OP/ED: Murderer Omar Khadr sentenced to 40 years by military tribunal

(courtesy of CBC)

It's official: Omar Khadr is a convicted and sentenced murderer. He was sentenced to 40 years, yet I have absolutely no doubt, that Khadr will be either on the streets of Canada - or Afghanistan - within a year or shortly thereafter.

For those not paying attention, Omar Khadr's sentence by a military jury in Guantanamo Bay, was for his role in events that took place in a compound in Afghanistan in 2002, which left a US medic mortally wounded. The 40 years is, however, now a moot point. A plea deal was made between the prosecutors and the US government, in exchange for Khadr's pleading guilty to five charges. Khadr's Canadian civilian lawyer Dennis Edney says that Khadr will serve no more than eight years in prison as part of the plea deal and then be subject to parole board conditions upon his release. Military judge Col. Patrick Parrish accepted Khadr's pleas and told him he will be eligible to apply for transfer to a Canadian prison after serving one year of his sentence in the United States or a U.S. detention facility.

So just who is this Omar Khadr? That depends on who you talk to. To the UN, Amnesty International, (and Uncle Tom Cobley and all) etc etc, plus the opposition political parties within Canada, Omar Khadr - who was 15 years old when he was wounded and captured by US forces after a fierce battle which took the life of US medic Sgt 1st Class Christopher Speer ( see my recent column on Speer here) - was a misguided child who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again according to his lawyer Edney, Khadr only agreed to plead guilty to the five charges against him because they felt he wouldn't get a fair trial within the military system. Edney says this guilty plea ' is just a piece of paper.'

It is a fact that mere weeks before he finally did plead guilty to charges which included murder and supporting terrorism in Afghanistan, Khadr was still protesting his innocence, and the media was perpetuating a public narrative of this poor gullible child led astray by a family with long ties to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. To see the statement of facts that Khadr agreed on, go here.

I have watched this case closely over the last few years, and there has been a masterful manipulation of public opinion, aided and abetted by the mainstream media, who prefaced every story about Khadr with 'child soldier,' 'who is alleged...' Just this last week, I heard respected Canadian military General Romeo Dallaire(now a Senator,) talking very eloquently about the Geneva Convention that Canada and the US are signatories to, on the definition of child soldier, and saying not only is Khadr a great candidate for rehabilitation, but is also 'one of our own,' meaning Canadian.

Despite the best efforts of all those who have been determined to cast Khadr in the light of innocence, I have always seen him for what he is: a cold-blooded killer who reveled in the planning and killing of American (and other) forces. To my mind, it is but a fluke that Khadr had not thus far managed to kill any of our 'own' Canadian troops.

Let me be clear: I have worked with many children all my adult life, including young adolescent males who have tangled with the justice system. I am a big fan of redemption, and second chances. But, I can also smell a con a mile away. And to me, these past years have shown us a masterful con on Khadr's part. The current US government is complicit, too. I find it all too coincidental that a deal was struck with this government, at this time, to clear the Khadr case if you will. It is just all too convenient that after languishing for years in GITMO, this matter is settled within days of a US election. Conspiracy? We cannot know for sure, but timing IS all.

The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been challenged by the media many times over the last few years as to whether Canada had any hand in first, the ongoing 'torture and mistreatment' of Khadr in GITMO and, in more recent weeks, what role the Canadian government has played in this deal making. Harper has consistently denied any active role, repeating that he believes the Khadr case should be allowed to play out within the US judiciary. Although he has repeatedly come under extreme pressure over the years in our Houses of Parliament to demand/insist Khadr be returned to Canada, Harper has maintained the position that it is an American issue. Much has been made over the years that Khadr has been the youngest, and only, westerner still in GITMO, as every other country has asked for the return of their citizens held in GITMO. I am not a huge fan of Harper's, but on this issue, I have applauded his staunch unwavering stand that Khadr face a US military trial.

So what of these false, carefully crafted narratives that Khadr is either a child soldier, and should be treated with kid gloves, or was just an unwitting victim of an overbearing father, who stood no chance to make autonomous - adult - decisions? I have heard various 'experts' these past weeks, especially buying into that Khadr qualifies as a 'child soldier, according to international law. In 1949, the Geneva Conventions said this:

Article 77.2 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, adopted in 1977:

‘The Parties to the conflict shall take all feasible measures in order that children who have not attained the age of fifteen years do not take a direct part in hostilities and, in particular, they shall refrain from recruiting them into their armed forces. In recruiting among those persons who have attained the age of fifteen years but who have not attained the age of eighteen years, the Parties to the conflict shall endeavour to give priority to those who are oldest.’

According to that, once a person has reached the age of 15, he/she cannot be considered to be a ‘child soldier. ' In fact, within Khadr's own family, he was considered an adult by the age of 15....


You know I have much more to say on Omar Khadr, here.

Remember and Honour Sgt 1st Class Christopher Speer

*cross-posted from Assoluta Tranquillita*

Sgt First Class Christopher Speer is an American hero who was killed in August 2002. As I write here, the terrorist who is responsible for Speer's death sits in GITMO, having finally admitted in a military courtroom that he is the murderer most of us have always known he is. Today, he is not my focus. The husband, father, brother, son and hero is who I want to share with you.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Who Is SFC Christopher J. Speer?

"Six days before he received the wounds that killed him, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher J. Speer walked into a minefield to rescue two wounded Afghan children, according to fellow soldiers. He applied a tourniquet to one child and bandaged the other, they said. Then he stopped a passing military truck to take the wounded children to a U.S. Army field hospital. Speer saved those children, his colleagues said.
...
Speer, a Special Forces medic, suffered a head wound during a search of the Ab Khail village in Afghanistan on July 27. He was evacuated to Germany, where he died Aug. 6. He was 28.

(Source)

Soldier remembered for Courage, Humor, Faith

A former medic with the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne)

Soldiers from Headquarters U.S. Army Special Operations
Command carry the body of Sgt. 1st Class Christopher
J. Speer from the Village Chapel in Pinehurst, NC
on Tuesday

On Tuesday, Speer was remembered as a capable and confident soldier with an unflappable sense of humor. When the chips were down, friends said, he could pick up his co-workers with a smile and a laugh.

They remembered him as a loving husband and father who had a sparkle in his eyes whenever he talked about his family.

Survived by Wife, Tabitha, two small children, Taryn and Tanner and brother Todd

Chaplain Keith Jackson escorts

Christopher Speer’s wife, Tabitha, from the church.

Todd, his older brother and fellow soldier, said Christopher Speer was a "hero, not only for his professional conduct, but his family life. There's not more you can ask.
"I look up to him."

Before deploying to Afghanistan, Speer wrote notes to his wife, Tabitha, and their two small children, Taryn and Tanner, Jackson said.

"You are always on my mind and forever in my heart."
He wrote a note to his children on a card that had two whispering puppies on the cover, Jackson said. One puppy said to the other, "Do you want to know a secret?"
The card said, "I love you."

Speer then wrote, "It's no secret how much I love you. Take care of each other.

"Love Daddy"

(source)

Christopher's widow has remained very low profile since her beloved husband was killed, but on the Fallen Heroes Memorial site, I found this:

"I was given the honor of not only knowing Chris, I spent the happiest years of my life with him. We married and had two beautiful children. Chris made all my dreams come true, it was as though he completed me. It has been two years and seven months since his death and I still find it hard to believe that he won't be coming home. Our Daughter is now almost six, she talks about her Daddy constantly, our Son who is three has so much trouble understanding why his Daddy won't be coming home! He asks for his Daddy daily, can he see me? Does he hear me? Can he hold my hand if I reach up to Heaven? Will he come home after he's done in Heaven? My Daughter and I do our best to answer his questions.
We miss you so much and love you more than any words could ever possibly express. I can see you in their faces, with each and every smile and silly little smirk. You are so alive in them both, it amazes me! We have a little three year old version of you, he becomes more and more like you every day. They both have your sense of humor and are always smiling.
We love you, you are our true HERO!
I Love You Today, Tomorrow and Forever!"
Tabitha

To read some of the other comments from those who knew and love this hero, is to get a small measure of the huge loss. You can find them here.

I heard last night that Tabitha is in GITMO. I am not sure if she will give an impact statement at this time, but I found this:

...she plans to speak at his sentencing hearing, people close to her say.

In a powerful indication of her unbreakable devotion to the man she married in 1997, she continued to pay the bill of his cellular phone after his death so she could hear him speak in voice mail, a confidante told Postmedia News.

"Any time the children wish to talk to Daddy, we send helium balloons into the sky," she wrote in a 2005 affidavit about Taryn, now 11, and Tanner, who was not yet a year old when his father died from the wounds he suffered in the firefight in Afghanistan...(read more here)

Tabitha Speer and Sgt Layne Morris - who was injured in the fight that killed his friend, - launched a civil suit against the murderer's family:

...Tabitha Speer's victim impact statement painfully described the days after her husband's death and how she had told her two young children that their dad wasn't coming home. "Any time the children wish to talk to daddy we send helium balloons into the sky," she wrote. "The children talk to their daddy each night before they go to bed, gazing up at the stars."

"Surviving every day without Christopher has been utter hell."...

The Khadr family was ordered to pay $102 million, but patriarch Ahmed Said Khadr was killed by Pakistani forces in 2003, and the rest of the family has returned to Canada and live on welfare in a Scarborough apartment – so no money has been paid.

More here.

No matter what sentence Omar Khadr gets from the military trial in GITMO, nothing will ever bring Sgt 1st Class Christopher back for his wife Tabitha, their children, or his brother Todd. Sgt 1st Class Christopher Speer died at the hands of a terrorist, and the weight of his loss will reverberate down the years for all who knew and love him.

Remember and honour this hero and his family.

Rest in peace, sir.