Omar Khadr

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Omar Ahmed Khadr (born September 16, 1987 [some sources say September 19, 1986] in Ottawa), is a Canadian teenager who was captured by American forces in Afghanistan. He is among the youngest prisoners held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantánamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Khadr's Guantanamo detainee ID is 766.

Main article: minors detained in the global war on terror

Contents

[edit] Life in Canada

Omar Khadr, like all six children in the Khadr family, was born in Canada, and both parents were Canadian citizens. During most of the time the family was living in Scarborough, Ontario, the father Ahmed Said Khadr was working in Afghanistan.[1]

In 1992 Ahmed Said Khadr was wounded by a land-mine, and spent a year back in Canada recovering his health.

[edit] Life in bin Laden's compound

Khadr's father moved his family to Afghanistan at this time, where they lived in Osama bin Laden's compound, and played with bin Laden's children.[2] Khadr's father has been described as one of bin Laden's senior lieutenants.

Omar's older brother Abdurahman Khadr described being sent to military training camps shortly after his arrival, when he was just eleven years old. All of the Khadr boys are believed to have military training while they were children.

[edit] Capture

On July 27, 2002, 14- or 15-year-old Khadr was in a compound near Khost that was surrounded by US special forces. According to the US version of events, the Americans called on those in the compound to surrender. When they refused a firefight ensued. Sergeant Layne Morris was injured early in the skirmish. The Americans called in a bombardment.

Most press accounts of the skirmish say that Khadr killed a "medic", implying that he had attacked a noncombatant after giving his surrender, but although Sgt. Christopher Speer had been trained as a medic, he was actually leading the squad combing the compound after they believed all occupants had been killed.

Khadr leapt from hiding and threw a grenade, which injured Sgt. Speer and lead to his subsequent death, and injured 3 other members of the squad.[1] Omar was shot three times, and left nearly blind in one eye.

[edit] Accusations against Khadr

A video-tape was reportedly found in the ruins showing Khadr planting mines. The Americans say that while being interrogated at Bagram Air Base, Khadr confessed to entering a US occupied section of Afghanistan, to gather surveillance intelligence on the local airport.

[edit] Incarceration at Guantánamo Bay

There were other detainees incarcerated at Guantánamo Bay who were still just children. Three of them were kept in a smaller compound, Camp Iguana, where they were treated humanely. They were not required to wear the orange coveralls. They were provided with school teachers, and recreation. The BBC interviewed one 13-year-old child detainee upon his return to Afghanistan. He had learned to read at Camp Iguana. The two years he spent there were the only education he had ever had, and he reported being sorry to leave.

Elaine Chao the US Secretary of Labor has spoken about the responsibility to give child soldiers special treatment, to provide help for them to re-integrate into society.[3] She announced a $3 million program to help re-integrate child-soldiers in Afghanistan back into Afghan society.

But Khadr was not kept with the other child detainees.

Khadr was treated as an adult. Khadr has been reported to have been kept in solitary confinement, for long periods of time; to have been denied adequate medical treatment; to have been subjected to "short shackling", and left bound, in uncomfortable "stress positions" until he soiled himself. In a press conference on January 16, 2005, Khadr's lawyers described how Khadr's captors took Khadr's still bound body and wiped his hair and clothes in his urine and feces.

Bryan Del Monte, the Department of Defense deputy director for political development and international issues in the Office of Detainee Affairs, gave a press conference. following his return from testifying before the United Nations Committee against torture. [4] During this press conference he asserted that Khadr, and two other youths, were incarcerated separately from adults, and were provided with daily lessons:

"Del Monte said that those in charge of the Guantanamo detention camp provide the three youngsters with lessons every morning in Mathematics, English, Sciences, and other subjects for their mental and psychological needs in addition to teaching physical fitness and sports."

Del Monte's assertion stands in contrast to the other accounts of Khadr's incarceration, where he has been described as leading the prayer sessions of the other detainees in his cell block.

[edit] Khadr's Combatant Status Review

Khadr's case was reviewed by the Combatant Status Review Tribunal on September 8, 2004. The review released a one page summary of their conclusions on September 17, 2004. Khadr's lawyers had written him a letter, recommending that he refrain from cooperating with the tribunal, or any questioning conducted without adequate legal representation.

The tribunal concluded that Khadr was an "illegal combatant".

At the time of his hearing Khadr had not been allowed to meet with any lawyer.

[edit] Access to lawyers

A June 15, 2005 article in Newsday cited Muneer Ahmad's experience as an example of the difficulties the Pentagon presented to detainees' lawyers.[5] Ahmad also reported that Khadr had described extensive abusive treatment to him, but that when he arrived at the Virginia security centre, all twenty paragaphs of his notes had been redacted.

Mr Ahmad's first meeting with Khadr was not until November 2004. Khadr has still not been permitted to speak with the Canadian lawyers who were his family's first choice.

[edit] Hunger Strikes

On September 1, 2005, the Globe and Mail reported that Dennis Edney, one of Khadr's Canadian lawyers reported that Khadr was participating in a second hunger strike.[6] Khadr participated in the 200-member hunger strike that occurred in late June and July. The Globe article reports that Khadr's first hunger strike lasted 15 days, and that prison authorities administered intravenous fluid. Khadr reported collapsing as he left the Hospital, where-upon his guards administered a brutal beating.

On September 11, 2005, The Independent published an extract from Guantánamo detainee Omar Deghayes. On July 20, 2005, he wrote about Khadr:[7]

Omar Khadr [the Canadian juvenile] is very sick in our block. He is throwing [up] blood. They gave him cyrum [serum] when they found him on the floor in his cell. Galib Fiyhani also.

[edit] Khadr Military Commission

On November 7, 2005, Khadr was charged, and will face a "Military Commission".

[edit] charged with murder

Khadr was charged with murder for his actions against the squad inside the compound near Khost, Afghanistan. The charges against Mr. Khadr allege that his father, the late Ahmed Said Khadr, a Canadian Islamic extremist, was a close friend of Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, and that Omar Khadr also was acquainted with Mr. bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader.[8]

On November 9, 2005, the Globe and Mail reported that the United States had informally indicated they would not seek the death penalty in Omar's trial, though there was no official assurance. [9] On December 1, 2005 the officers were appointed to the Guantanamo military commission that would judge Khadr.[10]

[edit] Prosecutor's accusations

Colonel Morris Davis, Khadr's chief Prosecutor, spoke out against Khadr, to the press.[11]

[edit] Preliminary hearing

On March 30, 2006, Khadr, and the other nine detainees who face charges, were transferred to solitary confinement.[12]

Commander Robert Durand said, "Consistent with Army regulations, individuals in a pretrial status are separated from the general population. These measures are largely for the protection of the detainee,"[13]

On April 5, 2006 Khadr read out a note that said: "Excuse me Mr. Judge,.. I'm being punished for exercising my right and being co-operative in participating in this military commission. For that, I say with my respect to you and everybody else here, that I'm boycotting these procedures until I be treated humanely and fair."[12]

On April 7, 2006, Khadr's lawyers reversed course stating on the record in front of the commission that after consulting with U.S. military officials that Khadr's current conditions of confinement were indeed humane and not done in order to "punish" Khadr for being cooperative in participating in commission proceedings. [1]

[edit] Independent medical examination

Khadr lawyers have been trying, with no success so far, to arrange for Khadr to get an independent medical examination.[14][15] They assert that a psychological evaluation is routine for any suspect charged with a murder committed when they were a minor. They state that an independent examination is essential for them to be able to effectively craft their defense. Further they assert that the suicides on June 10, 2006 put Khadr at greater risk.

Khadr's lawyers had administered a psychological questionnaire to Khadr during one of their earlier visits.[15] An analysis of Khadr's answers indicated that he was at moderate to high risk of committing suicide.

See "The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr", Rolling Stone, August 24, 2006, by Jeff Tietz.

[edit] The Speer/Morris lawsuit

Tabitha Speer, Sergeant Speer's widow, and Sergeant Layne Morris, launched a civil suit against the estate of Ahmed Said Khadr, Omar Khadr's father. They argue that as Khadr was a child, his parents were responsible for his actions, and that since his parents should have kept him from picking up a gun on the battlefield, they were responsible for any wounds he inflicted. Normally, under US law, one can't sue for damages that were caused by "acts of war". Speer and Morris argue that Khadr was engaged in an act of terrorism, not an act of war.

They have described the law-suit as "an attempt to attack terrorism in its bank account".

[edit] Gag order on his military Counsel

Sergeant Heather Cerveny, the paralegal for Colby Vokey, Khadr's military lawyer, issued an affidavit reporting that off-duty Guantanamo guards had bragged to her of abusing guards. On October 14, 2006 Vokey's boss imposed a gag order on the two.[16]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b The Good Son, originally published in the National Post, December 28, 2002
  2. ^ Son of al Qaeda, Frontline (PBS)
  3. ^ Elaine L. Chao, Children in the Crossfire: Prevention and Rehabilitation of Child Soldiers, US Department of Labor, May 7, 2003
  4. ^ US DoD Official Discusses Guantanamo, Asharq Alawsat, May 13, 2006
  5. ^ At Gitmo, still no day in court: How feds avoid hearings for terror suspects — despite Supreme Court ruling, Newsday, June 15, 2005
  6. ^ Canadian teen in Guantanamo on hunger strike, lawyers say, Globe and Mail September 1, 2005
  7. ^ Revealed: the diary of a British man on hunger strike in Guantanamo, The Independent, September 11, 2005
  8. ^ Pentagon Charges 5 More In Guantánamo Bay Camp, The New York Times, November 8, 2005
  9. ^ U.S. won't seek execution of Khadr, Globe and Mail, November 9, 2005
  10. ^ Khadr faces military trial, Toronto Star, December 2, 2005
  11. ^ U.S. prosecutor in Khadr case blasts sympathetic views of Canadian teen, CBC, January 10, 2006
  12. ^ a b Khadr vows boycott as shouts rock U.S. court: Toronto teen moved to solitary confinement Accused terrorist demands `humane and fair' treatment, Toronto Star, April 6, 2006
  13. ^ Teen Detainee Boycotts His War Crimes Trial, Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2006
  14. ^ Teen's defense looks to doctor for help, Miami Herald, June 26, 2006
  15. ^ a b Second Request for Appointment of Expert Consultant: Dr. Xenakis and Dr. Cantor (.pdf), 'Miami Herald, June 13, 2006
  16. ^ 2 Ordered Not to Discuss Gitmo Claims, Washington Post, October 14, 2006

[edit] External links

The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr - Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11128331/follow_omar_khadr_from_an_al_qaeda_childhood_to_a_gitmo_cell

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