Omar Khadr
Encyclopedia
Omar Ahmed Khadr is a Canadian
child soldier and one of the juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He was convicted of five charges under the United States Military Commissions Act of 2009
including murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism, by a Guantanamo military commission
tribunal, a venue reserved for non-American enemy combatants captured in the War on Terror
. In October 2010 he pleaded guilty to the five charges against him as part of a plea agreement with military commission prosecutors. He was captured on July 27, 2002 by American forces at the age of 15 following a four-hour firefight in the village of Ayub Kheyl
, Afghanistan
. He has spent seven years in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Khadr signed a pre-trial agreement, pleading guilty to the charges, and the details of the charges and accepting an 8 year sentence, not including time served, with the possibility of a transfer to Canada after at least one year to serve the remainder of the sentence there, based on a US/Canada agreement.
He is one of the youngest prisoner held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the first since World War II to be prosecuted in a military commission for war crimes committed while still a minor.
He has been frequently referred to as a child soldier and was formally identified as such by the head of the United Nations
child soldier program in a letter to the Military Commission in October 2010. The only Western citizen remaining in Guantanamo, Khadr is unique in that Canada has chosen not to seek extradition
or repatriation
despite the urgings of Amnesty International
, UNICEF, the Canadian Bar Association
and other prominent organisations.
A 2009 review determined that the Canadian Cabinet
had failed Khadr, by refusing to acknowledge his juvenile status or his repeated claims of being abused. In April 2009, the Federal Court of Canada
ruled that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
made it obligatory for the government to immediately demand Khadr's return. After a hearing before the Federal Court of Appeal
produced the same result, the government announced they would argue their case before the Supreme Court of Canada
. In January 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that Khadr's constitutional rights had clearly been violated, but it stopped short of ordering the government to seek his return to Canada.
Khadr was the only person charged under the 2006 Military Commissions Act
who did not boycott the Guantanamo proceedings
. Canadian intelligence authorities had initially determined in a post-interrogation report that Khadr had little knowledge of his father's alleged activities, since "he was out playing or simply not interested". This was contradicted by the stipulation of facts document signed by Khadr as part of his plea-agreement on October 26, 2010, which said that Khadr had "extensive firsthand knowledge" of his father's supportive role in Al Qaeda operations.
Khadr pled guilty to the murder of Christopher Speer
. On October 29, 2010, despite the prosecution psychiatrist testifying that he showed no signs of remorse; Khadr apologized to the widow of Speer for the pain he had caused her. Khadr also said his eight years in prison had taught him "the beauty of life". Defence attorney Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson made a passionate argument to the war crimes tribunal sentencing panel saying that Khadr had no option but to fight in the gun battle: "Omar Khadr was a lawful target but he didn't have the right to fight back," Jackson said. On October 31, 2010, Khadr was sentenced to eight more years in custody in accordance with the plea agreement which was unsealed after the military sentencing jury recommended that he should serve 40 years.
In 1992, Khadr's father was severely injured while in Logar, Afghanistan; the Khadr family moved back to Toronto so he could recuperate. After the move, Omar became "hypersensitive to tension in the family" and would often quote Captain Haddock
from The Adventures of Tintin
. Enrolled at ISNA Elementary School for Grade 1, Omar's teachers described him as "very smart, very eager and very polite".
After the family's return to Pakistan, Omar and his siblings attended a private school in Peshawar
, and were homeschooled for two years, returning to write their exams at the Ansar Scientific Institute. While he was not fond of math, his favourite subjects were English and Islamic Studies, as he already knew the topics well.
In 1995, Ahmed Khadr was arrested following Ayman al-Zawahiri
's bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan
, and accused of financially aiding the conspirators. Ahmed was hospitalised after engaging in a hunger strike
, and 9-year old Omar spent every night sleeping on the floor beside his father's bed until his release a year later for lack of evidence.
Khadr's father moved his family to Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 1996, where they lived in their father's NGO office. During a trip home to Canada in the spring of 2001, Khadr attended the International Auto Show at the Toronto Convention Centre where he got his photo taken with the batmobile
.
Following the 1998 embassy bombings
, the United States had retaliated by bombing camps in Afghanistan. Thus, expecting a similar retaliation following the September 11, 2001 attacks
, the Khadr family retreated towards the Pakistani mountains, where Omar went shopping, washed laundry and cooked meals.
In early 2002, he was living in Waziristan
with his mother and younger sister while his father visited infrequently, and took up beading
his mother's clothes as a hobby. At one point, he was forced to wear a burqa
and disguise himself as a daughter to avoid scrutiny, an act that upset him. When his father returned, he asked to be allowed to stay at a group home
for young men, despite his mother's protests. His father agreed, and a month later allowed him to accompany a group of Arab
s associated with Abu Laith al-Libi
, who needed a Pashto translator during their stay in Khost
. Khadr promised to check in regularly with his mother.
A later collection of biographies written by al Qaeda praises the elder Khadr for "tossing his little child in the furnace of the battle", and likens his son to a lion cub. According to charges signed by military commission officer Susan J. Crawford, Khadr received "one-on-one" weapons training in June,2002, as his visits home became less frequent.
Khadr had accompanied three of the men he was staying with, as they went to the village to meet with several other militants. Neither of his parents were told about the meeting, and his father shouted angrily at Abu Laith al-Libi
following reports of the battle, for not taking care of his son properly.
From approximately February 2002, a team of American soldiers were using the abandoned Soviet airbase
in Khost, Afghanistan as an intelligence-gathering outpost, as they tried to blend in and gain the trust of the local community.
In the early morning of July 27, 2002, a team composed of 19th Special Forces Group
, the 505th Infantry Regiment and a "militia", composed of approximately twenty Afghan fighters loyal to mercenary warlord Pacha Khan Zadran
and led by Zadran's brother Kamal
, had been sent from the airbase to the Ab Khail house in search of an elderly wheelchair-using man alleged to be the bomb-maker who had hidden anti-tank mines several weeks earlier. The search turned up no evidence against the occupants of the house.
While at the house, a report came in that a monitored satellite phone
, possibly one owned by the Khadrs, had just been used 300–600 metres from the group's present location. Seven soldiers were sent to investigate the site of the phonecall.
The group was led by Major Randy Watt
, and also included XO
Captain Mike Silver, Sgt Christopher Speer
, Layne Morris and Master Sgt. Scotty Hansen, the three from the 19th Special Forces Group
, Spc. Christopher J. Vedvick from the 505th and one other man.
filled with fresh straw surrounded by a 10 feet (3 m) stone wall with a green metal gate approximately 100 metres radius from the main hut, the Special Forces team saw children playing around the buildings and an old man sleeping beneath a nearby tree.
Seeing five "well-dressed" men sitting around a fire in the main residence, with AK-47
s visible in the room, Morris has claimed that he either approached and told the occupants, who had seen him, to open the front door or that he snuck quietly back without being seen and a perimeter was set up around the complex. Either way, the team waited 45 minutes for support from the soldiers searching the first residence, and at one point Morris chided the soldiers from the 82nd for setting up a defensive perimeter with their backs to the house, rather than properly covering the house itself.
During this time, the elderly man sleeping beneath the tree awoke and began screaming loudly in Pashto, causing a number of local children to run over and interpret for the Americans, explaining that the man was "just angry". Morris took a photograph of the children standing on the road outside the compound. A crowd of approximately a hundred local Afghans had gathered around the area to watch the incident unfold. An Afghan militiaman was sent towards the house to demand the surrender of the occupants, but retreated under gunfire.
Reinforcements from the 3rd Platoon of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 505th Infantry Regiment arrived under the command of Captain Christopher W. Cirino, bringing the total number of Americans and Afghan militia to about fifty. Two of Zadran's militiamen were sent into the compound to speak with the inhabitants, and returned to the Americans' position and reported that the men inside claimed to be Pashtun
villagers. They were told to return to the huts, and inform the occupants that the Americans wanted to search their house regardless of their affiliation. Upon hearing this, the occupants of the hut opened fire, shooting both militiamen.
Several women immediately fled the huts and ran away while the occupants began throwing grenades at the American troops, with intermittent rifle fire. After the firefight, a statement by one of the soldiers would contradict this and say that there had only been one woman and one child present, and both were detained by US forces after exiting the huts.
Morris and Silver had now taken up positions outside the stone wall, with Silver "over Morris's left shoulder explaining where he should try to position his next shot", when Morris fell back into Silver, with a cut above his right eye and shrapnel embedded in his nose. Both Silver and Morris initially believed the wound was due to Morris' rifle malfunctioning, though it was later attributed to an unseen grenade. In an alternate account of the injury, Morris has also claimed that he was inside the compound and hiding behind the granary
preparing to fire a rocket-propelled grenade into a wall of the house when he was shot.
Morris was dragged a safe distance from the action, and was shortly after joined by Spc. Michael Rewakowski, Pfc. Brian Worth and Spc. Christopher J. Vedvick who had also been wounded by the grenade attacks.
At 0910 a request for MedEvac
was sent to the 57th Medical Detachment. Ten minutes later, DUSTOFF 36 and Wings 11, a pair of UH-60s, were deployed as well as AH-64 Apache
s Widowmaker 23 and Widowmaker 26 as escort. Arriving at the scene, the Apaches strafed the compound with cannon and rocket fire, while the medical helicopters remained 12 miles (19.3 km) from the ongoing firefight. The helicopters finally landed at 1028 to load the wounded aboard DUSTOFF 36, while Brian Basham switched helicopters to take a wounded prisoner aboard WINGS 11, leaving Cpt. Michael Stone, CWO Ezekial Coffman, Spc. Jose Peru and Sgt. Frank Caudill aboard DUSTOFF 36, as a pair of F-18 Hornets dropped Mark 82 bomb
s on the houses.
At this point, a five-vehicle convoy of ground reinforcements arrived including a rifle squad from the 82nd Airborne, bringing the number of troops to approximately a hundred. Two of these vehicles were damaged beyond use by the militants. Ten minutes later, the MedEvac left for Bagram Airbase and a pair of A-10 Warthogs arrived on-scene and began attacking the houses along with the Apaches. The MedEvac arrived at Bagram Airfield at 1130.
Unaware that Khadr and a militant had survived the bombing, the ground forces sent a team consisting of OC-1, Silver, Speer and three Delta Force
soldiers through a hole in the south side of the wall, while at least two other American troops continued throwing grenades into the compound.
The team began picking their way over the bodies of dead animals and three fighters. According to Silver's 2007 telling of the story, he then heard a sound "like a gunshot", and saw the three Delta Force soldiers duck – as a grenade flew past them and exploded near Speer, who was at the rear of the group and not wearing his helmet.
OC-1 reported that although he didn't hear any gunfire, but the dust being blown from an alley on the northside of the complex led him to believe the team was under fire from a shooter between the house and barn. He reported that a grenade was also "lobbed" over the wall that led to the alley and landed 30–50 metres from the alley opening. Running towards the alley to escape the grenade which he also didn't hear detonate, OC-1 fired a dozen M4 Carbine
rounds into the alley as he ran past, although he couldn't see anything due to the rising dust clouds. Crouching at the southeast entrance to the alleyway, OC-1 could see a man with a holstered pistol moving on the ground next to an AK-47
, with two chest wounds. From his position, OC-1 fired a single shot into the man's head, killing him.
When the dust cleared, OC-1 saw Khadr crouched on his knees facing away from the action and wounded by shrapnel that had just permanently blinded his left eye, and shot him twice in the back.
OC-1 estimated that all the events since entering the wall had taken less than a minute up until this point, and that he had been the only American to fire his weapon, although an American grenade had also been thrown into the living quarters after initially entering the complex.
Silver initially claimed that two Delta Force troops had opened fire, shooting all three of the shots into Khadr's chest, after the youth was seen to be holding a pistol and facing the troops. These claims all directly contradict OC-1s version of events as the only eyewitness. OC-1 did agree however, that something was lying in the dust near Khadr's end of the alley, although he couldn't remember if it was a pistol or grenade.
Entering the alleyway, OC-1 saw two dead men with a damaged AK-47 buried in rubble who he believed had been killed in the airstrikes, and confirmed that the man he had shot was dead. Moving back to Khadr, OC-1 tapped the motionless youth's eye, confirming that he was still alive. Turning him over onto his back, for entering troops to secure, he began exiting the alleyway to find Speer, who he was unaware had been wounded. While leaving the alleyway, he saw a third AK-47 and several grenades.
Contradicting Morris' report of five well-dressed men, OC-1 maintained that a search of the rubble determined that there had only been four occupants, all found in the same alleyway.
Khadr was given on-site medical attention, during which time he repeatedly asked the medics to kill him, surprising them with his English. An officer present later recorded in his diary that he was about to tell his Private Second Class to kill the wounded Khadr, when Delta Force soldiers ordered them not to harm the prisoner.
He was then loaded aboard a CH-47 helicopter
and flown to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, losing consciousness aboard the flight.
The following day, soldiers including Silver returned to search the premises. Local villagers were believed to have taken away two bodies and provided them an Islamic burial
, but refused to disclose their location to the Americans who wished to identify the fighters.
Believing that the wooden boards beneath the last-killed rifleman could have been used to cover an underground chamber, an excavator
was used to tear down the walls of the buildings. This demolition uncovered five boxes of rifle ammunition, two rockets, two grenades and three rocket-propelled grenades in the huts. Some of them had accidentally detonated while lying in the smouldering ruins. A plastic bag was discovered in the granary
, containing documents, wires and a videocassette. OC-1s report claims the videotape was found in the main house, rather than the granary, and also mentioned detonator
s modeled as Sega game cartridges
.
The video shows Khadr toying with detonating cord
as other men including Abu Laith al-Libi
assemble explosives in the same house as had just been destroyed, identifiable by its walls, rugs and the environment seen out the windows in the video, and planting landmines while smiling and joking with the cameraman. It has been suggested that these were the same landmines later recovered by American forces on a road between Gardez and Khowst.
The firefight, originally labeled an ambush, was hailed as the first major engagement since Operation Anaconda
had ended four months earlier. Hansen and Watt were both awarded a Bronze Star, for running forward under fire to retrieve two fallen bodies. Sources differ on whether these were wounded American soldiers including Layne Morris or the two Afghan militiamen shot at the outset. The five wounded men were all awarded Purple Heart
s. Speer was moved from Bagram airbase to Ramstein Air Base
in Germany, where he was removed from life support
on August 7, with his heart, liver, lungs and kidneys all being donated
.
to protect his failing eyesight were denied for "state security" reasons.
According to a Motion to suppress
ruling by Guantanamo Military Judge Patrick Parrish, various interrogation techniques were allegedly used on Khadr at Bagram including:
Following the Hearing, the military judge ruled that there was no credible evidence that Khadr had ever been tortured as alleged, and that his confession was gained after it came to light that Americans had discovered a videotape of Khadr and others making IED's.
On August 20, the United States informed Canada of the capture and asked them to confirm the identity of their prisoner. Ten days later, Canadian officials sent a diplomatic query to the United States requesting consular access to their citizen being held at Bagram. The request was denied ten days later, with a statement that Canada would be notified only if Canadian citizens were transferred to Guantánamo Bay. Around this time he was visited by the Red Cross.
Khadr states that he was refused pain medication for his wounds, that he had his hands tied above a door frame for hours, had cold water thrown on him, had a bag placed over his head and was threatened with military dogs, was flatulated
upon, forced to carry 5-gallon pails of water to aggravate his shoulder wound. Unallowed to use washrooms, he was forced to urinate on himself. His chief interrogator was Joshua Claus
, who later pleaded guilty to abusing detainees to extract confessions following the in-custody death of wrongly accused Dilawar that same year..png)
An inflammatory comment included in the statement he signed as part of his plea bargain held that whenever becoming "pissed off" with the guards, he would recall his killing of Sgt. Speer, and it would make him feel good.
A letter from the Canadian embassy was sent on September 13, stating that "various laws of Canada and the United States" required special treatment of Khadr due to his age, and requesting that the United States not transfer Khadr to Guantanamo.
Khadr was interrogated again on September 17, and US military reports that he stated he helped the militants because he had been told the United States was fighting a war against Islam. When asked if he knew of a $1500 bounty
being offered for each American soldier killed in Afghanistan, he allegedly responded that he had heard the story, but didn't know who was offering the reward. When asked how that made him feel at the time, the US military reports that the 15-year old stated "I wanted to kill a lot of American[s] to get lots of money". Defence attorney Nathan Whitling
later argued that it was "hardly convincing for the U.S. to suggest that in the midst of this battle, and after the entire site had been flattened by 500-pound bombs and everyone else in the compound killed, Omar was lying under the rubble thinking about how to earn himself $1,500."
Khadr spent three months recuperating at Bagram. During that time he was often singled out for extensive labour by American soldiers who "made him work like a horse", referring to him as "Buckshot" and calling him a murderer. They claimed that he had thrown a grenade at a passing convoy delivering medical supplies. He shared a cell with Moazzam Begg
and ten others. He became conversational with guard Damien Corsetti, who was also one of his interrogators, and often spoke about basketball
.
On October 7, F.B.I. Agent Robert Fuller
interrogated Khadr. According to Fuller's report, written right after the interrogation, Fuller showed Khadr a photo book of al-Qaeda suspects. Khadr took several minutes to identify Maher Arar
from one of the photographs. The report also stated that Khadr thought he saw Arar at a Kabul, Afghanistan safe house in September and October 2001. The day after the interrogation, October 8, 2002, Arar, who had been in detention at J.F.K. airport for the past 12 days, was extraordinarily rendered
to Syria.
Khadr was transferred to Guantanamo along with Richard Belmar
, Jamal Kiyemba and other captives on October 28, 2002, although Canadian officials were not notified as promised. Shackle
d and fitted with surgical mask
s, painted-over goggles and ear protectors
to ensure sensory deprivation
, he recalled being kicked when he tried to stretch his legs.
Khadr arrived at Guantanamo Bay on October 29 or 30, 2002, to face charges of terrorism and war crimes for his actions. He was recorded as standing 170 cm (5' 7") and weighing 70 kilos (155 lbs), and recalled being greeted by guards with the phrase "Welcome to Israel".
Despite being a minor under 18, he was now treated as an adult prisoner at Guantanamo. Officials considered him an "intelligence treasure trove" not only because his father was Ahmed Khadr, but because he had personally met Osama bin Laden
and might be able to offer answers about the al-Qaeda hierarchy despite having been only ten years old at the time.
At first, he still spent much of his time in the prison hospital where he spoke with Muslim chaplain
James Yee
, although he didn't seek any religious counselling. In February 2003, he wrote to his grandparents in Scarborough, Ontario
, saying "I pray for you very much and don't forgat me from your pray'rs and don't forget to writ me and if ther any problem writ me".
On January 21, 2003, a new standard operating procedure was put in place for American military interrogators who were told they would have to "radically create new methods and methodologies that are needed to complete this mission in defence of our nation".
In February 2003, Canadian Foreign Affairs intelligence officer Jim Gould
and an official from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
(CSIS) were allowed to interrogate Khadr themselves. For three weeks prior to the Canadian visit, Khadr was deprived of sleep
and moved to a new cell every three hours for 21 days in order to "make him more amenable and willing to talk".
The presence of Gould, who brought Khadr a Big Mac
value meal, allowed the government to claim that the purpose of the visit was to "to ascertain Khadr's well-being", while his attorney Nate Whitling argued that "(Foreign Affairs) is suggesting that the visit was actually for (Khadr's) benefit, but this is not the case". His attorneys applied for and obtained an injunction
from Mr. Justice Konrad von Finckenstein of the Federal Court of Canada to prevent CSIS from interrogating their client in the future. The following month, a briefing from the Foreign Affairs department summarised Gould's findings stating that Khadr was a "thoroughly 'screwed up' young man". All those persons who have been in positions of authority over him have abused him and his trust, for their own purposes." In protest of the fact that DFAIT and CSIS had been allowed to interrogate Khadr, but not the RCMP, Supt. Mike Cabana resigned his post in Project O Canada
.
Assistant Director of CSIS William Hooper assured the Canadian public this interrogation was not intended to secure intelligence for an American prosecution, but admitted that the information was all freely shared with his American captors – without securing any guarantees, such as foregoing potential death penalty charges.
For most of 2003, Khadr had a cell next to British detainee Ruhal Ahmed
and the two often discussed their favourite Hollywood films, including Braveheart
, Die Hard
and Harry Potter
. Ahmed later recalled that while some interrogations would see Khadr return to his cell smiling and discussing what movies he had been shown, other times he would return crying and huddle in the corner with his blanket over his head.
In the early spring of 2003, Khadr was told "Your life is in my hands" by a military interrogator, who spat on him, tore out some of his hair and threatened to send him to a country that would torture him more thoroughly, making specific reference to an Egypt
ian Askri raqm tisa ("Soldier Number Nine") who enjoyed raping prisoners. The interrogation ended with Khadr being told he would spend the rest of his life in Guantanamo. A few weeks later, an interrogator giving his name as Izmarai spoke to Khadr in Pashto, threatening to send him to a "new prison" at Bagram Airbase where "they like small boys".
In all, 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.
Khadr's lawyers allege that his interrogators "dragged [him] back and forth in a mixture of his urine and pine oil" and did not provide a change of clothes for two days in March.
At the end of March 2003, Omar was upgraded to "Level Four" security, and transferred to solitary confinement
in a windowless and empty cell for the month of April.
In 2003, Khadr began leading prayer groups among the detainees. At one point, a year after he confided in Moazzam Begg
that his brother Abdurahman Khadr
was working for the Americans, he was able to have a brief discussion with his brother who was also now being held at Guantanamo, and was just 50 feet (15.2 m) away in a separate enclosure. The two shouted to each other in Arabic
, and Omar told his older brother not to admit their family's dealings with al-Qaeda, and mentioned that he was losing his left eye. During his stay, he also memorised the Quran.
Canadian intelligence officer Jim Gould
returned to Guantanamo in March 2004, but was met by an uncooperative Khadr. The Foreign Affairs office claimed that Khadr was trying to be a "tough guy" and impress his cellmates, while his attorney Muneer Ahmad
said that Khadr had originally believed Gould "had finally come to help him" in 2003, but by 2004 had realised that he was being interrogated, not aided, by the Canadian government.
In all, Khadr was interrogated by Canadians six times between 2003–2004, and ordered to identify photos of Canadians believed to have ties to terrorism. When he told Canadians that he had been tortured into giving false confessions by the Americans, the Canadian authorities called him a liar, causing him to cry. He later recalled that he had "tried to cooperate so that they would take me back to Canada".
In January 2004, Lieutenant-Commander Barbara Burfeind stated that the United States had decided not to hold juveniles at Guantanamo any longer, leading Clive Stafford Smith
to question why Khadr was not only being held, but facing a military tribunal.
On June 18, 2004, Khadr wrote a letter home to his mother who had moved back to Canada to seek medical attention for his younger brother Abdulkareem. Four months later he wrote another, as well as one to his brother Abdurahman Khadr
.
In August, attorneys Rick Wilson
and Muneer Ahmad
submit an "emergency motion" asking for the release of Khadr's medical records. Rebuffed, they were instead granted a declaration from the Guantanamo naval hospital commander Dr. John S. Edmondson stating that Khadr was "in good health", and given a two-page document entitled
"Healthcare Services Evaluation".
In November 2004, following a meeting with Ahmad and Wilson, Khadr was interrogated for four days about what he had discussed with his defence lawyers; during this time he alleges that interrogators used "extreme physical force" and refused to allow him to say his daily prayers
. During this visit, the lawyers had administered a psychological questionnaire known as the "Mini-mental state examination
", which they later turned over to Dr. Eric W. Trupin, an expert in the developmental psychology of juveniles in confinement. Trupin ruled that Khadr was suffering from "delusions and hallucinations, suicidal behaviour and intense paranoia", and that his abuse had left him "particularly susceptible to mental
coercion", and at moderate to high risk of committing suicide. Efforts to secure an independent medical examination have not met with any success.
On March 19, 2005 Canada began a series of regular "welfare visits" to monitor Khadr's behaviour, as he was being held in Camp V, the maximum security isolation camp – and there had been reports he had thrown urine
at guards and was refusing to eat. That year, his older sister Zaynab
moved back to Canada from Pakistan to demand better treatment for Omar and his brother Abdullah
. At some point before May 2005, Khadr requested his attorney Rick Wilson
bring him back Canadian magazines with "new model cars" for reading material, and later spoke enthusiastically to Canadian officials about his like of Mercedes-Benz
and Bentley
models.
Khadr participated in a hunger strike, lasting 15 days before he was force fed
by prison guards. He reported collapsing as he left the hospital, and that prison guards assaulted him violently. On July 20, 2005, Guantánamo detainee Omar Deghayes
wrote "Omar Khadr 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", and his extract was subsequently published in The Independent
.
In April 2005, Khadr was again given another written psychiatric test by lawyers Ahmad and Wilson, which was turned over to Dr. Daryl Matthews, a forensic psychologist who had previously been invited to Guantanamo two years earlier by The Pentagon
. Matthews concluded that Khadr met the "full criteria for a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder".
Khadr also participated in the July 2005 200-detainee hunger strike
, and went fifteen days without eating. He was twice taken to the on-site hospital and force-fed – on July 9 he was kicked and assaulted repeatedly by Military Police
after collapsing from weakness.
In May 2005, Khadr announced that he would no longer cooperate with any of the American attorneys on his case, including Colby Vokey
, Rick Wilson
and Kristine A. Huskey
. His Canadian lawyers convinced him that he had to retain Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler
due to the tribunal regulations. Three months later, Canada upheld the injunction banning any further interrogations by CSIS.
In September 2005, he was transferred out of the Camp V facility into Camp IV.
In 2006, the Army began an investigation into alleged abuse against Khadr while he had been held in Bagram. In July he was transferred back to the isolation cells in Camp V after he expressed distrust of his military lawyers and called the guards "idiots".
On March 6, 2006, he met Clive Stafford Smith
in the visitation area of Camp V
, and stated that he had been knocked unconscious by an American grenade blast and didn't recall ever throwing any grenades while the battle raged around him.
Khadr was permitted to speak with his mother by phone for the first time in March 2007, nearly five years after his capture. He was allowed one other phone call to his family, but has had no contact since June 2007 when he was put into the harshest section of Guantanamo, Camp VI, for "disciplinary reasons" which Canada argued was unfair as Khadr's behaviour largely depended on which camp he was held within, and the United States transferred him back to Camp IV.
On April 9, 2008, a box of Khadr's documents was seized, ostensibly because items like a Lord of the Rings screenplay were prohibited, and the legal documents taken were returned a few days later. He was also ordered to cease playing dominoes
or chess
with his attorneys.
Kuebler was able to arrange for a psychological evaluation from Kate Porterfield, who was able to visit Khadr three times in November 2008. Porterfield reported that she was finding it hard to establish trust with Khadr, which was cited as "to be expected in cases like Khadr's where young people had been abused".
The Supreme Court of the United States
ruled in June 2004 Hamdi v. Rumsfeld
that detainees are entitled to limited rights of due process
. Consequently, the Department of Defense
instituted "Combatant Status Review Tribunal
s".
The Tribunals were not themselves authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants – simply to determine whether or not the captives have already been correctly proven to match the administration's definition of an "enemy combatant
". Participation by the captives was voluntary, and Khadr chose not to be involved in his tribunal.
On August 31, 2004, a Summary of Evidence memo
was prepared for Khadr's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
. The summary alleged that he had admitted he threw a grenade
which killed a U.S. soldier, attended an al Qaida training camp
in Kabul
and worked as a translator for al Qaida to coordinate land mine
missions. In addition, he was accused of helping to plant the landmines between Khost and Ghardez, and having visited an airport near Khost to collect information on U.S. convoy movements.
His actual tribunal was convened on September 7, as Panel #5 reviewed his status in the detainment camp. The tribunal concluded that Khadr was an "enemy combatant
" and a one-page summary of conclusions was released on September 17.
ruling in Rasul v. Bush
which allowed detainees to make habeas corpus
arguments over the legality of their detention, Khadr's grandmother Fatmah el-Samnah, acting as next friend
, filed a civil suit against the United States on Khadr's behalf on July 2, 2004 challenging his detention.
The suit was named O.K. v. George W. Bush since Khadr was still a minor at the time of its filing. It was at this time that Rick Wilson
was added to Khadr's defence team.
On September 21, more than sixty Habeas motions subsequently filed by Guantanamo detainees were transferred to a single suit before senior Judge Joyce Hens Green
for coordination. The remaining issue in the suit, having Khadr's medical records released to his attorneys and gaining an independent medical review of his health while in custody, remained with Judge John D. Bates
.
On October 26, Bates rejected the motion, stating that "no charges have been brought against petitioner, and accordingly there is no reason to undertake any inquiry into petitioner's mental competence".
On August 4, 2008 Department of Justice officials responded to a motion that Khadr should not stand trial because he was a child soldier.
In 2005, the United States announced that they were assembling the necessary framework to hold newly crafted Guantanamo military commission
s. Believing that Khadr's case represented one of the "easiest" cases to prove, the United States selected him as one of ten detainees to be charged under this new system.
The chief prosecutor Fred Borch
quickly garnered criticism for allegedly corrupting the trials, and was replaced by Robert L. Swann
, who was himself replaced by Col. Morris Davis
in September 2005.
On November 7, 2005, Khadr was formally charged with Murder by an Unprivileged Belligerent, Attempted Murder by an Unprivileged Belligerent, Aiding the Enemy and Conspiracy with Usama bin Laden
, Ayman al Zawahiri, Sayeed al Masri
, Muhammad Atef, Saif al-Adel
, Ahmed Khadr "and various other members of the al Qaida organization". The United States informally indicated they would not seek the death penalty for Khadr.
On December 1, 2005 the officers were appointed to Khadr's specific commission.
Capt. John Merriam was made Khadr's official defence attorney, but agreed with counsel Muneer Ahmad
that he lacked trial experience as a defence attorney, and both men requested that he be replaced. Lt. Col. Colby Vokey
was named as Merriam's replacement.
Prosecutor Morris Davis became known for his "often-flamboyant quotes" about Khadr, referring to media coverage of the tribunal as "nauseating", and noting that Khadr didn't spend his time in Afghan camps "making s'more
s and learning how to tie knots".
On January 11, 2006 Khadr appeared at his pre-trial hearing wearing a Roots Canada
t-shirt, leading judge Robert Chester
to order him to wear more suitable attire in the future. The following day, he wore a blue-checkered shirt. Chester also insisted that both the prosecution and defence stop referring to Khadr as "Omar" and instead use "Mr. Khadr" to denote the serious nature of the charges facing him.
Defense attorney Vokey retired after he was disciplined for calling the tribunals a "sham" that left him feeling "disgusted".
Khadr and the other nine detainees who faced charges were transferred to solitary confinement
on March 30. Six days later, Khadr read a note to the court saying "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."
The commissions were struck down as unconstitutional on June 29, by the Supreme Court
ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
which stated that "The military commission at issue lacks the power to proceed because its structure and procedures violate both the UCMJ
and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949."
Davis resigned as Guantanamo prosecutor on October 6, 2007, hours after William Haynes
was made his superior officer, stating that he was not going to take orders from "the guy who said waterboarding is A-okay". He was ordered to silence his criticisms by his superiors.
After the Military Commissions Act of 2006
was signed in October 2006, new charges were sworn against Khadr on February 2, 2007. He was charged with Murder in Violation of the Law of War, Attempted Murder in Violation of the Law of War, Conspiracy, Providing Material Support for Terrorism
and Spying. Canadian attorney Dennis Edney was barred from appearing at the October arraignment
, after he criticized Kuebler's efforts, stating that the military lawyer had focused his energy on lobbying Canadian authorities to have Khadr repatriated, at the cost of preparing for the actual trial.
Khadr petitioned the US Supreme Court to review the legality of the military commission and his detention, but this request was denied in April.
On June 1, Edney said that he would not seek any plea bargain
for Khadr that would likely see him serve 30 years in prison. Peter Brownback
dismissed the charges three days later, stating that Khadr had been previously classified as an "enemy combatant
" by his Combatant Status Review Tribunal
in 2004, while the Military Commissions Act
only granted him jurisdiction to rule over "Unlawful enemy combatants".
On September 9, 2007, charges were reinstated against Khadr after the Court of Military Commission Review overturned Brownback's dismissal, stating that the tribunal could determine the legality of a detainee's status for itself.
On October 9, Groharing argued that the prosecution should not be required to identify their witnesses, stating that Khadr was "certainly capable of exacting revenge" against witnesses if he were allowed the right to face his accusers
. Brownback ruled that while the defense attorneys had the right to know the identity of the witnesses, that information could not be given to Khadr himself.
In November, while prosecutors were "desperately" trying to introduce the 27-minute video found in the wreckage, the tape was leaked to the media by an unknown source and shown on 60 Minutes
. Four months later, Kuebler stated that following conversations with the show's producers, he believed that the video was leaked by Vice President Dick Cheney
's office.
The United Nations
requested that Radhika Coomaraswamy
, special representative for children in armed conflict, be allowed to watch the tribunal, but was denied.
In January, the defence put forward three separate motions to dismiss the trial, arguing that it violated the Constitutional prohibition against bills of attainder
, that the commission lacked jurisdiction because Khadr had been a minor when the incident occurred and that there was a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Sixteen days after the February 4 hearing on the motions, Brownback dismissed the first claim. He dismissed the second claim in April, but has reserved judgment on the third.
February also saw the accidental release of a five-page "OC-1" witness report to reporters, which revealed that Khadr had not been the only survivor in the compound, as previously claimed, and that nobody had seen him throw the grenade. Officials insisted that the reporters all had to return their copies of the document or face expulsion from the hearings, but after a 90-minute standoff between reporters and military officials, it was agreed that they could retain their copies of the report, but had to redact
three names from the report.
In March, Kuebler insisted that "Lt. Col. W." had initially written in his report the day after the firefight that "the person who threw a grenade that killed Sgt. 1st Class Christopher J. Speer also died in the firefight", implying that the grenade had indeed been thrown by the surviving Mujahideen, and not by Khadr. The report was rewritten months later to say that the grenade thrower had been "engaged", rather than "killed", changing the wording that exonerated Khadr. In response, Brownback ordered that the commander be made available for an interview by the defence counsel no later than April 4. and postponed the scheduled May 5 date for the murder trial to begin, while prosecutor Groharing urged Brownback to begin the trial as soon as possible, stressing a "need for justice" for Speer's widow.
The following month, Kuebler suggested it was possible that the fatal grenade had actually been one of those being thrown into the compound by American troops while the small team searched the interior.
Kuebler accused the military of encouraging interrogators to "minimize certain legal issues" by keeping as few records as possible and destroying their notes, and suggested he would seek a dismissal.
On May 8, 2008, Brownback threatened to suspend the military hearing if prosecutors did not provide the defense with a number of documents, including an al-Qaeda membership list, documents on the relationship between al-Qaeda and al-Libi
's Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
, copies of the Detainee Information Management System records related to Khadr's treatment in Guantanamo, documents on the use of children by al-Qaeda, investigator notes of witness interviews, details about the militants who were killed in the 2002 firefight, and others. Prosecutors did agree to turn over the videotape of Canadian intelligence official Jim Gould
and Canadian Security Intelligence Service
(CSIS) agents interrogating Khadr in February 2003, but said they would alter the tape
to hide the identity of the interrogators. Following Brownback's "ruling against the government", the Pentagon announced that he was being removed from the trial in favour of Patrick Parrish
, leading critics to highlight what they believed was "more evidence of the illegitimacy" of the tribunal and that official explanations of the timing as being coincidental were "unconvincing". Parrish, known as "Rocket Docket" for his tendency to speed through trials, immediately ordered a court date of October 8, 2008.
On September 4, Parrish barred Brigadier General
Thomas W. Hartmann
from participating in the Tribunal because of his "undue command influence", the third such trial Hartmann was alleged of trying to corrupt. On October 22, 2008 it was revealed that the Prosecution had given the Defense team an incomplete version of Khadr's medical records five months earlier, and Parrish granted a delay citing the "consequences" of the decision for the prosecution. In December, the Prosecution announced it was withdrawing its intended witness who was to testify that Khadr had confessed to the crimes in December 2004 during interrogation; ostensibly to "cover up" the abusive methods used to make the youth confess.
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.
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.
On July 7, 2010, less than one week before the beginning of preliminary hearings in his trial before a military commission, Khadr fired his entire team of lawyers and announced that he would act as his own legal defense. Later in the month, Khadr accepted Lieutenant Colonel Jon S. Jackson as his lead defense counsel. Lieutenant Colonel Jackson is reported to have worked behind the scenes for several months to work on a plea agreement that would return Khadr to Canada within one year.
Khadr's defence attorneys claimed that the Canadian government acted illegally, sending its counsel and CSIS agents to Guantanamo Bay to interrogate Khadr and turning their findings over to the Tribunal prosecutors to help convict Khadr, and that the release of the documents might help prove Khadr's innocence.
In 2007, the Federal Court of Appeal
ordered the Canadian government to turn over its records related to Khadr's time in captivity, as judge Richard Mosley
stated it was now apparent that Canada had violated international law
. The government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada
in 2008, arguing that Khadr was just "fishing" for information and that disclosing their records, which include an initial account of the firefight which differs from all previously seen reports, could jeopardise national security.
Critics alleged that the refusal to release the classified documents was due only to the "embarrassment" they caused the government, and on May 23, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada
ruled unanimously that the government had acted illegally, contravening §. 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
, and ordered the videotapes of the interrogation released.
In April 2009, the Federal Court of Canada ruled once again that Khadr's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been violated. It concluded that Canada had a "duty to protect" Khadr and ordered the Canadian government to request that the U.S. return him to Canada as soon as possible. In August 2009, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the decision in a 2–1 ruling. Finally, in January 2010, in a unanimous 9–0 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the participation of Canadian officials in Khadr's interrogations at Guantanamo clearly violated his rights under the Charter. In its sharply worded decision, the Supreme Court referred to the denial of Khadr's legal rights as well as to the use of sleep deprivation techniques to soften him up for interrogation:
However, the Supreme Court stopped short of ordering the government to seek Khadr's return to Canada. Instead, it left it to the government to determine how it would exercise its duty to conduct foreign affairs while also upholding its obligation to respect Khadr's constitutional rights.
, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and former U.S. national security adviser, voiced opposition to the plan to prosecute Khadr by a tribunal. He said: Anyone prosecuted for offences they allegedly committed as a child should be treated in accordance with international juvenile justice standards providing special protections. Omar Khadr should not be prosecuted by a tribunal that is neither equipped nor required to provide these protections and meet these standards.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict, wrote in a 2010 letter to the U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay that Khadr represents the "classic child soldier narrative: recruited by unscrupulous groups to undertake actions at the bidding of adults to fight battles they barely understand." Coomaraswamy called for Khadr to be released into a rehabilitation program.
The Wikileaks Cablegate disclosures revealed that the Canadian government's Washington-backed decision not to seek the repatriation of Khadr, made it "politically impossible" for the country to take in the Uighur former detainees the US was unable to return to China. The Wikileaks cables show strong US interest in Canadian reaction to Khadr's case, and the director of Canada's intelligence agency is reported expressing his belief that the release of DVD footage of Khadr's interrogation, in which he is shown crying, would lead to "knee-jerk anti-Americanism" and "paroxysms of moral outrage, a Canadian specialty".
The Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs said in Parliament during Oral Question period that Canada was not involved in the agreement between Khadr and the US government, but when asked about an exchange of diplomatic notes indicating that Canada is inclined to favourably consider a request from Khadr for a transfer to Canada after one year, he said Canada would implement the agreement. Reportedly, Khadr will spend the next year in near solitary confinement in the section of Guantanamo reserved for the two prisoners who have been convicted in the Military Commission system, a Taliban cook and an Al Qaeda propagandist.
According to Michelle Shephard, writing in the Toronto Star two different cabinet ministers had made contradictory statements as to whether Canada would accept custody of Khadr on October 31, 2011, when his plea bargain made him eligible for transfer.
An official in the office of Vic Toews
, Public Safety Minister, said Khadr's plea deal was irrelevant to whether the Minister would decide to have Canada accept custody of Khadr for the remainder of his term, because the Minister was not a signatory to the agreement.
However, when answering a question in the House of Commons,
Diane Ablonczy
, Canada's Minister of State of Foreign Affairs said:
CBC News reported on October 7, 2011 that:
and having served one year of his sentence Khadr's lawyers had "filed the paperwork required to start the repatriation process", which was likely to take up to 18 months at which point he could be transferred to a Canadian prison.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
child soldier and one of the juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He was convicted of five charges under the United States Military Commissions Act of 2009
Military Commissions Act of 2009
The United States House of Representatives passed a bill, known as the Military Commissions Act of 2009, which amended the Military Commissions Act of 2006.Formally, it is Title XVIII of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 ....
including murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism, by a Guantanamo military commission
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...
tribunal, a venue reserved for non-American enemy combatants captured in the War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. In October 2010 he pleaded guilty to the five charges against him as part of a plea agreement with military commission prosecutors. He was captured on July 27, 2002 by American forces at the age of 15 following a four-hour firefight in the village of Ayub Kheyl
Ayub Kheyl
Ayub Kheyl is a small village 7 miles outside Khost, Afghanistan. It was the site of a large firefight that resulted in the capture of a young Canadian, Omar Khadr, on July 27, 2002. It was widely known for its conservative population closely tied to the Taliban....
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. He has spent seven years in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Khadr signed a pre-trial agreement, pleading guilty to the charges, and the details of the charges and accepting an 8 year sentence, not including time served, with the possibility of a transfer to Canada after at least one year to serve the remainder of the sentence there, based on a US/Canada agreement.
He is one of the youngest prisoner held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the first since World War II to be prosecuted in a military commission for war crimes committed while still a minor.
He has been frequently referred to as a child soldier and was formally identified as such by the head of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
child soldier program in a letter to the Military Commission in October 2010. The only Western citizen remaining in Guantanamo, Khadr is unique in that Canada has chosen not to seek extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
or repatriation
Repatriation
Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. This includes the process of returning refugees or soldiers to their place of origin following a war...
despite the urgings of Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, UNICEF, the Canadian Bar Association
Canadian Bar Association
The Canadian Bar Association represents over 37,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers, and law students from across Canada.-History:The Association's first Annual Meeting was held in Montreal in 1896. However, the CBA has been in continuous existence in its present form since 1914...
and other prominent organisations.
A 2009 review determined that the Canadian Cabinet
Cabinet of Canada
The Cabinet of Canada is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada...
had failed Khadr, by refusing to acknowledge his juvenile status or his repeated claims of being abused. In April 2009, the Federal Court of Canada
Federal Court of Canada
The Federal Court of Canada was a national court of Canada that heard some types of disputes arising under the central government's legislative jurisdiction...
ruled that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
made it obligatory for the government to immediately demand Khadr's return. After a hearing before the Federal Court of Appeal
Federal Court of Appeal (Canada)
The Federal Court of Appeal is a Canadian appellate court that hears cases concerning federal matters arising from certain federal Acts. The court was created on July 2, 2003 by the Courts Administration Service Act when it and the Federal Court were split from its predecessor, the Federal Court of...
produced the same result, the government announced they would argue their case before the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
. In January 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that Khadr's constitutional rights had clearly been violated, but it stopped short of ordering the government to seek his return to Canada.
Khadr was the only person charged under the 2006 Military Commissions Act
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
who did not boycott the Guantanamo proceedings
Boycott of Guantanamo Military Commissions
In 2006, after charges were laid against a number of detainees held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, a boycott against the judicial hearings was declared by Ali al-Bahlul...
. Canadian intelligence authorities had initially determined in a post-interrogation report that Khadr had little knowledge of his father's alleged activities, since "he was out playing or simply not interested". This was contradicted by the stipulation of facts document signed by Khadr as part of his plea-agreement on October 26, 2010, which said that Khadr had "extensive firsthand knowledge" of his father's supportive role in Al Qaeda operations.
Khadr pled guilty to the murder of Christopher Speer
Christopher Speer
Sergeant First Class Christopher James Speer was a combat medic with a Delta Force team who was mortally wounded during a skirmish in Afghanistan, on July 27, 2002...
. On October 29, 2010, despite the prosecution psychiatrist testifying that he showed no signs of remorse; Khadr apologized to the widow of Speer for the pain he had caused her. Khadr also said his eight years in prison had taught him "the beauty of life". Defence attorney Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson made a passionate argument to the war crimes tribunal sentencing panel saying that Khadr had no option but to fight in the gun battle: "Omar Khadr was a lawful target but he didn't have the right to fight back," Jackson said. On October 31, 2010, Khadr was sentenced to eight more years in custody in accordance with the plea agreement which was unsealed after the military sentencing jury recommended that he should serve 40 years.
Early life
Because his father, Ahmed Khadr, had raised his family in Peshawar, Pakistan since 1985, Omar spent his life moving back and forth between Canada and Pakistan. His mother also wished to raise her family outside of Canada due to her animosity toward Western social influences. Khadr was enrolled in a school in Peshawar.In 1992, Khadr's father was severely injured while in Logar, Afghanistan; the Khadr family moved back to Toronto so he could recuperate. After the move, Omar became "hypersensitive to tension in the family" and would often quote Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
from The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
. Enrolled at ISNA Elementary School for Grade 1, Omar's teachers described him as "very smart, very eager and very polite".
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
, and were homeschooled for two years, returning to write their exams at the Ansar Scientific Institute. While he was not fond of math, his favourite subjects were English and Islamic Studies, as he already knew the topics well.
In 1995, Ahmed Khadr was arrested following Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
's bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan
Attack on the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan
Carried out by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the November 19 1995 attack on the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan was retaliation against the diplomatic staffers who were accused of gathering intelligence on Jihad factions inside Pakistan...
, and accused of financially aiding the conspirators. Ahmed was hospitalised after engaging in a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
, and 9-year old Omar spent every night sleeping on the floor beside his father's bed until his release a year later for lack of evidence.
Khadr's father moved his family to Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 1996, where they lived in their father's NGO office. During a trip home to Canada in the spring of 2001, Khadr attended the International Auto Show at the Toronto Convention Centre where he got his photo taken with the batmobile
Batmobile
The Batmobile is the automobile of DC Comics superhero Batman. The car has evolved along with the character from comic books to television and films. Kept in the Batcave, which it accesses through a hidden entrance, the Batmobile is a gadget-laden vehicle used by Batman in his crime-fighting...
.
1998 United States embassy bombings
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The date of the...
, the United States had retaliated by bombing camps in Afghanistan. Thus, expecting a similar retaliation following the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, the Khadr family retreated towards the Pakistani mountains, where Omar went shopping, washed laundry and cooked meals.
In early 2002, he was living in Waziristan
Waziristan
Waziristan is a mountainous region near the Northwest of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . The area is entirely populated by ethnic Pashtuns . The language spoken in the valley is Pashto/Pakhto...
with his mother and younger sister while his father visited infrequently, and took up beading
Beadwork
Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another or to cloth, usually by the use of a needle and thread or soft, flexible wire. Most beadwork takes the form of jewelry or other personal adornment, but beads are also used in wall hangings and sculpture.Beadwork techniques are broadly...
his mother's clothes as a hobby. At one point, he was forced to wear a burqa
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
and disguise himself as a daughter to avoid scrutiny, an act that upset him. When his father returned, he asked to be allowed to stay at a group home
Group home
A group home is a private residence designed or converted to serve as a non-secure home for unrelated persons who share a common characteristic.-Types of group homes:...
for young men, despite his mother's protests. His father agreed, and a month later allowed him to accompany a group of Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s associated with Abu Laith al-Libi
Abu Laith al-Libi
Abu Laith al-Libi 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. He also served as an al Qaeda spokesman...
, who needed a Pashto translator during their stay in Khost
Khost
Khost or Khowst is a city in eastern Afghanistan. It is the capital of Khost province, which is a mountainous region near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan...
. Khadr promised to check in regularly with his mother.
A later collection of biographies written by al Qaeda praises the elder Khadr for "tossing his little child in the furnace of the battle", and likens his son to a lion cub. According to charges signed by military commission officer Susan J. Crawford, Khadr received "one-on-one" weapons training in June,2002, as his visits home became less frequent.
Capture
Abu Laith al-Libi
Abu Laith al-Libi 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. He also served as an al Qaeda spokesman...
following reports of the battle, for not taking care of his son properly.
From approximately February 2002, a team of American soldiers were using the abandoned Soviet airbase
Khost Airfield
The Khost Airfield is situated 2 miles southeast of the town of Khost, Afghanistan and 9 miles northeast of the Pakistan border in a valley surrounded by high terrains from West and East.- Accidents :...
in Khost, Afghanistan as an intelligence-gathering outpost, as they tried to blend in and gain the trust of the local community.
19th Special Forces Group (United States)
The 19th Special Forces Group is one of two National Guard groups of the United States Army Special Forces. Headquartered in Draper, Utah, with detachments in Washington, West Virginia, Ohio, Rhode Island, Colorado, California and Texas, the 19th SFG shares responsibility over Southwest Asia with...
, the 505th Infantry Regiment and a "militia", composed of approximately twenty Afghan fighters loyal to mercenary warlord Pacha Khan Zadran
Pacha Khan Zadran
Pacha Khan Zadran is a powerful militia leader and a politician in the southeast of Afghanistan. He was an ex Soviet-fighter militia leader who played a role in driving the Taliban from Paktia Province in the 2001 invasion, with American backing, and he subsequently assumed the governorship of...
and led by Zadran's brother Kamal
Kamal Khan Zadran
General Kamal Khan Zadran is a member of a prominent family active in Eastern Afghanistan.In 2001 his brother Pacha Khan Zadran was a signatory of the Bonn Conference agreement that chose Hamid Karzai as the President of the Afghan Transitional Authority.In 2002 his brother Amanullah Zadran,...
, had been sent from the airbase to the Ab Khail house in search of an elderly wheelchair-using man alleged to be the bomb-maker who had hidden anti-tank mines several weeks earlier. The search turned up no evidence against the occupants of the house.
While at the house, a report came in that a monitored satellite phone
Satellite phone
A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites...
, possibly one owned by the Khadrs, had just been used 300–600 metres from the group's present location. Seven soldiers were sent to investigate the site of the phonecall.
The group was led by Major Randy Watt
Randy Watt
Steven 'Randy' Watt is a Colonel in the Utah National Guard. As of June 2011 Watt is the Commanding Officer of the 19th Special Forces Group.As a Major, Watt arrived in Afghanistan in December 2001, and led the Special Forces assault team that attacked the compound in Ayub Kheyl where Omar Khadr...
, and also included XO
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...
Captain Mike Silver, Sgt Christopher Speer
Christopher Speer
Sergeant First Class Christopher James Speer was a combat medic with a Delta Force team who was mortally wounded during a skirmish in Afghanistan, on July 27, 2002...
, Layne Morris and Master Sgt. Scotty Hansen, the three from the 19th Special Forces Group
19th Special Forces Group (United States)
The 19th Special Forces Group is one of two National Guard groups of the United States Army Special Forces. Headquartered in Draper, Utah, with detachments in Washington, West Virginia, Ohio, Rhode Island, Colorado, California and Texas, the 19th SFG shares responsibility over Southwest Asia with...
, Spc. Christopher J. Vedvick from the 505th and one other man.
The firefight
Arriving at a series of mud huts and a granaryGranary
A granary is a storehouse for threshed grain or animal feed. In ancient or primitive granaries, pottery is the most common use of storage in these buildings. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animals.-Early origins:From ancient times grain...
filled with fresh straw surrounded by a 10 feet (3 m) stone wall with a green metal gate approximately 100 metres radius from the main hut, the Special Forces team saw children playing around the buildings and an old man sleeping beneath a nearby tree.
Seeing five "well-dressed" men sitting around a fire in the main residence, with AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
s visible in the room, Morris has claimed that he either approached and told the occupants, who had seen him, to open the front door or that he snuck quietly back without being seen and a perimeter was set up around the complex. Either way, the team waited 45 minutes for support from the soldiers searching the first residence, and at one point Morris chided the soldiers from the 82nd for setting up a defensive perimeter with their backs to the house, rather than properly covering the house itself.
During this time, the elderly man sleeping beneath the tree awoke and began screaming loudly in Pashto, causing a number of local children to run over and interpret for the Americans, explaining that the man was "just angry". Morris took a photograph of the children standing on the road outside the compound. A crowd of approximately a hundred local Afghans had gathered around the area to watch the incident unfold. An Afghan militiaman was sent towards the house to demand the surrender of the occupants, but retreated under gunfire.
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
villagers. They were told to return to the huts, and inform the occupants that the Americans wanted to search their house regardless of their affiliation. Upon hearing this, the occupants of the hut opened fire, shooting both militiamen.
Several women immediately fled the huts and ran away while the occupants began throwing grenades at the American troops, with intermittent rifle fire. After the firefight, a statement by one of the soldiers would contradict this and say that there had only been one woman and one child present, and both were detained by US forces after exiting the huts.
Morris and Silver had now taken up positions outside the stone wall, with Silver "over Morris's left shoulder explaining where he should try to position his next shot", when Morris fell back into Silver, with a cut above his right eye and shrapnel embedded in his nose. Both Silver and Morris initially believed the wound was due to Morris' rifle malfunctioning, though it was later attributed to an unseen grenade. In an alternate account of the injury, Morris has also claimed that he was inside the compound and hiding behind the granary
Granary
A granary is a storehouse for threshed grain or animal feed. In ancient or primitive granaries, pottery is the most common use of storage in these buildings. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animals.-Early origins:From ancient times grain...
preparing to fire a rocket-propelled grenade into a wall of the house when he was shot.
At 0910 a request for MedEvac
MEDEVAC
Medical evacuation, often termed Medevac or Medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to the wounded being evacuated from the battlefield or to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of an accident to receiving medical facilities using...
was sent to the 57th Medical Detachment. Ten minutes later, DUSTOFF 36 and Wings 11, a pair of UH-60s, were deployed as well as AH-64 Apache
AH-64 Apache
The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement, and a tandem cockpit for a two-man crew. The Apache was developed as Model 77 by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the...
s Widowmaker 23 and Widowmaker 26 as escort. Arriving at the scene, the Apaches strafed the compound with cannon and rocket fire, while the medical helicopters remained 12 miles (19.3 km) from the ongoing firefight. The helicopters finally landed at 1028 to load the wounded aboard DUSTOFF 36, while Brian Basham switched helicopters to take a wounded prisoner aboard WINGS 11, leaving Cpt. Michael Stone, CWO Ezekial Coffman, Spc. Jose Peru and Sgt. Frank Caudill aboard DUSTOFF 36, as a pair of F-18 Hornets dropped Mark 82 bomb
Mark 82 bomb
The Mark 82 is an unguided, low-drag general-purpose bomb, part of the U.S. Mark 80 series. The explosive filling is tritonal.-Development and deployment:...
s on the houses.
Unaware that Khadr and a militant had survived the bombing, the ground forces sent a team consisting of OC-1, Silver, Speer and three Delta Force
Delta Force
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta is one of the United States' secretive Tier One counter-terrorism and Special Mission Units. Commonly known as Delta Force, Delta, or The Unit, it was formed under the designation 1st SFOD-D, and is officially referred to by the Department of Defense...
soldiers through a hole in the south side of the wall, while at least two other American troops continued throwing grenades into the compound.
OC-1 reported that although he didn't hear any gunfire, but the dust being blown from an alley on the northside of the complex led him to believe the team was under fire from a shooter between the house and barn. He reported that a grenade was also "lobbed" over the wall that led to the alley and landed 30–50 metres from the alley opening. Running towards the alley to escape the grenade which he also didn't hear detonate, OC-1 fired a dozen M4 Carbine
M4 Carbine
The M4 carbine is a family of firearms tracing its lineage back to earlier carbine versions of the M16, all based on the original AR-15 designed by Eugene Stoner and made by ArmaLite. It is a shorter and lighter variant of the M16A2 assault rifle, with 80% parts commonality.It is a gas-operated,...
rounds into the alley as he ran past, although he couldn't see anything due to the rising dust clouds. Crouching at the southeast entrance to the alleyway, OC-1 could see a man with a holstered pistol moving on the ground next to an AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
, with two chest wounds. From his position, OC-1 fired a single shot into the man's head, killing him.
OC-1 estimated that all the events since entering the wall had taken less than a minute up until this point, and that he had been the only American to fire his weapon, although an American grenade had also been thrown into the living quarters after initially entering the complex.
Silver initially claimed that two Delta Force troops had opened fire, shooting all three of the shots into Khadr's chest, after the youth was seen to be holding a pistol and facing the troops. These claims all directly contradict OC-1s version of events as the only eyewitness. OC-1 did agree however, that something was lying in the dust near Khadr's end of the alley, although he couldn't remember if it was a pistol or grenade.
Entering the alleyway, OC-1 saw two dead men with a damaged AK-47 buried in rubble who he believed had been killed in the airstrikes, and confirmed that the man he had shot was dead. Moving back to Khadr, OC-1 tapped the motionless youth's eye, confirming that he was still alive. Turning him over onto his back, for entering troops to secure, he began exiting the alleyway to find Speer, who he was unaware had been wounded. While leaving the alleyway, he saw a third AK-47 and several grenades.
Contradicting Morris' report of five well-dressed men, OC-1 maintained that a search of the rubble determined that there had only been four occupants, all found in the same alleyway.
Khadr was given on-site medical attention, during which time he repeatedly asked the medics to kill him, surprising them with his English. An officer present later recorded in his diary that he was about to tell his Private Second Class to kill the wounded Khadr, when Delta Force soldiers ordered them not to harm the prisoner.
He was then loaded aboard a CH-47 helicopter
CH-47 Chinook
The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine, tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter. Its top speed of 170 knots is faster than contemporary utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s...
and flown to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, losing consciousness aboard the flight.
Aftermath
Islamic funeral
Funerals in Islam follow fairly specific rites, though they are subject to regional interpretation and variation in custom. In all cases, however, sharia calls for burial of the body, preceded by a simple ritual involving bathing and shrouding the body, followed by salah...
, but refused to disclose their location to the Americans who wished to identify the fighters.
Believing that the wooden boards beneath the last-killed rifleman could have been used to cover an underground chamber, an excavator
Excavator
Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform . The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. A cable-operated excavator uses winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements. They are a natural progression from the...
was used to tear down the walls of the buildings. This demolition uncovered five boxes of rifle ammunition, two rockets, two grenades and three rocket-propelled grenades in the huts. Some of them had accidentally detonated while lying in the smouldering ruins. A plastic bag was discovered in the granary
Granary
A granary is a storehouse for threshed grain or animal feed. In ancient or primitive granaries, pottery is the most common use of storage in these buildings. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animals.-Early origins:From ancient times grain...
, containing documents, wires and a videocassette. OC-1s report claims the videotape was found in the main house, rather than the granary, and also mentioned detonator
Detonator
A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....
s modeled as Sega game cartridges
Sega Mega Drive
The Sega Genesis is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega. It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as , then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Europe, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive. The reason for the two names is that...
.
Detonating cord
Detonating cord is a thin, flexible plastic tube filled with PETN . With the PETN exploding at a rate of approximately 4 miles per second, any common length of det cord appears to explode instantaneously...
as other men including Abu Laith al-Libi
Abu Laith al-Libi
Abu Laith al-Libi 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. He also served as an al Qaeda spokesman...
assemble explosives in the same house as had just been destroyed, identifiable by its walls, rugs and the environment seen out the windows in the video, and planting landmines while smiling and joking with the cameraman. It has been suggested that these were the same landmines later recovered by American forces on a road between Gardez and Khowst.
The firefight, originally labeled an ambush, was hailed as the first major engagement since Operation Anaconda
Operation Anaconda
Operation Anaconda took place in early March 2002 in which the United States military and CIA Paramilitary Officers, working with allied Afghan military forces, and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization and non NATO forces attempted to destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the Shahi-Kot...
had ended four months earlier. Hansen and Watt were both awarded a Bronze Star, for running forward under fire to retrieve two fallen bodies. Sources differ on whether these were wounded American soldiers including Layne Morris or the two Afghan militiamen shot at the outset. The five wounded men were all awarded Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
s. Speer was moved from Bagram airbase to Ramstein Air Base
Ramstein Air Base
Ramstein Air Base is a United States Air Force base in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz. It serves as headquarters for the United States Air Forces in Europe and is also a North Atlantic Treaty Organization installation...
in Germany, where he was removed from life support
Life support
Life support, in medicine is a broad term that applies to any therapy used to sustain a patient's life while they are critically ill or injured. There are many therapies and techniques that may be used by clinicians to achieve the goal of sustaining life...
on August 7, with his heart, liver, lungs and kidneys all being donated
Organ donation
Organ donation is the donation of biological tissue or an organ of the human body, from a living or dead person to a living recipient in need of a transplantation. Transplantable organs and tissues are removed in a surgical procedure following a determination, based on the donor's medical and...
.
Time at Bagram
The unconscious Khadr was airlifted to receive medical attention at Bagram, where interrogations began immediately after he gained consciousness approximately a week after his arrival, although he remained stretcher-bound for several weeks. Col. Marjorie Mosier operated on his eyes after his arrival, though fellow detainee Rhuhel Ahmed later stated that Khadr had been denied other forms of surgery to save his eyesight as punishment for not giving interrogators the answers they sought. Later attempts to acquire darkened sunglassesSunglasses
Sunglasses or sun glasses are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. They can sometimes also function as a visual aid, as variously termed spectacles or glasses exist, featuring lenses that...
to protect his failing eyesight were denied for "state security" reasons.
According to a Motion to suppress
Motion to suppress
In common law legal systems, a motion to suppress is a formal, written request to a judge for an order that certain evidence be excluded from consideration by the judge or jury at trial...
ruling by Guantanamo Military Judge Patrick Parrish, various interrogation techniques were allegedly used on Khadr at Bagram including:
- The "Fear Up" technique. This technique is described by the judge as "a technique used as an attempt to raise the fear level of a detainee." In Khadr's case it included telling him that a detainee who "lied to interrogators" was raped in the showers by "big,black guys".
- The "love of freedom" and "Pride/Ego Down" techniques which, according to Judge Parrish are "attempts to gather information through appealing to a person's desire to go home or implying that he was not really an important person.."
- The "Fear of Incarceration" technique which the Judge said was "an attempt to gain cooperation in order to return to a normal life rather than be detained."
Following the Hearing, the military judge ruled that there was no credible evidence that Khadr had ever been tortured as alleged, and that his confession was gained after it came to light that Americans had discovered a videotape of Khadr and others making IED's.
On August 20, the United States informed Canada of the capture and asked them to confirm the identity of their prisoner. Ten days later, Canadian officials sent a diplomatic query to the United States requesting consular access to their citizen being held at Bagram. The request was denied ten days later, with a statement that Canada would be notified only if Canadian citizens were transferred to Guantánamo Bay. Around this time he was visited by the Red Cross.
Khadr states that he was refused pain medication for his wounds, that he had his hands tied above a door frame for hours, had cold water thrown on him, had a bag placed over his head and was threatened with military dogs, was flatulated
Fart
Fart is an English language vulgarism most commonly used in reference to flatulence. The word "fart" is generally considered unsuitable in a formal environment by modern English speakers, and it may be considered vulgar or offensive in some situations. Fart can be used as a noun or a verb...
upon, forced to carry 5-gallon pails of water to aggravate his shoulder wound. Unallowed to use washrooms, he was forced to urinate on himself. His chief interrogator was Joshua Claus
Joshua Claus
Joshua R. Claus is a former member of the United States Army, whose unit was present at both Iraq's Abu Ghraib and at the Bagram Theater Detention Facility in Afghanistan, and was the first interrogator of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr...
, who later pleaded guilty to abusing detainees to extract confessions following the in-custody death of wrongly accused Dilawar that same year.
A letter from the Canadian embassy was sent on September 13, stating that "various laws of Canada and the United States" required special treatment of Khadr due to his age, and requesting that the United States not transfer Khadr to Guantanamo.
Khadr was interrogated again on September 17, and US military reports that he stated he helped the militants because he had been told the United States was fighting a war against Islam. When asked if he knew of a $1500 bounty
Bounty (reward)
A bounty is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money...
being offered for each American soldier killed in Afghanistan, he allegedly responded that he had heard the story, but didn't know who was offering the reward. When asked how that made him feel at the time, the US military reports that the 15-year old stated "I wanted to kill a lot of American[s] to get lots of money". Defence attorney Nathan Whitling
Nathan Whitling
A Canadian attorney from Edmonton, Alberta, Nathan Whitling became widely known for his defense of Omar Khadr who was held in the American Guantanamo Bay detention camps.-References:...
later argued that it was "hardly convincing for the U.S. to suggest that in the midst of this battle, and after the entire site had been flattened by 500-pound bombs and everyone else in the compound killed, Omar was lying under the rubble thinking about how to earn himself $1,500."
Khadr spent three months recuperating at Bagram. During that time he was often singled out for extensive labour by American soldiers who "made him work like a horse", referring to him as "Buckshot" and calling him a murderer. They claimed that he had thrown a grenade at a passing convoy delivering medical supplies. He shared a cell with Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg , is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S...
and ten others. He became conversational with guard Damien Corsetti, who was also one of his interrogators, and often spoke about basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
.
Robert Fuller (FBI)
Robert Fuller is an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who has worked in counter-terrorism. He has questioned suspected terrorists, been a handler of informants in the U.S., and testified in both federal court and Guantanamo military commission trials.-September 11 attacks:The 9/11...
interrogated Khadr. According to Fuller's report, written right after the interrogation, Fuller showed Khadr a photo book of al-Qaeda suspects. Khadr took several minutes to identify Maher Arar
Maher Arar
Maher Arar is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who resides in Canada. Arar's story is frequently referred to as "extraordinary rendition" but the U.S. government insisted it was a case of deportation.Arar was detained during a layover at John F...
from one of the photographs. The report also stated that Khadr thought he saw Arar at a Kabul, Afghanistan safe house in September and October 2001. The day after the interrogation, October 8, 2002, Arar, who had been in detention at J.F.K. airport for the past 12 days, was extraordinarily rendered
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
to Syria.
Khadr was transferred to Guantanamo along with Richard Belmar
Richard Belmar
Richard Dean Belmar is a British man who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was first detained in Pakistan in 2002 and sent to Bagram Theater Internment Facility, then Guantanamo...
, Jamal Kiyemba and other captives on October 28, 2002, although Canadian officials were not notified as promised. Shackle
Shackle
A shackle, also known as a gyve, is a U-shaped piece of metal secured with a clevis pin or bolt across the opening, or a hinged metal loop secured with a quick-release locking pin mechanism...
d and fitted with surgical mask
Surgical mask
A surgical mask also known as a procedure mask is intended to be worn by health professionals during surgery and at other times to catch the bacteria shed in liquid droplets and aerosols from the wearer's mouth and nose....
s, painted-over goggles and ear protectors
Ear protectors
Ear protectors are generally any personal protective equipment that cover at least the opening of the ear canal such that damaging sounds cannot cause deafness. Alternatively, they could be equipment that prevents other damage from occurring to the ear or its inner workings such as cold weather.The...
to ensure sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing respectively, while more complex devices can also cut off the sense of smell, touch,...
, he recalled being kicked when he tried to stretch his legs.
Time at Guantanamo
Despite being a minor under 18, he was now treated as an adult prisoner at Guantanamo. Officials considered him an "intelligence treasure trove" not only because his father was Ahmed Khadr, but because he had personally met Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and might be able to offer answers about the al-Qaeda hierarchy despite having been only ten years old at the time.
At first, he still spent much of his time in the prison hospital where he spoke with Muslim chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
James Yee
James Yee
James J. Yee is an American former United States Army chaplain with the rank of captain...
, although he didn't seek any religious counselling. In February 2003, he wrote to his grandparents in Scarborough, Ontario
Scarborough, Ontario
Scarborough is a dissolved municipality within the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the eastern part of Toronto. It is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the west by Victoria Park Avenue, on the north by Steeles Avenue East, and on the east by the Rouge River...
, saying "I pray for you very much and don't forgat me from your pray'rs and don't forget to writ me and if ther any problem writ me".
On January 21, 2003, a new standard operating procedure was put in place for American military interrogators who were told they would have to "radically create new methods and methodologies that are needed to complete this mission in defence of our nation".
Jim Gould
A Canadian Foreign Affairs intelligence officer, Jim Gould previously served as the deputy of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade....
and an official from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...
(CSIS) were allowed to interrogate Khadr themselves. For three weeks prior to the Canadian visit, Khadr was deprived of sleep
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...
and moved to a new cell every three hours for 21 days in order to "make him more amenable and willing to talk".
The presence of Gould, who brought Khadr a Big Mac
Big Mac
The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products...
value meal, allowed the government to claim that the purpose of the visit was to "to ascertain Khadr's well-being", while his attorney Nate Whitling argued that "(Foreign Affairs) is suggesting that the visit was actually for (Khadr's) benefit, but this is not the case". His attorneys applied for and obtained an injunction
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
from Mr. Justice Konrad von Finckenstein of the Federal Court of Canada to prevent CSIS from interrogating their client in the future. The following month, a briefing from the Foreign Affairs department summarised Gould's findings stating that Khadr was a "thoroughly 'screwed up' young man". All those persons who have been in positions of authority over him have abused him and his trust, for their own purposes." In protest of the fact that DFAIT and CSIS had been allowed to interrogate Khadr, but not the RCMP, Supt. Mike Cabana resigned his post in Project O Canada
Project O Canada
Founded in 2001, Project O Canada was a Toronto-based anti-terrorism investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Created in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, subdivisions of the project named A-O Canada and C-O Canada were based in Ottawa and Montreal, RCMP Divisions A and C...
.
Assistant Director of CSIS William Hooper assured the Canadian public this interrogation was not intended to secure intelligence for an American prosecution, but admitted that the information was all freely shared with his American captors – without securing any guarantees, such as foregoing potential death penalty charges.
For most of 2003, Khadr had a cell next to British detainee Ruhal Ahmed
Ruhal Ahmed
Ruhal Ahmed is a British citizen. He was detained without trial for over two years by the United States government, first in Afghanistan, and then in Camp Delta, the United States prison for people it describes as suspects in its "War on Terror", at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, Cuba...
and the two often discussed their favourite Hollywood films, including Braveheart
Braveheart
Braveheart is a 1995 epic historical drama war film directed by and starring Mel Gibson. The film was written for the screen and then novelized by Randall Wallace...
, Die Hard
Die Hard
Die Hard is a 1988 American action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which...
and Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
. Ahmed later recalled that while some interrogations would see Khadr return to his cell smiling and discussing what movies he had been shown, other times he would return crying and huddle in the corner with his blanket over his head.
In the early spring of 2003, Khadr was told "Your life is in my hands" by a military interrogator, who spat on him, tore out some of his hair and threatened to send him to a country that would torture him more thoroughly, making specific reference to an Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian Askri raqm tisa ("Soldier Number Nine") who enjoyed raping prisoners. The interrogation ended with Khadr being told he would spend the rest of his life in Guantanamo. A few weeks later, an interrogator giving his name as Izmarai spoke to Khadr in Pashto, threatening to send him to a "new prison" at Bagram Airbase where "they like small boys".
In all, 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
Short shackling
Short shackling is a technique that American interrogators use in the War on Terror. According to a military report the suspect's hands are shackled to an eyebolt in the floor, so that the suspect is forced to lie in a fetal position or squat...
, and left bound, in uncomfortable stress positions
Stress positions
A stress position, also known as a submission position, places the human body in such a way that a great amount of weight is placed on just one or two muscles. For example, a subject may be forced to stand on the balls of his feet, then squat so that his thighs are parallel to the ground...
until he soiled himself.
Khadr's lawyers allege that his interrogators "dragged [him] back and forth in a mixture of his urine and pine oil" and did not provide a change of clothes for two days in March.
At the end of March 2003, Omar was upgraded to "Level Four" security, and transferred to solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
in a windowless and empty cell for the month of April.
In 2003, Khadr began leading prayer groups among the detainees. At one point, a year after he confided in Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg , is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S...
that his brother Abdurahman Khadr
Abdurahman Khadr
Abdurahman Khadr is the third child of the Egyptian Canadian Khadr family, and was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba, after being detained in Afghanistan under suspicion of connections to Al-Qaeda...
was working for the Americans, he was able to have a brief discussion with his brother who was also now being held at Guantanamo, and was just 50 feet (15.2 m) away in a separate enclosure. The two shouted to each other in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, and Omar told his older brother not to admit their family's dealings with al-Qaeda, and mentioned that he was losing his left eye. During his stay, he also memorised the Quran.
Canadian intelligence officer Jim Gould
Jim Gould
A Canadian Foreign Affairs intelligence officer, Jim Gould previously served as the deputy of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade....
returned to Guantanamo in March 2004, but was met by an uncooperative Khadr. The Foreign Affairs office claimed that Khadr was trying to be a "tough guy" and impress his cellmates, while his attorney Muneer Ahmad
Muneer Ahmad
Muneer Ahmad a professor of law at the Yale Law School. He is a specialist in international human rights and immigration law.He is known for his work as co-counsel for Omar Khadr, a Canadian that is detained at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp....
said that Khadr had originally believed Gould "had finally come to help him" in 2003, but by 2004 had realised that he was being interrogated, not aided, by the Canadian government.
In all, Khadr was interrogated by Canadians six times between 2003–2004, and ordered to identify photos of Canadians believed to have ties to terrorism. When he told Canadians that he had been tortured into giving false confessions by the Americans, the Canadian authorities called him a liar, causing him to cry. He later recalled that he had "tried to cooperate so that they would take me back to Canada".
In January 2004, Lieutenant-Commander Barbara Burfeind stated that the United States had decided not to hold juveniles at Guantanamo any longer, leading Clive Stafford Smith
Clive Stafford Smith
Clive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America....
to question why Khadr was not only being held, but facing a military tribunal.
On June 18, 2004, Khadr wrote a letter home to his mother who had moved back to Canada to seek medical attention for his younger brother Abdulkareem. Four months later he wrote another, as well as one to his brother Abdurahman Khadr
Abdurahman Khadr
Abdurahman Khadr is the third child of the Egyptian Canadian Khadr family, and was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba, after being detained in Afghanistan under suspicion of connections to Al-Qaeda...
.
In August, attorneys Rick Wilson
Rick Wilson (attorney)
Rick Wilson is an American defense attorney, and a professor attached to the American University's Washington College of Law.He is notable for defending Canadian Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay from July 2004 until 2007 when Khadr requested his American representatives be removed from his defense team...
and Muneer Ahmad
Muneer Ahmad
Muneer Ahmad a professor of law at the Yale Law School. He is a specialist in international human rights and immigration law.He is known for his work as co-counsel for Omar Khadr, a Canadian that is detained at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp....
submit an "emergency motion" asking for the release of Khadr's medical records. Rebuffed, they were instead granted a declaration from the Guantanamo naval hospital commander Dr. John S. Edmondson stating that Khadr was "in good health", and given a two-page document entitled
"Healthcare Services Evaluation".
In November 2004, following a meeting with Ahmad and Wilson, Khadr was interrogated for four days about what he had discussed with his defence lawyers; during this time he alleges that interrogators used "extreme physical force" and refused to allow him to say his daily prayers
Salat
Salah is the practice of formal prayer in Islam. Its importance for Muslims is indicated by its status as one of the Five Pillars of Sunni Islam, of the Ten Practices of the Religion of Twelver Islam and of the 7 pillars of Musta'lī Ismailis...
. During this visit, the lawyers had administered a psychological questionnaire known as the "Mini-mental state examination
Mini-mental state examination
The mini–mental state examination or Folstein test is a brief 30-point questionnaire test that is used to screen for cognitive impairment. It is commonly used in medicine to screen for dementia...
", which they later turned over to Dr. Eric W. Trupin, an expert in the developmental psychology of juveniles in confinement. Trupin ruled that Khadr was suffering from "delusions and hallucinations, suicidal behaviour and intense paranoia", and that his abuse had left him "particularly susceptible to mental
coercion", and at moderate to high risk of committing suicide. Efforts to secure an independent medical examination have not met with any success.
On March 19, 2005 Canada began a series of regular "welfare visits" to monitor Khadr's behaviour, as he was being held in Camp V, the maximum security isolation camp – and there had been reports he had thrown urine
Urine
Urine is a typically sterile liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many rich in nitrogen, that require elimination from the bloodstream...
at guards and was refusing to eat. That year, his older sister Zaynab
Zaynab Khadr
The eldest child of the Khadr family, Zaynab Khadr was born in Canada to Maha el-Samnah and Ahmed Khadr.Following the 1992 injury that left Ahmed disabled, Zaynab became a "second mother" to the younger children....
moved back to Canada from Pakistan to demand better treatment for Omar and his brother Abdullah
Abdullah Khadr
Abdullah Ahmed Khadr is the oldest son of Ahmed Khadr and brother of Omar Khadr who has been charged with war crimes before the Guantanamo military commission....
. At some point before May 2005, Khadr requested his attorney Rick Wilson
Rick Wilson (attorney)
Rick Wilson is an American defense attorney, and a professor attached to the American University's Washington College of Law.He is notable for defending Canadian Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay from July 2004 until 2007 when Khadr requested his American representatives be removed from his defense team...
bring him back Canadian magazines with "new model cars" for reading material, and later spoke enthusiastically to Canadian officials about his like of Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
and Bentley
Bentley
Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer of automobiles founded on 18 January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley known as W.O. Bentley or just "W O". Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later...
models.
Khadr participated in a hunger strike, lasting 15 days before he was force fed
Force Fed
Force Fed is an album by the band Prong. Prong themselves have said on many occasions that Force Fed is their debut album; they once denied that they had one album before this one, meaning that Primitive Origins is an EP....
by prison guards. He reported collapsing as he left the hospital, and that prison guards assaulted him violently. On July 20, 2005, Guantánamo detainee Omar Deghayes
Omar Deghayes
Omar Deghayes is a Libyan citizen with residency status in the United Kingdom, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He currently lives in the United Kingdom....
wrote "Omar Khadr 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", and his extract was subsequently published in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
.
In April 2005, Khadr was again given another written psychiatric test by lawyers Ahmad and Wilson, which was turned over to Dr. Daryl Matthews, a forensic psychologist who had previously been invited to Guantanamo two years earlier by The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
. Matthews concluded that Khadr met the "full criteria for a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder".
Khadr also participated in the July 2005 200-detainee hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
, and went fifteen days without eating. He was twice taken to the on-site hospital and force-fed – on July 9 he was kicked and assaulted repeatedly by Military Police
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
after collapsing from weakness.
In May 2005, Khadr announced that he would no longer cooperate with any of the American attorneys on his case, including Colby Vokey
Colby Vokey
Colby Vokey is an American lawyer and former officer in the United States Marine Corps. He currently practices criminal defense law with the Dallas-based firm Fitzpatrick Hagood Smith & Uhl. He represents clients in all types of criminal matters, with particular emphasis on cases involving...
, Rick Wilson
Rick Wilson (attorney)
Rick Wilson is an American defense attorney, and a professor attached to the American University's Washington College of Law.He is notable for defending Canadian Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay from July 2004 until 2007 when Khadr requested his American representatives be removed from his defense team...
and Kristine A. Huskey
Kristine A. Huskey
Kristine Huskey is an American lawyer.Huskey is notable because she volunteered to help defend Guantanamo detainees.Huskey is the author of "Standards and Procedures for Classifying “Enemy Combatants”: Congress, What Have You Done?"...
. His Canadian lawyers convinced him that he had to retain Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler
William C. Kuebler
William "Bill" C. Kuebler is an American lawyer and a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, assigned to the Office of Military Commissions.Prior to the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Hamdan v...
due to the tribunal regulations. Three months later, Canada upheld the injunction banning any further interrogations by CSIS.
In September 2005, he was transferred out of the Camp V facility into Camp IV.
On March 6, 2006, he met Clive Stafford Smith
Clive Stafford Smith
Clive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America....
in the visitation area of Camp V
Camp Delta
Camp Delta is a permanent detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay that replaced the temporary facilities of Camp X-Ray. Its first facilities were built between February 27 and mid-April 2002 by Navy Seabees, Marine Engineers, and workers from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root...
, and stated that he had been knocked unconscious by an American grenade blast and didn't recall ever throwing any grenades while the battle raged around him.
Khadr was permitted to speak with his mother by phone for the first time in March 2007, nearly five years after his capture. He was allowed one other phone call to his family, but has had no contact since June 2007 when he was put into the harshest section of Guantanamo, Camp VI, for "disciplinary reasons" which Canada argued was unfair as Khadr's behaviour largely depended on which camp he was held within, and the United States transferred him back to Camp IV.
On April 9, 2008, a box of Khadr's documents was seized, ostensibly because items like a Lord of the Rings screenplay were prohibited, and the legal documents taken were returned a few days later. He was also ordered to cease playing dominoes
Dominoes
Dominoes generally refers to the collective gaming pieces making up a domino set or to the subcategory of tile games played with domino pieces. In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes, the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two congruent squares edge to edge...
or chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
with his attorneys.
Kuebler was able to arrange for a psychological evaluation from Kate Porterfield, who was able to visit Khadr three times in November 2008. Porterfield reported that she was finding it hard to establish trust with Khadr, which was cited as "to be expected in cases like Khadr's where young people had been abused".
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruled in June 2004 Hamdi v. Rumsfeld
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 was a U.S. Supreme Court decision reversing the dismissal of a habeas corpus petition brought on behalf of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen being detained indefinitely as an "illegal enemy combatant." The Court recognized the power of the government to detain enemy...
that detainees are entitled to limited rights of due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
. Consequently, the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
instituted "Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...
s".
The Tribunals were not themselves authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants – simply to determine whether or not the captives have already been correctly proven to match the administration's definition of an "enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...
". Participation by the captives was voluntary, and Khadr chose not to be involved in his tribunal.
On August 31, 2004, a Summary of Evidence memo
Summary of Evidence (CSRT)
Counter-terrorism analysts prepared a Summary of Evidence memo for the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of the 558 captives who remained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba in the fall of 2004.-The 2005 release:...
was prepared for Khadr's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...
. The summary alleged that he had admitted he threw a grenade
Hand grenade
A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. Hand grenades are classified into three categories, explosive grenades, chemical and gas grenades. Explosive grenades are the most commonly used in modern warfare, and are designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time...
which killed a U.S. soldier, attended an al Qaida training camp
Afghan training camp
An Afghan training camp is a camp or facility used for militant training located in pre-2002 Afghanistan. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Indian intelligence officials estimated that there were over 120 training camps operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, run by a variety of...
in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
and worked as a translator for al Qaida to coordinate land mine
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
missions. In addition, he was accused of helping to plant the landmines between Khost and Ghardez, and having visited an airport near Khost to collect information on U.S. convoy movements.
His actual tribunal was convened on September 7, as Panel #5 reviewed his status in the detainment camp. The tribunal concluded that Khadr was an "enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...
" and a one-page summary of conclusions was released on September 17.
O.K. v. George W. Bush
Following the successful Supreme CourtSupreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
ruling in Rasul v. Bush
Rasul v. Bush
Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 , is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision establishing that the U.S. court system has the authority to decide whether foreign nationals held in Guantanamo Bay were wrongfully imprisoned...
which allowed detainees to make habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
arguments over the legality of their detention, Khadr's grandmother Fatmah el-Samnah, acting as next friend
Next friend
In common law, next friend is a phrase used to refer to a person who represents another person who is under disability or otherwise unable to maintain a suit on their own behalf and who does not have a legal guardian....
, filed a civil suit against the United States on Khadr's behalf on July 2, 2004 challenging his detention.
The suit was named O.K. v. George W. Bush since Khadr was still a minor at the time of its filing. It was at this time that Rick Wilson
Rick Wilson (attorney)
Rick Wilson is an American defense attorney, and a professor attached to the American University's Washington College of Law.He is notable for defending Canadian Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay from July 2004 until 2007 when Khadr requested his American representatives be removed from his defense team...
was added to Khadr's defence team.
On September 21, more than sixty Habeas motions subsequently filed by Guantanamo detainees were transferred to a single suit before senior Judge Joyce Hens Green
Joyce Hens Green
Judge Joyce Hens Green is a Senior United States District Court Judge for the District of Columbia.-Childhood:Green was born in 1928 in New York City. Her father was a psychiatrist and her mother was a homemaker. She had one brother...
for coordination. The remaining issue in the suit, having Khadr's medical records released to his attorneys and gaining an independent medical review of his health while in custody, remained with Judge John D. Bates
John D. Bates
John Deacon Bates , is a United States federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was appointed by President George W. Bush in December 2001, and has adjudicated in several cases directly affecting the office of the President.-Personal:Bates was born in Elizabeth,...
.
On October 26, Bates rejected the motion, stating that "no charges have been brought against petitioner, and accordingly there is no reason to undertake any inquiry into petitioner's mental competence".
On August 4, 2008 Department of Justice officials responded to a motion that Khadr should not stand trial because he was a child soldier.
First tribunal
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...
s. Believing that Khadr's case represented one of the "easiest" cases to prove, the United States selected him as one of ten detainees to be charged under this new system.
Fred Borch
Colonel Frederic L. Borch is a former military attorney who served as Chief Prosecutor of the Guantanamo military commissions before he was replaced by Robert L. Swann after it was alleged that Borch was trying to corrupt the commissions.-Background:...
quickly garnered criticism for allegedly corrupting the trials, and was replaced by Robert L. Swann
Robert L. Swann (military lawyer)
Robert L. Swann is an American lawyer and retired Army colonel. He is currently the lead prosecutor on the cases of Khalid Sheik Muhammed and Mr...
, who was himself replaced by Col. Morris Davis
Morris Davis
Colonel Morris D. Davis is a United States Air Force officer and lawyer, was appointed to serve as the third Chief Prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions....
in September 2005.
On November 7, 2005, Khadr was formally charged with Murder by an Unprivileged Belligerent, Attempted Murder by an Unprivileged Belligerent, Aiding the Enemy and Conspiracy with Usama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, Ayman al Zawahiri, Sayeed al Masri
Sayeed al Masri
Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu al-Yazid , better known as Saeed al-Masri or simply al-Masri , was an Egyptian who was alleged to have acted as the financial chief for al-Qaeda...
, Muhammad Atef, Saif al-Adel
Saif al-Adel
Saif al-Adel is an Egyptian explosives expert and a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda.Adel is under indictment for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa...
, Ahmed Khadr "and various other members of the al Qaida organization". The United States informally indicated they would not seek the death penalty for Khadr.
On December 1, 2005 the officers were appointed to Khadr's specific commission.
Capt. John Merriam was made Khadr's official defence attorney, but agreed with counsel Muneer Ahmad
Muneer Ahmad
Muneer Ahmad a professor of law at the Yale Law School. He is a specialist in international human rights and immigration law.He is known for his work as co-counsel for Omar Khadr, a Canadian that is detained at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp....
that he lacked trial experience as a defence attorney, and both men requested that he be replaced. Lt. Col. Colby Vokey
Colby Vokey
Colby Vokey is an American lawyer and former officer in the United States Marine Corps. He currently practices criminal defense law with the Dallas-based firm Fitzpatrick Hagood Smith & Uhl. He represents clients in all types of criminal matters, with particular emphasis on cases involving...
was named as Merriam's replacement.
Prosecutor Morris Davis became known for his "often-flamboyant quotes" about Khadr, referring to media coverage of the tribunal as "nauseating", and noting that Khadr didn't spend his time in Afghan camps "making s'more
S'more
A s'more is a traditional nighttime campfire treat popular in the United States and Canada consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker.-Etymology and origins:...
s and learning how to tie knots".
On January 11, 2006 Khadr appeared at his pre-trial hearing wearing a Roots Canada
Roots Canada Ltd.
Roots Canada Ltd. is a Canadian clothing and lifestyle products retailer. The retail stores sell Roots' own brand of products in Canada, the United States and Asia...
t-shirt, leading judge Robert Chester
Robert Chester
Robert Chester is a military officer and lawyer. Chester is a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps.Chester has recently been appointed to serve as President of the Guantanamo military commission faced by Omar Khadr....
to order him to wear more suitable attire in the future. The following day, he wore a blue-checkered shirt. Chester also insisted that both the prosecution and defence stop referring to Khadr as "Omar" and instead use "Mr. Khadr" to denote the serious nature of the charges facing him.
Defense attorney Vokey retired after he was disciplined for calling the tribunals a "sham" that left him feeling "disgusted".
Khadr and the other nine detainees who faced charges were transferred to solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
on March 30. Six days later, Khadr read a note to the court saying "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
Boycott of Guantanamo Military Commissions
In 2006, after charges were laid against a number of detainees held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, a boycott against the judicial hearings was declared by Ali al-Bahlul...
until I be treated humanely and fair."
The commissions were struck down as unconstitutional on June 29, by the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military...
which stated that "The military commission at issue lacks the power to proceed because its structure and procedures violate both the UCMJ
Uniform Code of Military Justice
The Uniform Code of Military Justice , is the foundation of military law in the United States. It is was established by the United States Congress in accordance with the authority given by the United States Constitution in Article I, Section 8, which provides that "The Congress shall have Power . ....
and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949."
Davis resigned as Guantanamo prosecutor on October 6, 2007, hours after William Haynes
William J. Haynes, II
William James "Jim" Haynes II is an American lawyer and former General Counsel of the Department of Defense during President George W. Bush's administration. Haynes resigned as General Counsel effective March 2008...
was made his superior officer, stating that he was not going to take orders from "the guy who said waterboarding is A-okay". He was ordered to silence his criticisms by his superiors.
Second tribunal
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
was signed in October 2006, new charges were sworn against Khadr on February 2, 2007. He was charged with Murder in Violation of the Law of War, Attempted Murder in Violation of the Law of War, Conspiracy, Providing Material Support for Terrorism
Providing material support for terrorism
Providing material support for terrorism is a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act which prohibits material support to groups designated as terrorists. The four types of support described are “training,” “expert advice or assistance,” “service,” and “personnel.” In June 2010 the United States Supreme...
and Spying. Canadian attorney Dennis Edney was barred from appearing at the October arraignment
Arraignment
Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal complaint in the presence of the defendant to inform the defendant of the charges against him or her. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea...
, after he criticized Kuebler's efforts, stating that the military lawyer had focused his energy on lobbying Canadian authorities to have Khadr repatriated, at the cost of preparing for the actual trial.
Khadr petitioned the US Supreme Court to review the legality of the military commission and his detention, but this request was denied in April.
On June 1, Edney said that he would not seek any plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
for Khadr that would likely see him serve 30 years in prison. Peter Brownback
Peter Brownback
Peter E. Brownback III is a retired military officer and lawyer.He was appointed to be a Presiding Officer on the Guantanamo military commissions, by retired general John D. Altenburg....
dismissed the charges three days later, stating that Khadr had been previously classified as an "enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...
" by his Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...
in 2004, while the Military Commissions Act
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
only granted him jurisdiction to rule over "Unlawful enemy combatants".
On October 9, Groharing argued that the prosecution should not be required to identify their witnesses, stating that Khadr was "certainly capable of exacting revenge" against witnesses if he were allowed the right to face his accusers
Confrontation Clause
The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right…to be confronted with the witnesses against him." Generally, the right is to have a face-to-face confrontation with witnesses who are...
. Brownback ruled that while the defense attorneys had the right to know the identity of the witnesses, that information could not be given to Khadr himself.
In November, while prosecutors were "desperately" trying to introduce the 27-minute video found in the wreckage, the tape was leaked to the media by an unknown source and shown on 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
. Four months later, Kuebler stated that following conversations with the show's producers, he believed that the video was leaked by Vice President Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
's office.
The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
requested that Radhika Coomaraswamy
Radhika Coomaraswamy
Radhika Coomaraswamy is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her to the position in April 2006...
, special representative for children in armed conflict, be allowed to watch the tribunal, but was denied.
In January, the defence put forward three separate motions to dismiss the trial, arguing that it violated the Constitutional prohibition against bills of attainder
Bill of attainder
A bill of attainder is an act of a legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a judicial trial.-English law:...
, that the commission lacked jurisdiction because Khadr had been a minor when the incident occurred and that there was a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Sixteen days after the February 4 hearing on the motions, Brownback dismissed the first claim. He dismissed the second claim in April, but has reserved judgment on the third.
February also saw the accidental release of a five-page "OC-1" witness report to reporters, which revealed that Khadr had not been the only survivor in the compound, as previously claimed, and that nobody had seen him throw the grenade. Officials insisted that the reporters all had to return their copies of the document or face expulsion from the hearings, but after a 90-minute standoff between reporters and military officials, it was agreed that they could retain their copies of the report, but had to redact
Sanitization (classified information)
Sanitization is the process of removing sensitive information from a document or other medium, so that it may be distributed to a broader audience. When dealing with classified information, sanitization attempts to reduce the document's classification level, possibly yielding an unclassified...
three names from the report.
The following month, Kuebler suggested it was possible that the fatal grenade had actually been one of those being thrown into the compound by American troops while the small team searched the interior.
Kuebler accused the military of encouraging interrogators to "minimize certain legal issues" by keeping as few records as possible and destroying their notes, and suggested he would seek a dismissal.
On May 8, 2008, Brownback threatened to suspend the military hearing if prosecutors did not provide the defense with a number of documents, including an al-Qaeda membership list, documents on the relationship between al-Qaeda and al-Libi
Abu Laith al-Libi
Abu Laith al-Libi 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. He also served as an al Qaeda spokesman...
's Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Libyan Islamic Movement formerly known as The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group also known as Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya is a group active in Libya which played a key role in deposing Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime, allying itself with the National Transitional Council.However...
, copies of the Detainee Information Management System records related to Khadr's treatment in Guantanamo, documents on the use of children by al-Qaeda, investigator notes of witness interviews, details about the militants who were killed in the 2002 firefight, and others. Prosecutors did agree to turn over the videotape of Canadian intelligence official Jim Gould
Jim Gould
A Canadian Foreign Affairs intelligence officer, Jim Gould previously served as the deputy of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade....
and Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...
(CSIS) agents interrogating Khadr in February 2003, but said they would alter the tape
Sanitization (classified information)
Sanitization is the process of removing sensitive information from a document or other medium, so that it may be distributed to a broader audience. When dealing with classified information, sanitization attempts to reduce the document's classification level, possibly yielding an unclassified...
to hide the identity of the interrogators. Following Brownback's "ruling against the government", the Pentagon announced that he was being removed from the trial in favour of Patrick Parrish
Patrick Parrish
Patrick Parrish is an officer in the United States Army.-Case of William J. Kreutzer Jr:ColonelParrish presided over the case of Sergeant William J...
, leading critics to highlight what they believed was "more evidence of the illegitimacy" of the tribunal and that official explanations of the timing as being coincidental were "unconvincing". Parrish, known as "Rocket Docket" for his tendency to speed through trials, immediately ordered a court date of October 8, 2008.
On September 4, Parrish barred Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
Thomas W. Hartmann
Thomas W. Hartmann
Thomas W. Hartmann is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Air Force Reserve. He has 32 years of criminal, commercial and civil litigation experience. Between 1983 and 1991 he was a prosecutor and defense counsel in the Air Force, including duties as Chief Air Force Prosecutor in...
from participating in the Tribunal because of his "undue command influence", the third such trial Hartmann was alleged of trying to corrupt. On October 22, 2008 it was revealed that the Prosecution had given the Defense team an incomplete version of Khadr's medical records five months earlier, and Parrish granted a delay citing the "consequences" of the decision for the prosecution. In December, the Prosecution announced it was withdrawing its intended witness who was to testify that Khadr had confessed to the crimes in December 2004 during interrogation; ostensibly to "cover up" the abusive methods used to make the youth confess.
On March 8, 2010 Steven Edwards of the Canwest News Service
Canwest News Service
Postmedia News is a national news agency with correspondents in Canada, Europe, and the United States and is part of the Canadian newspaper chain owned by Postmedia Network Inc.-History:...
reported that US officials were quietly putting pressure on Canada to accept repatriation of Khadr.
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
Samantha Power
Samantha Power is an Irish American academic, governmental official and writer. She is currently a Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and runs the Office of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights as Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs on the Staff of the National Security Council...
, Michael Posner
Michael Posner (lawyer)
Michael H. Posner is an American lawyer, the Founding Executive Director and later the President of Human Rights First , and the current Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the United States.- Early years :Posner received a B.A...
and Harold Koh as three political appointees with a background in human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
. He pointed out that Posner was the founding director of Human Rights First
Human Rights First
Human Rights First is a nonprofit, nonpartisan human rights organization based in New York City and Washington, D.C....
, 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.
On July 7, 2010, less than one week before the beginning of preliminary hearings in his trial before a military commission, Khadr fired his entire team of lawyers and announced that he would act as his own legal defense. Later in the month, Khadr accepted Lieutenant Colonel Jon S. Jackson as his lead defense counsel. Lieutenant Colonel Jackson is reported to have worked behind the scenes for several months to work on a plea agreement that would return Khadr to Canada within one year.
Canadian documentation
Federal Court of Appeal (Canada)
The Federal Court of Appeal is a Canadian appellate court that hears cases concerning federal matters arising from certain federal Acts. The court was created on July 2, 2003 by the Courts Administration Service Act when it and the Federal Court were split from its predecessor, the Federal Court of...
ordered the Canadian government to turn over its records related to Khadr's time in captivity, as judge Richard Mosley
Richard Mosley
A Canadian Federal Court trial judge, Richard Mosley has a background in National security interests, and has taken a role in hearing a number of Canadian anti-terrorism cases, including those relating to Abdullah and Omar Khadr, as well as Hassan Almrei. He has also taken a role in hearing the...
stated it was now apparent that Canada had violated international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
. The government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
in 2008, arguing that Khadr was just "fishing" for information and that disclosing their records, which include an initial account of the firefight which differs from all previously seen reports, could jeopardise national security.
Critics alleged that the refusal to release the classified documents was due only to the "embarrassment" they caused the government, and on May 23, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
ruled unanimously that the government had acted illegally, contravening §. 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section Seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section Seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a constitutional provision that protects an individual's autonomy and personal legal rights from actions of the government in Canada. There are three types of protection within the section, namely the right to life, liberty, and...
, and ordered the videotapes of the interrogation released.
In April 2009, the Federal Court of Canada ruled once again that Khadr's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been violated. It concluded that Canada had a "duty to protect" Khadr and ordered the Canadian government to request that the U.S. return him to Canada as soon as possible. In August 2009, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the decision in a 2–1 ruling. Finally, in January 2010, in a unanimous 9–0 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the participation of Canadian officials in Khadr's interrogations at Guantanamo clearly violated his rights under the Charter. In its sharply worded decision, the Supreme Court referred to the denial of Khadr's legal rights as well as to the use of sleep deprivation techniques to soften him up for interrogation:
The deprivation of [Khadr's] right to liberty and security of the person is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. The interrogation of a youth detained without access to counsel, to elicit statements about serious criminal charges while knowing that the youth had been subjected to sleep deprivation and while knowing that the fruits of the interrogations would be shared with the prosecutors, offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects.
However, the Supreme Court stopped short of ordering the government to seek Khadr's return to Canada. Instead, it left it to the government to determine how it would exercise its duty to conduct foreign affairs while also upholding its obligation to respect Khadr's constitutional rights.
Civil lawsuit
Sgt. Layne Morris and Sgt. Speer's widow Tabitha, both represented by Donald Winder, filed a civil suit against the estate of Ahmed Khadr – claiming that the father's failure to control his son resulted in the loss of Speers' life and Morris' right eye. Since American law doesn't allow civil lawsuits against "acts of war", Speer and Morris relied on the argument that throwing the grenade was an act of terrorism, rather than war. In February 2006, Utah District Court Judge Paul Cassell awarded the plaintiffs $102.6 million in damages, approximately $94 million to Speer and $8 million to Morris, in what he said likely marks the first time terrorist acts have resulted in civil liabilities. It has been suggested that the plaintiffs might collect funds via the U.S. Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, but since the Federal government is not bound by civil rulings, it has refused to release Khadr's frozen assets. Morris is expected to testify at Khadr's trial in Guantanamo.United Nations reaction to Khadr trial
Anthony LakeAnthony Lake
William Anthony Kirsopp Lake, best known as Tony Lake, is the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund , author, academic, and former American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer, and political advisor. He has been a foreign policy advisor to many Democratic U.S...
, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and former U.S. national security adviser, voiced opposition to the plan to prosecute Khadr by a tribunal. He said: Anyone prosecuted for offences they allegedly committed as a child should be treated in accordance with international juvenile justice standards providing special protections. Omar Khadr should not be prosecuted by a tribunal that is neither equipped nor required to provide these protections and meet these standards.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict, wrote in a 2010 letter to the U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay that Khadr represents the "classic child soldier narrative: recruited by unscrupulous groups to undertake actions at the bidding of adults to fight battles they barely understand." Coomaraswamy called for Khadr to be released into a rehabilitation program.
Canadian response to Omar Khadr
A series of visits by Foreign Affairs officials led Karim Amégan and Suneeta Millington to report that Khadr was "salvageable" if allowed to return to Canadian society, but that keeping him in the prison would risk radicalizing him. As of January 2009, 64% of Canadians supported repatriating Khadr to Canada, up from 41% in June 2007.The Wikileaks Cablegate disclosures revealed that the Canadian government's Washington-backed decision not to seek the repatriation of Khadr, made it "politically impossible" for the country to take in the Uighur former detainees the US was unable to return to China. The Wikileaks cables show strong US interest in Canadian reaction to Khadr's case, and the director of Canada's intelligence agency is reported expressing his belief that the release of DVD footage of Khadr's interrogation, in which he is shown crying, would lead to "knee-jerk anti-Americanism" and "paroxysms of moral outrage, a Canadian specialty".
Guilty plea
On October 25, 2010, Khadr pleaded guilty to murder in violation of the laws of war, attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy, two counts of providing material support for terrorism and spying. Under the plea deal, Khadr would serve one more year in Guantanamo Bay, and be returned to Canada, but Canadian authorities denied Khadr would be repatriated as part of any agreement. This plea deal was negotiated between Lieutenant Colonel Jon S. Jackson, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of the White House. It is reported the prosecutors objected to the deal but ultimately the Convening Authority agreed with Lieutenant Colonel Jackson's proposal and accepted the deal.The Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs said in Parliament during Oral Question period that Canada was not involved in the agreement between Khadr and the US government, but when asked about an exchange of diplomatic notes indicating that Canada is inclined to favourably consider a request from Khadr for a transfer to Canada after one year, he said Canada would implement the agreement. Reportedly, Khadr will spend the next year in near solitary confinement in the section of Guantanamo reserved for the two prisoners who have been convicted in the Military Commission system, a Taliban cook and an Al Qaeda propagandist.
According to Michelle Shephard, writing in the Toronto Star two different cabinet ministers had made contradictory statements as to whether Canada would accept custody of Khadr on October 31, 2011, when his plea bargain made him eligible for transfer.
An official in the office of Vic Toews
Vic Toews
Victor "Vic" Toews, PC QC MP is a Canadian politician. He has represented Provencher in the Canadian House of Commons since 2000, and currently serves in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Minister of Public Safety. He previously served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from...
, Public Safety Minister, said Khadr's plea deal was irrelevant to whether the Minister would decide to have Canada accept custody of Khadr for the remainder of his term, because the Minister was not a signatory to the agreement.
However, when answering a question in the House of Commons,
Diane Ablonczy
Diane Ablonczy
Diane Ablonczy, PC, MP is a Canadian Member of Parliament, representing the riding of Calgary--Nose Hill in the Canadian House of Commons as a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. She is the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and was appointed on January 4, 2011. She was previously...
, Canada's Minister of State of Foreign Affairs said:
CBC News reported on October 7, 2011 that:
and having served one year of his sentence Khadr's lawyers had "filed the paperwork required to start the repatriation process", which was likely to take up to 18 months at which point he could be transferred to a Canadian prison.
External links
- Interview with Muneer Ahmad (counsel) and Bernard Amyot (CBA President), Law is Cool Podcast #6, October 22, 2007
- Selected filings U.S. v Khadr (.pdf) 280 pages US Department of Defense
- Bellinger, John B. Department of State Q-A Media Session about Khadr's Trial, 2007 mirror
- Dave Lindorff: Keeping America Safe: Prosecuting Children as Terrorists mirror
- The Omar Khadr Case Resources Page, links to official and legal documents surrounding the case
- Omar Khadr Project, advocacy and resource site maintained by law students mirror mirror mirror
- U.S. interrogators scared teen captive with rape tale ReutersReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
May 6, 2010 - "You don't like the truth – 4 days inside Guantánamo", a documentary about Omar Khadr's interrogation in Guantánamo in 2003
- Human Rights First blog: Military Commissions
- Human Rights First; The Case of Omar Ahmed Khadr, Canada
- Stipulation of Fact, Omar Khadr, 13 October 2010
- Canadian Constitutional scholar Kent Roach discusses using the Royal Prerogative to repatriate Omar Khadr McGill University lecture, Winter 2011