A Historic First

By BJ

I had meant to get to this earlier, because it bears repeating. [Via]

A Canadian captured in Afghanistan at age 15 can be tried for murder in the Guantanamo war crimes court, a U.S. military judge ruled in rejecting claims that he was a child soldier who should be rehabilitated rather than prosecuted.

Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr, now 21, is charged in the Guantanamo court with throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002.

The Kadr case was already shown to be a mockery of due process back in February when the military accidently released documents showing Kadr wasn't the only person alive when US soldiers entered the compound, but this ruling is more historic in it's own way.

His military lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, had argued in February hearings at the Guantanamo naval base that Khadr was a child soldier illegally conscripted by his father, an al Qaeda financier. He urged the judge to drop the charges, which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, issued a ruling on Wednesday agreeing with prosecutors' position that the law authorizing the Guantanamo trials contained no minimum age.

Brownback's ruling clears the way for Khadr to be tried in the special tribunals created by the Bush administration to try non-U.S. captives it considers "unlawful enemy combatants" outside the regular civilian and military courts.

Kuebler called the ruling "an embarrassment to the United States" and said Canada would share in the embarrassment if it allows its citizen to be tried at Guantanamo. He said Khadr would be the first child soldier tried for war crimes in modern history.

Canada, of course, won't be doing anything about Kadr so long as we're led by folks who worship Bush and the neocons, something which embarrasses a great number of us all on it's own. This will add a considerable stain.

Aren't we all proud to live in countries willing to allow this historic first?

Comments

[Trisha]

This is great info to know.