Remember that Child Soldier in GITMO? Neither does Canada

I hope I am not the only person who has been wondering about the Omar Khadr case over the past few weeks (OK, years). For those who don't know about Omar Khadr, I'll give you the recap:

July 27 2002 - Omar Khadr, a 15 year old Pakistani-Canadian, is captured by American forces in Afghanistan following a four-hour firefight. He was accused of throwing a grenade at a US soldier which killed the man.  The firefight began because US soldiers were trying to break into his residence "with or without consent", and the occupants opened fire on the Americans. However, the Western media failed to convey some pretty major details. Khadr threw the grenade AFTER US forces had bombed the compound he was staying in, killing several civilians. The US soldiers had ALREADY thrown a grenade into the living complex, before Khadr supposedly threw his grenade. The soldiers proceeded to shoot Khadr 2-3 times in the chest (reports vary) Funny... I don't remember those details being emphasized on the news... But to clarify, reports do vary of which side fired first. But Khadr personally did not throw the infamous grenade unprovoked.

Omar Khadr - Being treated by medics after being shot in the chest by US soldiers

Now let me be clear here: I mean absolutely no disrespect to the Americans and Canadians who have served in Afghanistan. I'm not even trying to argue whether Khadr is guilty or not. Honestly, he might have done it. But what happened after this day in 2002 is troubling, to put it lightly.

Khadr was treated by US forces for his injuries. How sweet of them. They then proceeded to ship him to Guantanamo Bay, and torture him for 10 years. Some of the techniques the US admitted to using while "interrogating" Khadr include:

1. 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".
2. 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.."
3. 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."

Oh and these are only the techniques that were used on this fifteen year old boy BEFORE he was hooded and sent to GITMO indefinitely. I strongly encourage everyone to at least read the Wikipedia entry about this case for further details.

So in 2006, Khadr signed a pre-trial agreement, pleaded guilty to the charges and all details of the charges, and accepting an 8 year prison sentence (not including the years of torture he already endured at GITMO) but with the agreement that he could be transferred to Canadian prison to serve the rest of his sentence there.

Still smiling after 10 years... Can he taste the freedom?

Fast forward six years later. It is now 2012. Where is Omar Khadr? Well for one thing, he is now 25 years old. And face it: whether he was a terrorist before or not, he probably hates the West a lot more now after spending 10 years being tortured in a secret prison. Today, news broke that his lawyers and Senator Romeo Dallaire are headed to Ottawa to ask why the hell his transfer is taking so long. This is a CANADIAN citizen, who was 15 years when he was arrested. He was never allowed a fair trial, and has now spent over 1/3 of his life in the most notorious, lawless secret prison on earth. And sorry if you didn't catch that: remember Romeo Dallaire? He's the guy who witnessed the most atrocious crimes against humanity imaginable in Rwanda, some of which was committed by child soldiers. You would think he would be the guy who would want punks like Khadr put away for good. Sorry, but that's not the case. Senator Dallaire has decided to use his celebrity and political power to fight for the human rights of Khadr. Because that's the thing about human rights: They are supposed to be for everybody, even fanatical kids who live in the mountains of Afghanistan. Christ, Luka Magnotta is currently having his day in court right now, and reportedly the government paid tens of thousands of dollars to ensure that he got transferred to Canada for a fair trial. No one put a hood over his head, as far as I know he hasn't been tortured, and he even gets a really good lawyer. Go figure. Oh and also, the five US soldiers who shot Khadr in the chest, bombed the compound killing several people and animals... what happened to them? They all got rewarded Purple Hearts. True story.