waiting on the chance of those so called failures to address the problems posed by terrorism is beyond naive. I completely understand the frustration that causes that sentiment. However, it is similar sentiments experienced by those marginalized by society at large that gives rise to radical ideologies globally, often expressed through destructive actions. The terms they are referred to varies over time from terrorist to rebel to freedom fighter and many others. It often varies by revisionist history over time as well. The deeds don't change, just the perspective changes.
Only a naive teacher could believe that education will convert terrorists to law abiding citizens. Criminal acts should be punished adequately by the standards set by laws of the land. Terrorist use education based on some false information and some facts to nurture the disenchanted into their fold. People aren't born as terrorists. They are educated into being ones. That same weapon is the most effect means to combat that evil. Where there is false information used by the terrorists, the truth needs to be exposed. Where there is factual information used by the terrorists to illustrate injustices that 'should be avenged', there needs to be change to remove the injustice and recruit the disenchanted into bringing about that change through peaceful means (i.e. help with the education process) rather than harmful means (i.e. help with the education process).
Until the perspective changes from one of vengeance to one of eliminating injustices and spreading education, there will always be a fertile ground for radical ideologies to farm. Until there is respect shown for individual differences amongst cultures and societies, there will always be a fertile ground for radical ideologies to farm. Respect can only come out of learning about the differences. Perhaps ironically, the more we learn, the more we understand that the differences were based on misconceptions, not facts.
Punish terrorists in accordance to the laws of the land? Absolutely.
Can a terrorist be rehabilitated through education? I don't know. But I do know that blowing them up is a bit like cutting off a lizard's tail. While the focus is on the twitching appendage left behind, a new one is growing on the lizard. If you kill the lizard, a new one will move in as long as there is a hospitable environment available. The only solution is to make the environment not hospitable. To a terrorist mind, a hospitable environment is one full of widespread ignorance and perceived or real injustices. Education and reform are the only effective weapons against that. | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/6/2007 4:51:59 AM | This family has to go .They must leave .I feel that the Canadian immigration system is not tough enough to certain countries . A lot of so called asylumseekers are bogus and would be terrorists. If you have immigration and you commit crimes within say a 10 year period.............you are deported.End of story .
We had similar examples from the failed July bombings . All of these were asylumseekers from Somalia and Eritea .All had been given leave to stay due to the situation in Somalia and Eritea .A good few had records for violent robbery and STILL being given the right to stay and British citzenship and they had lived on welfare/benefit and had been housed,fed and watered and still they tried to bomb us .So our immigration/asylum system is being abused rotten. One of these men is proven to have entered on false papers and false ID . Because we are conditioned to think PAKISTAN............our security services ignored CCTV...shooting an innocent man to death in mistake for a Pakistani and let the real culprits flee the country.Very clever aren't we ?
And like I say along with a another poster....................Pakistan seems to play big in your minds but this Kadr family is from elsewhere and these July 21 failed bombers were from elsewhere ie Somalia and Eritea .Its precisely because we ignore that issue these bombers were able to leave the country on the Eurotunnel .
Another Somalian asylumseeker fled back to Somalia after killing a British WPC .Prior to that he said his life was in danger !
If they were born in western countries ..throw the book at them. If not......deport them and like I say.....................don't look at Pakistan as often as you need to look at other places like Eritea and Somalia. They seem very mild but give them asylum and the crime they commit is horrendous ....political or social.Look at the figures for Australia .Crime gone up by 400 % since they allowed that set of people in and they decided against it now.Decided that they will stay closer to home as in Asian countries . | |
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| Bully for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/6/2007 8:25:03 AM | "The only solution is to make the environment not hospitable. To a terrorist mind, a hospitable environment is one full of widespread ignorance and perceived or real injustices. Education and reform are the only effective weapons against that. "
To the terrorist mind a hospitable enviroment seems to be a place like Canada where they can collect welfare ,receive free services, and continue to spew their murderous philosophies with impunity.The only education they are interested in is radical Islam and the only reform they embrace is the destruction of western civilization.
Do you actually believe that through education you can change the minds of a father and mother that send their children out to murder innocents and be killed themselves?They use and laugh at those who believe that molly-coddling will change their collective ultimate goal. | |
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| 7.62 X 51 mm. FMJ for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/6/2007 9:23:38 AM | I wish they would give him a good cure for his martyr fantasies.
a rifle bullet in the forehead.. It is indeed sad that didn't happen years ago; we wouldn't have to waste so much time & $ on this. | |
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| 7.62 X 51 mm. FMJ for Omar Khadr
Posted: 6/6/2007 12:38:21 PM | | I agree 100% with post 9 why should we as Canada be jumping to the aid of people who care not for what this country is fundementally based on. Its simple the Kaadr family are terrorist. I will admit I dont know every detail of this case nor do I care. However I am sick of seeing this country used like a $10 whore. I just read that in 1992 the father Ahmed Khadr was injured by a mine in Afghanistan. Guess where he came to recover for the next year sapping thousands out of our health care!!!! We need to stop and tend to our good citizens, This family should have their citizenship revoked but we all know that will never happen. | |
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| Canada known around the World as soft-touch Suckers
Posted: 6/6/2007 12:46:12 PM | ^^^
plain and simple, Canada is known around the world as the bleeding-heart sucker country that can always be 'used' when you have a sob story to tell.
Use us, then laugh at our foolishness, come here to be citizens, bleed as much as possible out of medicare, education, social services, etc., but pay no or very little in taxes..
Note the many tens of thousands of "citizens of convenience" in Lebanon, who maintained dual Lebanese/Cdn. citizenship but did not reside in or pay any taxes to Canada for years; come back maybe for free medical care and cry they are Cdns. when they need a free taxpayer-supplied emergency evacuation.
Now many thousands are once again back in Lebanon..and war is heating up (again)..
will Canada (the fools) rush over to bail them out at no expense to them, once again?
I wouldn't be surprised. | |
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| Calm down.
Posted: 6/6/2007 1:29:36 PM | I suppose to some due process and human rights might seem like foreign concepts.
What country you gonna invade next boys? | |
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| Calm down.
Posted: 6/6/2007 1:32:38 PM | ^^
what was the due process that Khadr gave to SFC Speer?
Khadr is a soldier accused of lobbing the hand grenade that killed Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, a 28-year-old medic with the U.S. Special Forces. At least one eyewitness said Khadr was no confused little boy. He knew exactly what he was doing: trying to kill Americans. | |
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| Calm down.
Posted: 6/6/2007 2:18:11 PM | ^^^
Much as I dislike the idea of Canada always having to come to the aid of "paper Canadians" (such as the ungrateful jerks we rescued from Lebanon last year), one would have to admit that Khadr's alleged crimes DID take place during what was, essentially, a 'war.' To try to charge him with murder or whatever seems just a tad ludicrous. What's next? Charging everybody in the Indy 500 with speeding? | |
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| Dual nationalty ?
Posted: 6/6/2007 2:41:23 PM | If I may.......................???
Whats this about paper Canadians or dual nationality ??
How does this work since you ascertain that the people in question live in the Lebanan, never worked or paid taxes in Canada ?? Yet they are Canadian ??
Please explain as fully as possible.Thanks .
As regards the Kadr guy.........he chose to go into a war zone or war situation.Canada is not at war with America so at the very least he needs to be tried for murder and treason because if he can attack Americans because they were in that area...............he can attack Canadians who are also in that area .
Generally the west is at war with terror as in Al Queada and if this family is party to that.............they need isolating at the very least and reading the report posted above I am happy to hear that fellow Canadian Muslims are treating them with the contempt they deserve . | |
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| Dual nationalty ?
Posted: 6/6/2007 3:06:09 PM | A lot of people seem to be missing the real point here.
Khadr's family aside (since this isn't about his family, but him), the outcome of the hearing points out the fundamental flaw here.
Khadr was captured in Afghanistan, during a war, and was held in Guantanamo as an "enemy combatant".
For those not familiar with the concept, that means he was, under international convention, a prisoner of war. It also means that his act of throwing the handgrenade occurred during the conduct of combat. The action was nothing more or less than a combat ambush, a perfectly legitimate combat tactic.
Under those circumstances the act was neither murder nor a war crime any more than when any US (or Canadian) soldier shot Afghani's while engaged in combat.
After holding him for 5 yrs. as an "enemy combatant" (or POW) the US decided to try him before a military commission as an "unlawful combatant". The tactic was used in order to get around the fact that they could not try him for that act as an "enemy combatant" (owing to the fact that, with that status, it was not a crime).
There would be no problem with the US holding him "for the duration" as an "enemy combatant" as long as they afforded him the full rights and privileges of a POW. They, however, have not done that. They have played fast and loose with the definition of his status (and that of most of the others in Guantanamo) in order avoid having to meet the obligations owed by convention to "enemy combatants" and to justify treatment that was and is contrary to their convention obligations.
The ruling was basically an acknowledgement of the fact that it must be "either/or" not whatever suits expediency at the time. | |
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| Canada known around the World as soft-touch Suckers
Posted: 6/6/2007 5:47:45 PM | Now many thousands are once again back in Lebanon..and war is heating up (again).
I'm seeking Mexican citizenship or equivalent.....so, why's it
anybody's business? I joined a club...like a gym membership. So what? I'd
pay taxes there and here. My dues would be all paid up. American/Canadian
dual citizens....who doesn't know anybody with that kind of membership?
Back to topic: Everybody already knew Guantanamo Bay detainees are being
held under some fictitious legal status...the lawyers have to go back to
the drawing board and invent a new name. But with Khadar, I don't care
if he spends life behind bars under any name.......so, let's just let him
fade away. | |
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| Canada known around the World as soft-touch Suckers
Posted: 6/6/2007 6:11:18 PM | | this is a rediculous conversation the man has killed a solder a person from whom was tasked to help, u guys are obviously not the military, have your best buddy die infront of you then talk to me bout justice, there is a reason why this man is n trial and justice should served | |
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