he U.S. military filed murder charges Tuesday against Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan and sent to the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2002.This is GOING to get interesting....
Khadr, now 20, also was charged with providing support to terrorism, attempted murder, conspiracy and spying. He faces a military trial at the prison in eastern Cuba under rules adopted last year and first used in March to try Australian detainee David Hicks.
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The Toronto-born Khadr, the son of an alleged al Qaeda financial leader, Ahmad Said al-Khadr, was captured in July 2002 after being badly wounded in a firefight near Khost, an al Qaeda hotbed in eastern Afghanistan.
He is charged with throwing a grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28, of Albuquerque, N.M., and wounded Army Sgt. Layne Morris, of West Jordan, Utah.
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The murder and attempted murder charges stipulate that the acts were carried out "in violation of the law of war."
The wounded soldier and Speer's widow filed a civil lawsuit against Khadr and his father, who authorities believe was killed in Pakistan. In February, a judge awarded them US$102.6 million (euro78.2 million).
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The U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down the previous military tribunal system at Guantanamo as unconstitutional. U.S. President George W. Bush subsequently signed into a law passed by Congress a new military tribunal system.
The high court is now considering a challenge to the revised tribunals. Some members of Congress have vowed to repeal the law that limits detainees' access to civilian courts.
[ cf Murder Charges For Canadian Gitmo Inmate ]
What really makes a Killing In A Time Of Transferring The Tax Liabilities a "legitimate killing"????
Or is there the problem here that in the West there is this concern about waiting until kids are older to get them into the Game....
Or What?
The interersting part in all of this will be sorting out when it was that this 15 year old was shown to have been detained not as a POW but as some person of interest.... Since that would seem to be a first step in the process here... But oh yeah, that is right, it is still not clear if americans want to entangle american law in any of the OffShoredThingusOfPooh....
Or would this be a dangerous time to talk about 'militia' and are they still listed as legitimate armed combatants? Since, gosh, if we want to get all pious about the "sovereign nation" gambit, do we really want to blow up all of the games in Iraq and Afghanistan to cut off our nose???
Ah yes, if only these things were half as simple as folks would have wished that they could have been...