Guantánamo detainee charged with murder
The United States charged a Canadian held at Guantánamo with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and other terrorism charges.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com
AP
KHADR
On the Web | The Pentagon statement
Document | Khadr's handwritten protest
Document |Khadr's charge sheet
The Pentagon on Tuesday formally charged a Canadian captive at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with murder in the death of a U.S. Army medic during fighting in Afghanistan, setting the stage for his trial by a military commission.
Omar Khadr, now 20, was 15 on July 27, 2002, when he allegedly threw a grenade at U.S. Special Forces who had assaulted a suspected al Qaeda compound near Khost, Afghanistan. The explosion killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28, of Albuquerque, N.M., and partially blinded Khadr and another American soldier.
Khadr also is charged with attempted murder for helping al Qaeda convert mines into roadside bombs, conspiracy for plotting with al Qaeda to kill U.S. troops, providing material support to terrorism by undergoing al Qaeda weapons training, and spying by monitoring American military convoys to aid al Qaeda attacks.
Khadr's lawyers have argued he should never have been held or charged, and instead should have been treated under international law as a ''child soldier'' in a conflict zone.
In his nearly five years at Guantánamo, he has gone from a fresh-faced teenager, portrayed in photos released by the family, to a six-foot-tall man with a fuzzy beard.
SECOND CASE
The Pentagon said it would not seek the death penalty in the case, the second to be brought under legislation passed last year authorizing military commissions for prisoners held at Guantánamo. The first case ended with Australian David Hicks, 31, pleading guilty to providing material support for terrorism in exchange for a nine-month prison sentence, most of it to be served in his homeland.
Khadr's fate is less certain. While Hicks' five-year imprisonment at Guantánamo without trial became a cause célèbre in Australia, Khadr's detention has elicited little sympathy in Canada.
The Khadr family, which settled in Toronto in 1977, has been cast as radical Muslims who have moved between Canada, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and at times socialized with Osama bin Laden's family.
Khadr's father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was killed in a shootout with Pakistani authorities in 2003. His younger brother, Karim, was paralyzed in that shootout. And an older brother, Abdullah, 25, is under indictment in Boston on charges of supplying weapons to al Qaeda.
NO OPPOSITION
In Ottawa, a Canadian government spokesman declined to criticize the decision to try Khadr, the only Canadian being held at Guantánamo.
''The choice of mechanisms put in place to try Guantánamo detainees is a matter for U.S. authorities,'' said Foreign Office spokesman Alain Cacchione.
Canada has ''sought and received assurances'' of Khadr's humane treatment, he added, and Canadian officials have carried out ``several welfare visits with Mr. Khadr and will continue to do so.''
Khadr's five-member defense team, including three law professors from American University in Washington, D.C., and two military lawyers, expressed outrage at the charges.
''Omar Khadr was taken into U.S. custody at the age of 15 and has been detained at Guantánamo since he was 16, in conditions equal to or worse than those given to convicted adult criminals, such as prolonged solitary confinement and repeated instances of torture,'' they said in a statement.
They called the commission a ''kangaroo court'' and declared ''abhorrent'' the Bush administration's decision ``to designate this youth for trial by military commission.''
The statement called for Canada and the United States to reach a plea deal in the case. ''Otherwise, Omar, just barely 20 years of age and a minor at the time of the alleged crimes, is guaranteed to be convicted in one of the greatest show trials on earth,'' the statement said. ``This should not be the legacy of America or Canada.''
Source:
http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/85690.html