Khadr's Back

Khadr, Canada's boy jihadi  and innernational good-guy-killer, is back in Canadian news after a recent government decision to mke a settlement on a lawsuit brought against the Canadian government on his behalf claiming $60 million in damages for depriving him of his civil rights under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

 This is the last in a number of lawsuits raised in Khadr's behalf in Canadian courts and dating back at least 12 years. All of the lawsuits - two of which were taken to ajudication at the Supreme Court of Canada have been successful in citing the Government of Canada for failing to attend to Khadr's protection (as a Canadian citizen) and in carrying-out a program of harassment and oppression against him.  Khadr is receiving about $8 million dollars (US) for the 12 years the Canadian government - calling him a 'terrorist' -   refused to support him.

You may recall from earlier posts on the subject, earlier post that Omar Khadr's was one of the first stories to come out of Operation Afghan Freedom - the cautionary tale of a 'radical kid' killer,  wounded and captured , treated by IS medics and doctors and one of the first inmates at Guantanamo.  Khadr,  we are told,  had been taken to Afghanistan to meet all the bad guys,  by his Egyptian-born father who, again we are told,  acted as 'the chief financial officer' for AQ's  training operations there. The Father was later killed in an US/Pakistani 'security operation'. Khadr had a brother who was crippled in that opeation and subsequently repatriated to join his family in Canada.


Khadr was tortured while being held by US forces at their base at Bagram. After he arrived at Guantanmo he was treated as a 'hard core terrorist', accused of killing a US "medic" and subjected to disciplinary detention and interrogations.  At at least two points in his detention Canadian government "representatives" were present at and participated in the intererogation process - leaving Khadr to believe that Canada was prepared to do nothing to help him,  unless he confessed and provided information.  After 13 years of detention,  a deal was struck whereby Khadr would plead guilty to a number of charges,  be sentenced, released and repatriated to Canada. That court action was executed.

 The US authorities, however, chose to differentiate between Khadr and a number of other detaineees who had opted for the same 'plea deal' - conviction-release  process. It was decided that, because he was now a 'self-confessed killer',  an extended period of detention at Guantanmo was required. The Canadian government did not object to this breech of the plea-deal agreement. After two years a court ruling, in Canada, directed the Canadian government to act to secure  his release. After a further year spent appealing, and losing,  the court ruling was put into action.

When Khadr arrived back in Canada the government, at that time, (in a distinct break with common procedure in every one of the similar plea-bargain cases)  stated that it was prepared to carry out the sentence of the Guantanamo Tribunal and detained  the 'self-confessed murderer and terrorist' in a Canadian prison.   A second lawsuit to force his release, again going all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, saw Khadr released, on bail, about 18 moths later,  while the government continued to file objections to and appeals of the SC ruling. That process was still pending when the Tory government of Steven Harper lost the election in 2016.

The incoming Liberal government eventually abandoned the appeals  and a lawsuit for costs and damages against the government was initiated. After study,  the Federal Justice Department declined to contest the suit and a settlement process was intiated.  This was concluded yesterday when Khadr and his lawyers,  recieved their money.

It was also noted that the widow of the dead special forces soldier and a comrade, partially blinded in that incident, had filed an application in a Canadian court to have the court enforce a ruling made by a Utah court,  granting them damages of $174 million dollars (US) from Khadr. There were also lawsuits launched against the Khadr family claiming damages from the incident.  Some news sources are now saying that, since the government has already paid Khadr, the widow won't be getting money from them, or Khadr,  without signifiant actions in Canadian Courts.

Khadr Hears Victim Impact Statement

A Court in Toronto dismissed the claim against Khadr by the American claimants.


Khadr is curently training to be a nurse.

According to the pulp press this 'issue' has "polarized" Canadians. Actually the split is the same one as appears now on political grounds, or with those Canadians who believe in the rule of law, and those who believe that laws should be different depending on circumstances. That the courts are supreme in law (as indicated in the Constitution)  or that the Government can and should change, or in Khadr's case ignore, the law,  to do as it pleases.

                                               
                                                      Khadr - for the specially educated

Canada's Shreiking Meemie

I just read a piece in the Toronto sun about Khadr, the Canadian child-mujaheddin who has been growing into adulthood in Gitmo for the last 8 years. The writer of the piece, one Ezra Levant, wonders why anybody could be feeling the least bit bad about Khadr since, according to Levant, he's been the recipient of all things good while he's been staying in that Caribbean workers' paradise. Levant would have us believe he's been molly-coddled, not only by overly kindly guards who attend zealously to his religious strictures in regard to prayer and feeding, but by the Canadian government's department of foreign affairs who send him regular "care packages" at taxpayer expense along with goodies provided by an admiring family. This little terrorist has had too many treats.

Levant describes the idyllic life  of  Khadr and his ilk, with opportunities for exercise, if they wish, and expensive high-fashion athletic footware, but also nintendo and electronic time-wasters laid on by caring Marines. No doubt he's an accomplished 'killer' at "COD5 Modern War".

How all this is known unto Ezra is probably due to his exposure to 'Fox-think' in the bastion of freedom. To round-off his little piece, Ezra spits out one last sunflower shell in the form of the arcane knowledge that the IEP that killed the first Canadian to die in Afghanistan was assembled by another 'child-terrorist'. How does he know that? The man is truly amazing.

How did Ezra get to be so smart, you might ask. Well, that was due to his upbringing. Ezra is the grandchild of Russian Jewish emigrants who homesteaded out to the Canadian west to find a new life. Whatever their new life was about, Ezra managed to attend Jewish school  and later took his degree in law from  the U. of Alberta. At a young age he developed a negative sensitivity for those who might get an easier (free?) ride due to their 'special' circumstances. This offended Ezra so much that he led the charge to overturn some civil rights and equal-opportunity nonsense the university had started. Ezra became a poster-boy for the reactive right. Lashing out to restore a sense of real social value and the natural aristocracy of the smart.

This led Ezra to configure himself as a 'conservative thinker' - he dislikes anything 'special' - like unions, Quebec, or anything east of Winnipeg. He wants government to get rid of those hindrances to progress - like the minimum wage, universal health care, public pensions and subsidized education. Ezra might very well hallucinate that Canada could add 10 new stars to the 'spangled banner' not to mention a few territories and a whole whack of cheap resources that the 'talented' could better manage in lieu of the socialists. One might almost think he aspires to join the constellation of holy hebrews who wag the dog in Washington. Along with all this arcane baggage, Ezra holds a little bit of a hate for such as Khadr.

It could be because of all the free medical and dental care he has received at Gitmo. It could be because Khadr's family have piled on the Canadian haywagon much as did gran-bubbi, only with far more public assistance (an unnecessary social innovation in them days) . Or it could be that Khadr's gotten all this notice and press about being the youngest terrorist to be 'tagged' by America. Or, finally, it could be that Khadr seems, to this point, to be a far more sympathetic character than some pudgy prick of a western lawyer. At least Khadr had the moxie to bounce back from a USAF bomb strike, a SF assault and three of their best in his back. Not only that, cheeky bugger, he had the fearful temerity to, reputedly, toss a hand grenade that, supposedly, killed a "medic" and all-round nice-guy and dad who happened to be in the assault squad that day.

To Levant, this is all chapter and verse - even though there are members of the assault squad who deny the 'conventional wisdom' of the 'action report' - twice written and filed months late. Khadr is guilty because he was caught on a video tape miraculously found on the battlefield afterward, and because he 'fessed-up' to 'friendly' American guards, one of whom was discharged for beating an innocent Afghan taxi-driver to death. Levant is right only in saying, in his blog, "Canada's little terrorist is as good as done."

Khadr can't not be found guilty - there's an empire at stake.

If there's anything that we shouldn't be 'crying' for Khadr about,  it is that he has such antagonists as Ezra Levant. I'd like to think that when Khadr thinks of his God taking revenge on his persecutors that he's thinking of assholes like Levant. We should be crying for ourselves, for, all too often, that 'revenge' falls on the innocent, not the bigmouths who might truly deserve it.