Free Republic

Ever since Stephen Harper’s Conservatives won their long-awaited majority in the last Canadian federal election, they have faced criticism from their own, mostly due to bills perceived as indicating a penchant for ‘big brother’ government, as well as from some old Reformers who point out the lack of willingness to capitalize on their majority to introduce Manning-era policies. So when a member of the government dares to raise an issue that could be seen as apart from the norm, that member deserves the spotlight. When the issue is something as controversial as Canada’s continued membership in the circus known as...

NEW YORK — The U.S. military tribunal that oversaw Omar Khadr’s war crimes case has refused his bid for clemency, issuing a statement Thursday that simply confirms the eight-year sentence he received in a plea deal. Under it, Khadr pleaded guilty last October to five war crimes, among them the murder of a U.S. serviceman during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan, when the Toronto native was 15. He received a sentence of eight years, with one more to be served in Guantanamo, and seven in a Canadian prison. The Toronto native had, through his military lawyer, sought to have the...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — A military jury on Sunday gave teen terrorist Omar Khadr a 40-year prison sentence for killing an American commando in Afghanistan, but the sentence was merely symbolic — the United States already had agreed to limit Khadr's prison time to eight years, and Canada last week said it would allow Khadr to serve the bulk of his sentence there. That agreement will allow Khadr to be released from prison by age 32, if not earlier under Canadian parole provisions. The Toronto-born Khadr also admitted that, in the days ahead of his capture, he planted...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- A former teenage al-Qaida fighter was sentenced Sunday to eight more years in custody under the terms of a plea agreement unsealed after a military sentencing jury said he should serve 40 years for war crimes. Omar Khadr looked straight ahead as a military judge imposed the eight-year sentence, ending a legal odyssey that began when the Canadian son of a major al-Qaida figure was captured - at age 15 - with severe wounds in Afghanistan in 2002 after a four-hour firefight.

GUANTANAMO BAY-- A Danish psychologist who believes Muslims are raised to be aggressive and that inbreeding has damaged their genes informed a damning expert opinion of the risk Omar Khadr poses to public safety, court heard Wednesday. Under cross-examination by defence lawyers, Dr. Michael Welner said he talked to Nicolai Sennels before coming to the conclusion that the Canadian-born Khadr was “highly dangerous” — an opinion he gave Tuesday on the first day of Khadr’s sentencing hearing. “Massive inbreeding within the Muslim culture during the last 1,400 years may have done catastrophic damage to their gene pool.” Sennels, 34, attributed...

Monday’s Guantanamo plea deal that averted the trial of Canadian “boy soldier” Omar Khadr came after an extraordinary last minute intervention by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aimed at resolving a case that was becoming an embarrassment for the Obama administration.

NOTE The following text is a quote: IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 972-10 October 25, 2010 Detainee Pleads Guilty at Military Commission Hearing The Department of Defense announced that Omar Khadr pleaded guilty today in a military commission. In accordance with a pre-trial agreement, Khadr admitted, in open court, to committing murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, providing material support to terrorism, conspiracy, and spying. His sentence will be determined at a hearing that begins Oct. 26. Khadr admitted to throwing a grenade on July 27, 2002, that killed Sgt. 1st...

Here's an op-ed that I wrote about Omar Khadr for the Sun newspapers. Instead of the junior high yearbook photo that most media use (it was provided to them by Khadr's mother -- seriously), here are a few photos I prefer for their accuracy and relevance: Needless to say, I've never seen these photos in the Canadian mainstream media. The first photo is Khadr sitting next to an AK-47 submachine gun (that is a fan in his hand). The other photo is Khadr assembling improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Both are screen grabs from the Sixty Minutes segment on Khadr, which...

I see that Maher Arar, the huckster who lied his way into $10.5 million of our tax dollars, has had less luck with the U.S. legal system than he had with ours. A U.S. appeals court threw out his nuisance claim against the U.S. government. Now, that's not quite fair of me, is it? I mean, it's not fair to Canada's legal system because, had Arar actually gone to trial here, his case would have been thrown out, too. Arar's testimony would have been torn to shreds; he would have wilted under cross-examination. He would have been proved the liar...

OTTAWA — Despite losing a second court battle, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appears unwilling to comply with a federal court order demanding his government seek the return of Omar Khadr to Canada. In a 2-1 ruling, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected Harper’s appeal to an earlier decision that demanded his government ask the U.S. to release Khadr from Guantanamo Bay. Describing the ruling as a “split decision” Harper hinted that he would be willing to take up the legal battle to avoid bringing Khadr home further. “The Department of Justice will be examining that decision and obviously I won’t...

Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service U.S. NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Accused terrorist Omar Khadr identified Maher Arar as someone he recognized who appeared at an al-Qaida-run "safe" house in Afghanistan, an FBI agent testified at a Guantanamo Bay military commission Monday. Robert Fuller said Khadr made the identification when he interrogated the Canadian-born terror suspect at Bagram in Afghanistan in October 2002.

A retired U.S. soldier who was ambushed by armed fighters holed up in the mud compound where Omar Khadr was captured said on Tuesday the Canadian deserves to be at Guantanamo Bay. Sergeant Layne Morris said he had not seen the dramatic interrogation video released by Mr. Khadr's lawyers, in which the young detainee cries for help, but he brushed off the footage as a public relations exercise. Sgt. Morris said the defence lawyers' strategy seemed to be to win sympathy for their client, and that he found it "troublesome" the public had to be constantly reminded of what Mr....

The son of Egyptian and Palestinian parents who raised their son on a steady diet of anti-Western mantra, the Holy blessings of the act of martyrdom, and other radical Islamic virtues, Khadr was captured by U.S. troops far from his Toronto home.....

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Excerpt - A teenage Omar Khadr sobs uncontrollably as Canadian spy agents question him at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a brief video excerpt released via the internet early Tuesday morning. The 10-minute video posted just after 5 a.m. ET is of poor quality and the voices are often inaudible, as it was never intended to be viewed by the public. But it shows Khadr, 16 at the time, being interviewed by Canadian officials in late February 2003. ~ snip ~

Omar Khadr's lawyers say they can't understand why Canada is not doing more to help their client in light of new evidence that Ottawa has put the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on a watch list for torture. Khadr -- a Canadian citizen who was just 15-years-old when he was captured in Afghanistan more than five years ago and taken to Guantanamo -- has claimed that he has been tortured at the prison. Now, CTV News has obtained documents that put Guantanamo Bay on a torture watch list. Khadr's U.S. military lawyer says the new documents contradict Harper's assurances...

Omar Khadr seems an unlikely poster boy for the war on terror. Khadr is a Canadian citizen, he likes Harry Potter, and he was only 15 years old when he was captured by the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. And that's what makes his case so controversial: his age. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, Omar Khadr is the only person in modern history to be charged for war crimes he allegedly committed while a minor. 60 Minutes got a rare glimpse into a Guantanamo case -- one of the first that will be prosecuted. Consider this: is Omar Khadr a hardened...

60 Minutes piece by Bob Simon. Fifteen year old Canadian "refugee" captured in Afghanistan waging jihad. His father has been killed, a brother paralyzed, fighting against Americans.

Guantanamo judge drops charges against Khadr CBC News Last Updated: Monday, June 4, 2007 | 1:19 PM ET An American military judge abruptly dropped all charges on Monday against Omar Khadr, although it's unlikely to mean freedom for the only Canadian at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The 20-year-old from the Toronto area, who had been facing charges of murder and terrorism, appeared before a military commission in Guantanamo, where he was expected to be arraigned. In this courtroom sketch, reviewed and cleared for release by U.S. military officials, Omar Khadr, far left, sits flanked by two...

U.S. Supreme Court won't hear Khadr's case CBC News Last Updated: Monday, April 30, 2007 | 10:57 AM ET The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian imprisoned at the U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The top American court also refused to hear the case of another prisoner, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the court announced Monday. Both prisoners were challenging the legality of the military commissions that are hearing their cases. Khadr, 20, is accused of killing a U.S. medic in Afghanistan in 2002. He also faces charges of attempted murder,...