10.27.2010

Omar Kadhr's Guilty Plea In Gitmo's Kangaroo Court

Omar Kadhr, after eight years of psychological and physical torture, plead guilty at the Guantanamo military commission. Eight years of hell for allegedly defending himself from US soldiers who were doing their best to slaughter Afghan civilians. Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured, held illegally in violation of US law, international law and the Geneva Conventions. The liar Obama, while campaigning, stated that confessions obtained by torture would not be acceptable. As an American citizen, i am ashamed.

Omar was also betrayed and denied his rights by the ass-kissing Canadian Government of PM Harper. Harper's insistance that Omar would get 'due process' is worthless, there is no justice in Gitmo's kangaroo court. If you live in Canada, as i do, you too should realize you have the same 'rights' as Omar, your 'rights' can be taken away instantly just like Omar's. Agreeing to trumped-up charges after being told "Do this or we barbeque you testicles" is hardly justice.

Canada and the US signed a treaty, The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which clearly says "all children under the age of 18 captured while fighting in wars are to be offered “special protection” and treated as victims, not as combatants. The “special protection” given to Khadr after his capture, was to be tortured and threatened with rape when his interrogators told him a fictional story of a young man sent to an American prison who was gang-raped and died of related injuries-implying that Khadr might face a similar fate if he failed to cooperate.

America's hypocrisy is a huge diappointment. America believes it has the right to invade any country they want, and expect the inhabitants to roll over and do nothing. If anyone actually fights back, they arrest them, torture them, then charge them with terrorism. Even after Omar's forced guilty plea, there's no gaurantee he'll ever be released. The US's expert witness on Khadr's future dangerousness, Dr. Michael Welner, a board certified forensic psychiatrist and creator of the "depravity scale", declared Omar, now 23, a danger to the US if he is ever released. The Americans and Canadians are setting the stage for the next act, when this negotiated eight sentence nears its end Omar will be declared a unredemable terrorist, or some such, and be prison until he dies.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."-Sinclair Lewis