Is it a war crime, if you're fifteen,

The trail starts today

On My Grumpy site I've posted links to a number of Media Sources from around the world.  A few have live feeds..  The most recent posting shows up, you read the couple sentences in the lead and decide if it's worth looking at.... about eight o'clock this evening Aljazeera let me know military trails were resuming at Gitmo.  I was wondering why I hadn't heard or seen anything so I clicked the Aljazeera's link and found the story. 

Reading the headline I figured the whole torture debate was about to start over, it will, so will the argument about military trails for detainees.  In fact this may cause Americans to debate a number of things Until I looked at the story I'd never heard of Omar Khahr.



You probably wouldn't want your teenage daughter dating this kid.  He was fifteen when he was wounded and captured in 2002 after a four hour fire fight in Ayub Kheyl, Afghanistan.  He's a Canadian Citizen,  charged with War Crimes and Murder, he faces life in prison.



News Americas

Khadr 'torture' confession upheld

The confessions of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen charged with terrorism, can be used as evidence in his trial, even though they may have been obtained through torture, a US military judge has ruled.

Lawyers for Khadr claimed statements to military interrogators were illegally obtained through torture and asked a US war crimes court to throw them out.

That request was denied on Monday by a military judge at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba .................................


There seems to be more to the story than  Al Jareeza tells.  His Father Ahmed Khadr was more than suspected of being an Al Quedia financier, he was charged with the crime  He was arrested in Pakistan in 1995 for financing  Ayman al-Zawahiri's bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan.  he was released a year later, for insufficient evidence.

Khadr's father moved his family to Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 1996,[  where Omar apparently regularly played with Osama Bin Ladens kids,  After 9-11 the family headed for the hills, or mountains, if you will, along the Pakistan Border.  In 2002 His father, at the request of Abu Laith al-Libbi, let him work as a translator, for a group of Arabs staying in Khost.  It was somewhere around this time the boy received some combat and weapons training.  On July 27, 2002 he accompanied the Arabs to to .Ayub Kheyl,

It was there, the group tangled with some US Special Forces..  Wikipedia has a good account The firefight and more about Omar Khadr's life than I have room for here.  When it was over, two Americans, Sargent's Morris and Hansen were  awarded  Bronze Stars, for running forward under fire to retrieve fallen bodies,.  Two  Afghan militiamen  were shot  and killed at the outset.,   Five Americans were wpunded and  awarded Purple Hearts. and SFC  Chrisopher  Speer was mortally wounded and died at  Ramstein Air Base in Germany, 


Medics working to save Khadr
after he was pulled from the debries


Omar Khadr who was seriously wounded in the fight, was given medical attention on scene and while conscious repeatedly asked the Americans to kill him right there..  Instead he was air lifted to  Bagram  were he remained unconscious for roughly a week.  In-spite of eye surgery he lost the vision in one eye... He was held at Bagram until he was transferred to Gitmo in October 2002.  When he regained consciousness at Bagram he was immediately subjected to interrogation, this is where things start to get a bit shaky.

His chief interrogator was Joshua Claus, who later pleaded guilty to abusing detainees to extract confessions following the in-custody death of another prisoner a completely innocent cab driver, .  According to Khadr during the three months he was imprisoned in Bagram.  



He was told by interrogators he would be raped if sent to the states,

He was not allowed to use the bathroom, and he was forced to urinate on himself.

They were shoving bright lights up against his face and his eyes would tear and tear and tear.

He was  beaten,

He was subjected to long periods in solitary confinement,

He was doused in freezing water, spat on, chained in painful positions,

Terrorized by barking dogs and subjected to sleep deprivation,

He confessed, you can read a copy of the charges here..

http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2007/11/08/21/Khadrcharges.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf


There has been confirmation of some of  the torture allegations by,  Joshua Claus Chief Interrogator,  He admits to using harsh interrogation methods in this Huffington Post article from last May "Interrogator Admits Gitmo Detainee Khadr Threatened With Rape" 

At the bottom of the Wikipedia I found this:

On March 8, 2010 Steven Edwards of the Canwest News Service reported that US officials were quietly putting pressure on Canada to accept repatriation of Khadr.[157] Edwards didn't name the official he quoted, who told him elements within the Obama Presidency "don't have the stomach to try a child for war crimes". He did identify Samantha Power, Michael Posner and Harold Koh as three political appointees with a background in human rights. He pointed out that Posner was the founding director of Human Rights First, which had advocated for Khadr's repatriation. He stated that he had been told that US efforts to repatriate Khadr would remain unofficial, because, for political reasons, the Obama administration wanted to publicly agree to a request that officially was initiated in Canada.


The Charge against Khadr have been on again and of again..  they were reinstated in 2009, I can't help but ask why the Obama Administration would chose to reopen the the Gitmo Military Trials with a case that involves both torture and a defendant who was a minor at the time the crimes were committed.

Any Ideas