Omar Khadr now back in Canada from Guantánamo

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Saturday, 09.29.12
Omar Khadr now back in Canada from Guantánamo

The Toronto-born man who got to Guantánamo as a teenager left the base for his native Canada before dawn Saturday under a 2010 plea deal.

By CAROL ROSENBERG
[e-mail]

The United States sent Guantánamo’s youngest captive home to a prison in his native Canada on Saturday, ending the decade-long U.S. detention of the Muslim militant who grew from a teenager into adulthood at the Pentagon’s prison camps in Cuba.

In 2002, at age 15, Omar Khadr hurled a grenade in war-torn Afghanistan that killed an American soldier. He was captured and kept by U.S. forces ever since. Now 26, he’s home and could serve up to six more years in a Canadian prison. Or authorities could release him sooner. Canada considers him a juvenile offender who can apply for parole a year from now.

“He thinks he’s in a dream. He’s pinching himself,” said Toronto attorney John Norris, who spoke to Khadr soon after his arrival. “He never believed this day would come; he’s been betrayed so many times before.”

Khadr departed the base in Cuba before dawn Saturday, a secret transfer 10 days after a Canadian diplomat paid Khadr a visit on his 26th birthday. He landed at a Royal Canadian airbase in Ontario and was transferred to the Millhaven maximum security prison for what his lawyer described as an assessment of the most suitable place to serve out his sentence.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/29/3025662/omar-khadr-repatriated-to-canada.html#storylink=cpy

[Posteritatis]

1. Pretty much everything about the situation sucks, but I think that's the right move

I'm astonished Harper suddenly folded on it though, since he'd been a huge fan of Gitmo for years and fought this tooth and nail.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[TrogL]

3. about fucking time

[snappyturtle]

4. Let me get this straight. Khadr at the age of 15 threw a grenade while

his country was at war. He was captured at held 10 yrs. for this offense. Let me guess, he was not in uniform.

Nuts.

I am sorry for the loss of our soldier however, our soldier was of age and signed up. Am I missing something here? confused.

[kas125]

5. I wonder what's going to happen to him now. What was done to

that kid has me sick from the first moment I read it until now. There are people who say he didn't even throw the grenade. And even if he did, he was a child and the way he's been treated for all these years has truly made me, who has had emergency surgery and whose digestive system is no longer normal, feel literally ill every time I read anything about it.