By Mark Tran
The Guardian UK

Wednesday 25 April 2007

A human rights group today attacked a US decision to file murder
charges against a Canadian national and alleged Taliban fighter who was
captured in Afghanistan when he was 15.

Omar Khadr was wounded by US soldiers during a battle near Khost,
Afghanistan, and taken into US custody in July 2002. He has spent most
of the past five years in the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay.

During his capture he was shot three times and is nearly blind in
one eye as a result of his injuries. The US military says Mr Khadr threw
a grenade that killed a US Green Beret sergeant, Christopher Speer, and
wounded another sergeant, Layne Morris.

Mr Khadr's Pentagon-appointed lawyer, Marine lieutenant colonel
Colby Vokey, said the US would become the first country in modern
history to try a war crimes suspect who was a child at the time of the
alleged violations if a trial went ahead.

Mr Khadr has been charged with murder, attempted murder, providing
support to terrorism, conspiracy and spying under rules for military
trials adopted last year. The conspiracy charge is based on acts
allegedly committed before Mr Khadr was 10, according to his defence
team.

Amnesty International strongly criticised the decision to subject Mr
Khadr to a military tribunal.

"To have held a 15-year-old boy in the harsh and lawless conditions
of Guantánamo for five years has already been a travesty of justice -
and to put him before an unfair 'military commission' trial simply adds
to a disgraceful record in his case," said the Amnesty International UK
director Kate Allen.

Ms Allen said the US authorities should transfer his case to a
civilian federal court on the US mainland.

Toronto-born Mr Khadr faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The Pentagon said Mr Khadr must be held accountable.

"The defence department will continue to uphold the law and bring
unlawful enemy combatants to justice through the military commissions
process," it said.

Mr Speer's widow and Mr Morris filed a civil lawsuit against Mr
Khadr and his father. In February, a judge awarded them $102.6m (£51m).

Dennis Edney, a Canadian lawyer for Mr Khadr's family, said the new
tribunal system, which allows coerced and hearsay evidence, "provides Mr
Khadr with almost no chance of proving his innocence.

"The aim is to provide a showcase to justify the US administration
decision to arrest Mr. Khadr and other men like him in the first place,"
Mr Edney told the Associated Press.

Mr Khadr's attorneys urged Canada and the US to negotiate a
"political resolution" of the case to spare Mr Khadr a guaranteed
conviction by "one of the greatest show trials on earth".

Several of Mr Khadr's family members have been accused of ties to
Islamist extremists. His Egyptian-born father, Ahmad Said al-Khadr, was
killed in Pakistan in 2003 alongside senior al-Qaida operatives and
Canada is holding Mr Khadr's brother Abdullah on a US extradition
warrant accusing him of supplying weapons to al-Qaida.

Mr Khadr will be the second prisoner to face terror charges under
new military tribunals after the US supreme court in June struck down
the previous military tribunal system at Guantánamo as unconstitutional.
Congress then passed a law establishing a new system, which is also
being challenged.

In March, the military tribunal at Guantánamo sentenced an
Australian, David Hicks, to nine months in prison after he pleaded
guilty to supporting terrorism - the first conviction at a US war crimes
trial since the second world war.

Under an agreement with the court, he will serve his sentence in an
Australian prison, but must remain silent about any alleged abuse while
in US custody. Prosecutors say they plan to charge as many as 80 of the
370 men held at Guantánamo on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the
Taliban.

"We are increasingly concerned that with 80% of Guantánamo detainees
now held in solitary confinement, there is mounting evidence that some
are dangerously close to full-blown mental and physical breakdown,"
Amnesty said.

So? Anyone who picks up a gun/bomb/etc and tries to kill complete
strangers can be tried as an adult, so far as I'm concerned.


Put me on his jury. Prove the kid is a terrorist. And I'll personally
suggest the death penalty.

After due process, of course.

Besides, this isn't history. Up until the 18th century, anyone older
than 12 was considered an adult, for all intents.

i saytry him and keep him in jail.thats what we need a 20 yr old pissed
off terrorist let loose.no thanks.

i think they should lower the accountability age
to 12

if they can do adult crime they can do adult time

you got hard core criminals requiting kids cause they
can get away wth a slap on the wrist

but they get a taste of the adrenaline and the money

you now have a lifetime criminal

just a thought

but hey what do i know

excerpt from poet's post

Put me on his jury. Prove the kid is a terrorist. And I'll personally
suggest the death penalty.
_________________________________________________

does that go for any terrorist??????????

did you know most living in the united states could be considered a
terroist acoordin to the patriot act

just a thought to ponder

Does the fact that Omar only 15 make the special forces sergent any less
dead. War is not a game where you get Kings X because of your tender
age it is played for keeps and the stakes are high. If you play the
game, expect the consequences.

right on garden and robin.this should apply to the gangbangers too.

i did not see any restrictions on my statement

if he would have killed one of my men, we wouldnt be having this
conversation.... would have killed him myself!

if you throw grenades or shot at me, my men, or any US citizen i dont
care care about you or your age, all i see is immenent danger or death
and will fight back, shooting to kill-which is our way in combat. Never
leave any doubt.
hope he fries.



doc

Jesus, he was a kid.... He was pressured by his culture to fight in a
worthless war. Just because he was in a war dosnt meen that he should be
accounted as a criminal... So hey, how bout all our troups that killed
people in WWII be counted as well.... Let them rot? Nahh, 5 years is
enough for a kid to addmit his wrongs...

my 2 cents.

the first mistake is in thinking that ther culture works like ours. 15
is old enough for them to marry and father children of their own. they
are a voice at that age within their communities and whether we like it
or not he decided to pick up a weapon and go to battle with US troops
(which is never a winning decision)

and hubey- i wonder how you would feelif the soldier that he killed was
family to you. would five yers be enough for you-honestly?

American law first, as he has been detained bay America and accused of
killing an american. A boy as young as twelve CAN, under cirtain
circumstances, be tried as an adult right here in the usa and punished
as an adult for specific crimes, murder being one of them. so if a 12
year old can be tried as an adult here in the usa for murder, then a
fifteen year old can be as well. And if he did ti in a terroristic or
war style way, then hell yes it should fall under wartime statutes.
Personally Gang members shuld be tried under terrorism as well.

well i think they should lower all crimes to the age of 12 being
accoutable for their actions

i don't care if they are from the hamptons or the south side of chicago

we need to put an end to child requitment

Doc your right, solve the problem, take no prisoners.
Kill em all & let ALLAH sort them out.
That's how the ARAB'S live.
I am beginning we should treat other countries by the laws of how they
treat us.

I don't understand this too young thing. I can only speak for myself but
I knew as far back as I can remember that I wasn't supposed to kill
somebody. He made his choice, let him deal with the consequences.

Huby,

Pressured by who, isn't he canadian?
Lot of space between canada & saudi?

This article was copied and pasted from someones VIEW over in the UK. I
did read that correctly hey shadow?????
Cant you write anything that is actually YOUR own material or is it just
all hate filled propaganda against america Shadow???

YOU shadow are very very scary running rampant like a shotgun about to
go off with copy and pasting from editorials or articles written in
europe. Please this is almost amusing but it is getting tiring and this
IS MY HONEST OPINION.

Hubey you want to talk about WW2? why dont you let us know all the
hunkey dorey hobbies and crafts alllllllllllll those jews sitting in
concentration camps, used as LIVE research for brutal medical
experiments, and of course HITLER being insane. Can you explain to ME
just why MILLIONS OF JEWS WERE MURDERED?? Do you believe HITLER would
have stopped in GERMANY and other countries he INVADED or would we have
been invited to GERMANY for tea and GERMAN BREWHAS??? WORTHLESS WAR
Hubey? Perhaps in your eyes but then again your just 18 and have not
seen what some of us have. I eagerly await your response Hubey.

exactly right.