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 is pretty well done. You can watch it here.
Khadr's no angel: Left-wing lawyers are using imprisoned Canadian as a way to undermine war on terror
Omar Khadr is the 23-year-old Canadian being prosecuted in a Guantanamo Bay prison by the Obama Administration for allegedly murdering U.S. Army Sergeant Christopher Speer in Afghanistan eight years ago.
Here are some facts about Khadr:
1. One photo isn’t the full story
Most liberal defenders of Khadr don’t like to mention the actual evidence about Khadr and his family.
For example, the most common photo published of Khadr was released to the press by his mother; it looks like a junior high yearbook photo.
But there are other, more recent photos and videos of Khadr around, including pictures of him handling explosives.
And there’s him posing next to an AK-47 machine-gun, practising building an IED (improvised explosive device), the type that has killed so many Canadian soldiers.
Don’t be swayed by the angelic picture you so often see.
2. Khadr is a political football for anti-war lawyers
Khadr is one of about 1,000 Canadians being held in foreign jails at any one time. Some are real criminals. And some, like Huseyin Celil, are political prisoners. Celil has been held illegally for four years by China. The Canadian Bar Association, a left-wing lobby group, has issued over 100 statements about Khadr — but not a word about Celil. Why?
Khadrmania isn’t about a Canadian’s civil rights. It’s about left-wing lawyers trying to use Khadr as a way to undermine the war on terror.
3. Khadr was not a child soldier
Instead of talking about what Khadr actually did, his supporters prefer to focus on his youth — he was 15 when he allegedly threw the grenade at Sgt. Speer. Fifteen is young, but it’s not unheard of; in the First World War, Canada’s Tommy Ricketts received the Victoria Cross when he was 17.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child — hardly a right-wing document — is clear: 15-year-olds are not child soldiers. Article 38 of that treaty defines a child soldier as someone who has “not attained the age of 15” — so 14 and under.
Khadr was old enough to be in an instructional video on how to kill; he’s surely old enough to stand trial.
4. Khadr was not a soldier at all
After the barbarity of the Second World War, the nations of the world tried to agree to some laws of war. In 1949 they ratified the Third Geneva Convention, that clearly defined a soldier. Article 4 includes “volunteer corps” and “organized resistance movements,” even those operating “outside their own territory.” But resistance fighters need to do things to distinguish themselves from mere murderers: They have to be part of a chain of command; to show a flag or emblem “recognizable at a distance,” to carry their weapons “openly,” not secretly; and to follow the “laws and customs of war.”
Khadr had to do those four things to be considered a soldier, and entitled to any rights. He did none of them.
5. No one cared until the Conservatives were elected
Khadr has been in U.S. custody for eight years, four of which were under prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, and four under Stephen Harper.
Why was the media- political-legal establishment so quiet during the first four years, and so noisy these past four years?
Sort of answers itself.
