U.S. trial of Gitmo's youngest detainee raises fierce debate

[DearAbby]

U.S. trial of ex-boy soldier raises fierce debate
Guantanamo detainee was 15 when captured in a firefight in Afghanistan

Omar Khadr, the youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was 15 when he allegedly threw a grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces medic in Afghanistan. Now, more than seven years later, Khadr is drawing the Obama administration into a fierce debate over the propriety of putting a child soldier on trial.

The struggle against al-Qaeda has thrown up few detainees with as baleful and unlikely a background as Khadr's -- a father who moved his family to Afghanistan and inside Osama bin Laden's circle of intimates when Omar was 10; a mother and sister who said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were deserved; and a brother, the black sheep of the clan, who said he became a CIA asset after his capture in Afghanistan.

This background has convinced U.N. officials, human rights advocates and defense lawyers that Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was an indoctrinated child soldier and, in line with international practice in other conflicts, should be rehabilitated, not prosecuted.

More at link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35325438/ns/politics-washington_post/?ocid=twitter

[howard112211]

1. They are not child soldiers when WE kill them.

[Mari333]

2. will the truths ever come out about these occupations

the real truths about our torture, throwing kids into jails (children at abu ghraib), the continuing torture now under the obama admin, the relentless rousting of families as we kick down the doors to their homes...all this decade of unending war and the media shows nothing of what we have done and are really doing..
who wouldnt throw a grenade at people who are occupying your country?? what 15 yr old wouldnt? come on! we shouldnt be there, we shouldnt be anywhere..

until the USA actually looks in the mirror and sees themselves as the bad guys, nothing will change..