Youngest U.S. war prisoner gets eight more years

Omar Khadr is a Canadian citizen, born in Scarborough, Ontario, into an Afghan family. Just 24 years old, Khadr has spent the last eight years in U.S. custody, mostly in Guantánamo, for alleged “terrorism” and “war crimes.” He is the youngest captive held in the prison and the first since World War II to be prosecuted in a military commission for war crimes allegedly committed while still a minor.

Omar Khadr

Khadr recently made a plea bargain and was sentenced on Oct. 31 to eight additional years in prison — one more year in Guantánamo, followed by a possible transfer to Canada for the remaining seven years of his sentence. (Globe & Mail, Oct. 31). The jury of higher officers who would have decided his guilt or innocence recommended 40 years imprisonment.

Khadr and his family moved to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in 1996. He experienced first-hand the U.S.-led imperialist war and occupation of his homeland.

In the summer of 2002, he got weapons training and began setting roadside bombs against the U.S. and NATO forces that had invaded and occupied Afghanistan. Khadr said this on Oct. 25, when he pled guilty to war crimes and killing a Special Forces sergeant during a long firefight in 2002, in which Khadr was seriously wounded.

Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, explained Khadr’s plea and why the U.S. offered him this deal.

“Omar Khadr’s so-called plea was a ‘show plea.’ He pleaded guilty to crimes he was never charged with and crimes about which there was almost no evidence, except a confession made under torture including threats of gang rape. So why did he do it? Here is what he was facing: life imprisonment and/or being held as an enemy combatant for the rest of his life even without a trial.”

Ratner continued: “The Obama administration is trying to save any ‘face’ they have left: This was the first trial of a child soldier by a Western power since World War II. Khadr was 15 at the time of the alleged acts. Such charges and trials of juveniles are utterly illegal.”

One reason for the U.S. wanting to “save face” perhaps is the intense interest that Canadians have had in this case. There have been thousands of articles, TV and radio reports and specials on it. The behavior of the U.S. and its military and intelligence behemoth is being carefully scrutinized in Canada.