Omar Khadr will be free to remain on bail after the federal government dropped a court appeal started under the Conservatives that sought to have Khadr's bail rescinded. (Terry Reith/CBC)
The Guardian: Canada to pay $10.5m to youngest Guantanamo inmate, convicted of killing US soldier
Omar Khadr pleaded guilty to killing army Sgt Christopher Speer when he was 15, an admission he says was made under duress in Guantanamo
The Canadian government is going to apologise and give millions to a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who pleaded guilty to killing a US soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15, with Canada’s supreme court later ruling that officials had interrogated him under “oppressive circumstances”.
An official familiar with the deal said on Tuesday that Omar Khadr will receive 10.5 million Canadian dollars (US$8 million). The official was not authorised to discuss the deal publicly before the announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity. The government and Khadr’s lawyers negotiated the deal last month.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: I received a text yesterday from a friend who is a Liberal and who works for the government asking me if this report true. I was surprised .... of all the people who should know it would be him. So I told him no .... no one has given me a heads up on this story, and it is not on the newswires. When I woke-up this morning to begin my day .... the first thing that I did was to check my phone and emails ..... and wow .... dozens and dozens of emails from friends, contacts, and readers of this blog who were beyond angry on what they were hearing and reading .... that the Canadian Federal government would actually make this agreement. What especially irked everyone was not the money .... though we can have a debate on that .... but the apology .... that someone who as a child soldier built landmines to main Afghans and who killed a US medic by throwing a grenade at him and blinding another is now .... 15 years later .... about to receive an apology from the Canadian people via through its government. I texted my Liberal friend who gave me a heads-up on this story yesterday on what is his opinion on this agreement that has now become public .... he has yet to respond. My guess is that he wants to avoid this story as much as possible .... knowing that there will be nothing but outrage over it. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau is also aware on how much this is a no-winner for him .... he is also avoiding this story as if it was the plague .... Trudeau mum on Khadr; trade in focus in meeting with Irish PM (Globe and Mail). What is especially galling is that if the reports are true .... that this agreement was made last month .... it is clear (to me) that the government was well aware of the outrage it would produce, so they made the deliberate decision to keep it secret until now .... when parliament is closed until the fall, the 150 year Canada celebrations are over, and the media and Canadian public are focused on the summer. Here is an easy prediction .... when parliament comes back from their summer recess .... this will be the first issue that will be brought up. And while Canadian progressives are going to applaud this agreement, the media will rationalise it, and the legal minds will say that it is a "just" agreement .... if the feedback that I am receiving today is any indication .... the average Canadian who is knowledgeable about this case are beyond livid right now, and there is going to be a heavy political price on the Liberals for making this deal. On a side note .... in the mornings I always listen to a a french talk-radio show in Montreal. They are (of course) talking about this case .... and after one hour there is not one caller who supports this pay-off and apology.
As to what is my take. Child soldiers do need help. They commit unspeakable crimes .... and for those who survive and who have not lost their souls .... nightmares for what they did. In the case of Omar Khadr .... as a child soldier he helped in the manufacture of landmines with the intent of killing and crippling those who may step on them. He murdered a US medic who had a family who will now never see him again .... and he blinded another U.S. soldier. And if it was not for the fact that his father was a member of Al Qaeda and who also knew Osama Bin Laden .... Omar Khadr would have probably been left in Afghanistan to fend for himself and he would have never been transported to Guantanamo. But he did these things. He was transported to Guantanamo and when he was there he showed no remorse .... Khadr “felt happy” when his grenade killed U.S. medic (Macleans). He was released to Canada under a plea deal. And if the reports are true .... he is trying to heal himself and to make amends. But $10.5 million and an official apology from the Canadian people .... that is way too much in my book.
Update: As predicted .... the Canadian media is applauding this .... Omar Khadr deserves government apology and compensation: Editorial (Toronto Star).
More News On The Canadian Government Agreeing To Apologise And To Give Former Guantanamo Bay Prisoner Omar Khadr $10.5 Million
Ottawa reportedly set to pay millions to Omar Khadr -- CBC
Ottawa to offer Omar Khadr apology, $10-million in compensation -- Globe and Mail
Omar Khadr to get apology, compensation: reports -- CTV
Canada will compensate and apologize to former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr -- AP
Canada to Apologize, Pay Former Gitmo Prisoner Omar Khadr -- Military.com
Canada to Apologize, Pay Former Gitmo Prisoner Omar Khadr -- Military.com
Canada 'to apologise, pay Omar Khadr' -- Al Jazeera
Omar Khadr to be offered apology, at least $10 million from Canada -- VICE News
37 comments:
confession under duress. We do have in the US the 5th amendment so that one does not have to testify against oneself. Did he do the crime or not? In mediveal times, used the rack to force confessions even among those who were innocent. forced confessions bring such things that seem to disturb some folks. I skip the age etc of this case but ask merely about the uses in any and all court cases of confessions made under questionable circumstances. There should be a better way to convict the guilty and free the innocent. I wait for what a "liberal" friend has to say. Do non liberals believe forced confessions ok? Not the ones I am friendly with in my country.
Fred. You are trying to rationalise this decision from an ideological point of view and that is a mistake .... that is not the issue here. And from a legal point of view .... laws and war applies to combatants who make the decision to follow the rules and laws of war .... sorry .... it cannot be applied in this case because these combatants have made the decision to not follow them. No .... the issue today is that the Canadian government made this agreement because they want to close the book on it .... and to accommodate some of their progressive base who want this deal knowing all too well on the backlash that it will cause. Canadian soldiers who fought in Afghanistan who have sustained life debilitating injuries are struggling .... but a person who fought against them gets a $10.5 million settlement. Sorry .... there is no way to make the morale case for this .... but I know many will try.
Beyond disgusting. I can't help but wonder if Obama is somewhere behind the scenes of this fiasco. Whispering in Trudeau's ear. This fits in perfect;y with Obama's priorities and methods.
WNU,
Remember the "Liverpool meeting" picture?
russ: why blame someone--ah, conspiracy--without a shred of evidence.
WNE: ok. grab prisoners when and where you will and kill them. No jail. no trial. that makes things easy...after all this is not a war as we used to know war. Ok? now we do not worry about closing our base, waterboarding, Canada reparations, guilt or innocense. To suggest weakeness to appeal to progressive base is again a russ-like conspiracy notion sans evidence.
Fred. I am not saying to grab prisoners and kill them.
Fred. I am not saying no jail no trial.
Fred. I am not talking about "losing our base, waterboarding, Canada reparations, guilt or innocence".
And Fred .... I know Canadian politics and how these people think in Ottawa ... you do not. To say that this is a "russ-like conspiracy notion sans evidence" is intellectually dishonest .... and is a diversion from the real issue which is .... the Canadian government made the decision to give $10.5 million to a child soldier who fought for Al Qaeda.
James,
I do not know if President Obama was in the loop ... I think Obama has other priorities. But the two of them are very tight .... and I have been told they do talk on the phone a lot. So who knows?
Pure conjuncture at this point, Fred. But conjecture based ion a timeline and stated goals of Obama. Obama and Trudeau met just last month. I guesss I could convince myself that GTMO never came up, but I'd be silly if I didn't assume Trudeau was encouraged by Obama to take this action.
And if it turns out that Trudeau has insulated himself from this decision - thru levels of bureaucracy - it's then even more Obama-esque.
WNU,
Who knows, there is no evidence that I know of, but coincidence.
Russ not bad extrapolation, but it must remain that conjecture.
The planning on how they wanted to release this agreement is an interesting side story that will probably (and unfortunately) never be told. But they knew a month ago that it was going to blow-up in their faces .... so they kept it quiet to minimise the blow-back by revealing it now when parliament is closed, the media pundits and the politicians are away, and the focus is on what to do this summer. As for those who have been pushing for such a deal in Canada .... from what I am seeing on the news right now, the progressive left is celebrating.
WNU,
The coincidental was a reference to the "Liverpool" meeting, the other stuff on the Khadr affair I defer to you.
The West is Finished.
How did they justify giving him the money what officially did say?ps if I should not comment because I am not Canadian then who shoul should not comment say on trump?
Trudeau. French for p#$$y.
The weasel Justin is lucky he was born.
His father did not get married until he was about 52.
There was something about image or whatever, so there was a marriage and a birth.
Smart people can do the math.
Pierre can thank his lucky stars he was not born the same year as his erstwhile wife. The obits would be embarrassing.
Justin sure has not dropped far from the tree.
"allowed Omar to accompany a group of Arabs associated with Abu Laith al-Libi"
"Ali Ammar Ashur al-Rufayi, known as Abu Laith al-Libi (Arabic: أبو الليث الليبي, c. 1967 – January 29, 2008, Mir Ali ),[1] was a senior leader of the al-Qaeda movement in Afghanistan who appeared in several al-Qaeda videos. He was believed to have been active in the tribal regions of Waziristan"
Fred Lapides, the Rube, is too f_____g stupid to do the math.
He puts the TARD in libTARD.
Aizino. Being critical of another person's comments is permissible. Being insulting like this is not.
Fred. I crave commentary .... especially from people who are outside the box. And when I make a comment based on wisdom guided by experience .... and I know these people in Ottawa extremely well .... a reader of this blog can take it for what it is worth .... or ignore it completely. But when someone says .... "russ-like conspiracy notion sans evidence" .... I will respond.
The maddening thing about the Khadr case is that I predicted exactly this outcome in this blog 2 years ago, and I cannot find the post where I said that. It is infuriating to be proven right .... it is doubling infuriating to me when I cannot find the evidence that proves that I was right. In the 10+ years of doing this blog I have posted over 83,000 posts and I am trying to find a needle in a haystack .... I guess I should not complain.
WNU.
It is you blog. You 'own' it. No problem
Excellent.
I shall consider this case closed.
"Khadr later recanted and his lawyers said he had been grossly mistreated. In 2010, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Canada breached his rights by sending intelligence agents to interrogate him and sharing the results with the United States.
"
Now you may not like this. And you may call this and that one names. But it is the Supreme Court that made the decision. Do you not accept the rule of law in Canada?
Fred. Don't get me going on Canada's Supreme Court and who are the Justices on that Court. I always respect the law .... hell .... I respected Soviet law when I lived there. But respecting the law and agreeing to it are two different things.
As an American you should know that the 1857 U.S. Supreme Court supported Dred Scott .... do you accept that. I think not.
The concept of law is neither good nor evil.
Laws themselves can be good or evil depending on how they are set up and who is administering them. So laws do not always mean much to me except that pols and judges have armed force backing them up.
Just because we live in the modern age means squat, nothing.
I saw one definition of modern as "mode of the day".
I am not finding that definition now.
http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=modern
Was the mode of the day in Germany better in 1939 then in 1909, because the years had advanced and some how people were more sophisticated?
Plessy v. Ferguson was the rule of law. Was it just?
The rule of law is necessary (or at least it seems to be), but it is not sufficient.
You have a Phd. You look up the term necessary and sufficient.
1) "confession under duress"
That is just such a lame excuse.
2) and little Khadr just happened to have wandered into Afghanistan all by himself?
3) Reasoning lie that gives us the following.
College Course Says White Folks Can Afford to Live Anywhere
" the American College of Healthcare Sciences, which offers online schooling as well as a campus in Portland, Ore., were recently quizzed on privilege.
“If I should move I can be pretty sure that I can rent or purchase housing in an area that I can afford and in which I want to live. This is an example of …” the quiz asks, in which the correct answer is “white privilege.” The other choices were “heterosexual privilege, male privilege or Christian privilege.”"
Obama and the Dems should have left Guantanamo alone. Not a good move to try this fighters in a civil society court. Bad bad idea. War prisoners are war prisoners. Obama knew this move would tear our country apart but did it anyway. I'm sorry of Canadians that their government is not only handing out candy to the enemy but giving them the keys to the store. Egad.
Canada under Canadian and International Law, had a "duty to protect",
Not only did members of the various arms of the Canadian Government fail to protect Omar, they willfully participated in the abuse of his lawful rights.
Worse yet, the despicable Harper Government continued to use the Courts and the Post 9/11 National Security State, to attempt to continue the persecution of Omar, despite Court Rulings in his favour.
It's a small victory for Justice and the Rule of Law in Canada,
Here is an easy prediction.
In the future not as many prisoners will be taken.
Duty to protect is very similar to R2P and that brought us Libya.
Great Minds think alike.
https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/7842/index.do
Wow!
Sleep Deprivation.
Will the horrors never cease.
I never thought being a translator for a known terrorists could be so dangerous.
They should have invoked, Law 5.56 NATO cost $1.43.
'Murkin's do love their torture,
Unless of course, it's a White Christian Male tortured.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/23/north-korea-denies-us-claims-otto-warmbier-torture
Everybody else is fair game.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/05/homan-square-chicago-thousands-detained
It's a small win for Justice and the Rule of Law.
A "big win" would be people being held personally responsible and going to jail for this.
It is nice that you have come back Jay after your long, long 4th of July weekend.
We missed you saying 'Murkin', which is pretty much name calling and more.
Without the sleep deprivation, you would find some other way to spring him.
Typically soldiers have a period of testing where they stay up for 72 hours straight.
Canadian Army must be different.
I am so happy that you compare Warmbier to Omar Khadr.
How many North Koreans did Warmbier kill?
I am sure the North Korean propaganda poster was traumatized, when it was taken down. That video is very grainy.
LMFAO,
http://driftglass.blogspot.ca/2017/07/the-dvr-and-daniel-webster.html?m=1
Canada Day long weekend, fishing, bbq with friends and family, real charcoal and the Arar's, a Secwepemc gathering, fireworks,
Had a wonderful time with lot's of intelligent conversations,
https://blog.clairepeetz.com/calling-for-a-revolution-trump-fans-triggered-after-npr-tweets-out-the-declaration-of-independence/
Warm bier was jewish, get your facts right for once Jay.
If Warmbier had been an atheist Leftist 'Jew', the press would have cared.
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