Hearings continued Friday and Saturday in the case of Canadian Omar Khadr, who again was absent from the proceedings. Accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American medic and participating in a terrorist conspiracy beginning when he was only 10 years old, Khadr literally has grown up at Guantánamo.
Yesterday was day two of pretrial hearings in the case of Toronto-born Omar Khadr, who has been in U.S. detention for a third of his life, since his capture at age 15 in Afghanistan. The hearing was sidetracked by Khadr’s refusal to come to court because of a medical condition and marred by the military judge’s lack of concern—even though, according to his lawyers, he's in significant pain.
At least 30 journalists and human rights observers descended on Guantánamo this week to witness the pretrial hearings in the case of Canadian Omar Khadr. Now 23, Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. medic. Khadr will be the first person prosecuted in a military commission under President Obama, and the second person selected for military commissions trial who was a juvenile at the time of his alleged offenses.
By Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Researcher, ACLU Human Rights Program at 12:53pm
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most comprehensive treaty on children's rights. The convention has been ratified by nearly every country in the world, except the United States. The convention would fill current gaps in U.S. law, and provide all children in America with the same robust protections that children in 193 countries are already entitled to.
It seemed to be business as usual Wednesday, as we filed into the courtroom at Guantánamo Bay for Afghan Mohammed Kamin's pre-trial hearing before the military commission here. Attorney General Eric Holder simultaneously was testifying before Congress that the decision, announced last Friday, to transfer the five accused 9/11 co-conspirators to federal court to stand trial, represents a step closer to closing Guantánamo (even as President Obama announced that his administration will miss its deadline to do so).
U.S. policies that purport to address terrorism financing are seriously undermining the Constitution's fundamental rights to freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom from discrimination.
This past year, I traveled from Michigan to Texas to interview American Muslims about how terrorism finance laws interfere with their rights to practice their religion. American Muslim donors told me how the closure of some of the largest American Muslim charities in the country, widespread law enforcement interviews of Muslim donors about their donations, and surveillance of donations at mosques without suspicion, is creating a climate of fear that prevents them from making charitable donations. Terrorism financing laws leave many innocent Americans unable to fulfill a central tenet of their religion: charitable giving, or Zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam and a religious obligation for all observant Muslims.
President Obama's recent executive orders to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp within a year and to reverse many of the Bush Administration's most egregious detention and torture policies were a huge first step in restoring America's standing in the world. With his swift actions, Obama sent a message to the world that the U.S. is newly recommitted to the rule of law. In an encouraging sign, our European allies are now responding to that recommitment. On Monday, European Union (EU) Commissioner Javier Solana announced that several EU member states would likely be willing to accept former Guantánamo Bay prisoners.
By Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Researcher, ACLU Human Rights Program at 3:37pm
President-elect Barack Obama will make history on his inauguration day. And if a scheduled Guantánamo military commission trial goes forward on January 26, President-elect Obama will make a wholly different kind of history, by presiding over a terrible historical event.
On January 26, Guantánamo detainee Omar Khadr, a 22-year-old Canadian national who has been held at Guantánamo for nearly one-third of his life, is slated to be tried by military commission for war crimes allegedly committed when he was 15. If Omar Khadr's trial goes forward as scheduled on January 26, one of the first acts of President-elect Obama's administration will be to preside over the first war crimes prosecution of a child soldier in U.S. history.
Yesterday marked the final military commission hearing before the eve of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. The question of what will become of Guantánamo was a subject of much speculation in the days before yesterday's pre-trial hearing in the case of Saudi national Ahmed Mohammed al Darbi. Al Darbi has been held in U.S. custody for six years and is charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism based on alleged connections to al-Qaeda.
Friday brought another pre-trial hearing in the military commission case against Canadian Omar Khadr, the last Western national still being held at Guantánamo Bay. Now 22, Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. medic, Sgt. Christopher Speer. While the media coverage of Friday's hearing focused on potential witness testimony that Khadr could not have thrown the grenade, there has been little coverage of a legal debate that threw into question the authority of the military commission here to try Khadr for Sgt. Speer's murder.
