Khadr should be jailed for life

[Thanato]

Khadr should be jailed for life, U.S. prosecutor says

A U.S. military lawyer prosecuting a Canadian teen at Guantanamo Bay says he's sickened by sympathetic portrayals of Omar Khadr, calling him an al-Qaeda "terrorist" who should spend the rest of his life in jail.

At a news conference on Tuesday, chief prosecutor Col. Moe Davis made no attempt to hide his disdain for human rights activists who have rallied to defend Khadr, now 19.

"It's really sometimes nauseating to read some of the things that have been written on how these terrorists are down here standing up for the Bill of Rights," Davis said a day before Khadr was to make his first appearance before a special military court at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 after a bloody battle and is accused of tossing a hand grenade that killed a U.S. army medic.

Since then, he's been the sole Canadian held at Guantanamo along with more than 500 others accused of links to terrorism. When he appears to make a plea, it will be the first time that anyone apart from his guards and lawyers have seen him in 3½ years.

Khadr's defence team says that at the time of his capture, he was a child under the control of his father, who was accused of being an al-Qaeda loyalist and died in a gun battle with Pakistani troops in 2003.

The lawyers argue Khadr is the first juvenile in history to be tried as an adult war criminal.

'When these guys went to camp, they weren't making s'mores'

The military prosecutors insist Khadr was no child, portraying him as a fully aware and committed terrorist who received training in an al-Qaeda camp.

Khadr, whose family is based in Toronto, has three brothers and a sister. Western intelligence agencies have accused them all at one time or another of links to al-Qaeda, although none of the charges has been proven in court.

"When these guys went to camp, they weren't making s'mores and learning how to tie knots," Martin said. "They were learning how to make bombs and kill Americans."

He said Khadr should spend life behind bars if convicted of killing Sgt. Christopher Speer, who had a wife and two children.

Military tribunals aren't fair, defence team argues

In addition to the defendant's age, Khadr's legal team has focused its attacks on the process of the military tribunals.

U.S. President George W. Bush created the Office of Military Commissions to prosecute alleged al-Qaeda members shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

The military tribunals resemble civilian trials but have lower standards in many respects, including on the admissible evidence. For example, evidence obtained by torture would be totally off-limits in a civilian trial, but are allowable at a commission.

Khadr's team alleges that he was tortured during the 39 months he's spent behind bars at the Guantanamo detention centre.

They have also criticized the fact that the presiding judge is a senior military officer, warning of a potential conflict of interest.

Muneer Ahmad, one of Khadr's American lawyers, said it's unlikely a senior U.S. military officer would acquit someone who has been accused of killing one of his fellow soldiers.

Ahmad also condemned the fact that Khadr is being represented at the trial by Capt. John Merriam, a U.S. army judge advocate with no trial experience.

"His appointed military council is a 31-year-old army captain who has never represented a defendant at trial before in his life," Ahmad said.

Defence blasts Canadian government

Ahmad leveled particularly harsh words at Canada's federal government.

He pointed out that the British government had rejected the process of military tribunals and brokered a deal with the White House under which nine British nationals held at Guantanamo Bay were returned to Britain.

"In contrast, Canada has maintained absolute public silence on the process by which its child citizen is being subject," Ahmad said.

"Can it be that British standards of due process are higher than Canada's?"

Source

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Personaly i think Canada should send in a JTF-2 team to extract him and have him tried in an fair, unbiased International Court, As we all know this is just going to be a show trial.

~Thanato

Edited January 11, 2006 by Thanato

[PLO]

"Can it be that British standards of due process are higher than Canada's?"

Im sure the american legal system is second to none, but luckily[or unluckily as is the case] Britain has more political clout with America than what Canada does.

Edited January 11, 2006 by PLO

[__Kratos__]

He should be jailed. He thought he was old enough to fight, he is old enough to pay for his actions.

[bathory]

let him rot heh

[XNavyGunner]

Never blame the terrorist oh no. Can't have that.

[PadawanOsswe]

a terrorist should be shot, along with all extremists.

however, if they jail him for life..... feed him pork.

[PLO]

"a terrorist should be shot, along with all extremists."

you do realise that is an extreme thing to say, thus making yourself an extremist in the process?, i guess now all you need is a gun. You know what to do.

[Thanato]

he was a child soldier, and should be treated as such. So as i say, if the US dosnt give him a fair trial i say the JTF-2 goes in and rescues him and then he is tried farly in an international court.

~Thanato

[bathory]

he was a child soldier, and should be treated as such. So as i say, if the US dosnt give him a fair trial i say the JTF-2 goes in and rescues him and then he is tried farly in an international court.

he can still be tried as an adult, i do believe the precedent has been set in the US legal system, regardless, he isn't a soldier, that would imply he was part of an organised, uniformed force.

[PadawanOsswe]

he was a child soldier, and should be treated as such. So as i say, if the US dosnt give him a fair trial i say the JTF-2 goes in and rescues him and then he is tried farly in an international court.

~Thanato

wait? terrorists and insurgents are registered with Geneva all of a sudden????

[Thanato]

Not all child soldiers are part of Organized Uniformed forces, some are grabbed given a gun and told to shoot. And he is the first person under the age of 18 to be tried with a war crime.

He will not be given a fair trial, and he should be removed from a biased court system.

~Thanato

[PadawanOsswe]

"a terrorist should be shot, along with all extremists."

you do realise that is an extreme thing to say, thus making yourself an extremist in the process?, i guess now all you need is a gun. You know what to do.

......this from a guy that supports the PLO.

and no, its not extreme, its merely making sure that the terrorist/insurgent cannot be freed so he can fight again.

and how do you scare a terrorist? scare them right back.

[PLO]

so we should shoot, say the half million[probably a lot more] child soldiers currently fighting in Africa then?

as many of them are perceived as rebel terrorist factions from one view point. Shoot the lot of them you agree?, becuase as you said when completing ignoring what the word extreme means, it isnt extreme at all. Its teaching the world and them a lesson, just like Hitler taught those jews, oh wait HITLER WAS COMPLETELY INSANE.

Edited January 11, 2006 by PLO

[PadawanOsswe]

so we should shoot, say the half million[probably a lot more] child soldiers currently fighting in Africa then?

depends, if they are firing on our Allies then our Allies must defend themselves.

Saddam actually had a few child soldier units in the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I dont know if any of them fought our Allies. but if they were. well, it all comes down to defense.

an example

when my dad was in Beirut, some little kid was aiming an AK-47 at him. he told him to drop the weapon, kid didnt drop, and just as he was about to pull the trigger on the kid.

The childs mother ran out and grabbed the AK from him yelling at her son. Dad found out later it was a toy gun.

but had it been a real AK, he would have been in self-defense to pull the trigger. in the end it all comes down to our instinct of survival.

[bathory]

sigh ok you dummies, child soldier in africa =/= canadian kid who travels to afghanistan to fight for the taliban.

Not all child soldiers are part of Organized Uniformed forces, some are grabbed given a gun and told to shoot. And he is the first person under the age of 18 to be tried with a war crime.

irrelevant, unless of course this kid was bundled up, flown to afghanistan, given a gun and told to kill americans or else?

so we should shoot, say the half million[probably a lot more] child soldiers currently fighting in Africa then?

as many of them are perceived as rebel terrorist factions from one view point. Shoot the lot of them you agree?, becuase as you said when completing ignoring what the word extreme means, it isnt extreme at all. Its teaching the world and them a lesson, just like Hitler taught those jews, oh wait HITLER WAS COMPLETELY INSANE.

has nothing to do with this particular case, care to be any more asinine? this guy isn't an afghani kid caught up in the moment

[Thanato]

You do know he didnt go to Afgahnistan alone, he went with his father, and possably other family members.

For all we know it was an act of self defence.

~Thanato

[__Kratos__]

You do know he didnt go to Afgahnistan alone, he went with his father, and possably other family members.

For all we know it was an act of self defence.

~Thanato

I guess that grenade that he was carrying just happened to be laying around. Surely he wasn't carrying it. Amazing he was able to start it and then throw it good enough to result in a kill for his first time.