Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Omar Khadr almost executed.

Under what authority does one execute a prisoner on the spot instead of taking them for treatment? There is not one comment about this. Surely this is wrong.
Apparently no one batted an eye when the other person who was still alive was shot. No doubt the reason the Special Forces person wanted Khadr saved was because he was an asset. He might be able to provide useful intelligence. He was not saved because he was a badly injured human being. This article is from the Globe and Mail.

Khadr nearly executed by U.S. soldier in Afghanistan
OMAR EL AKKAD

Globe and Mail Update

March 19, 2008 at 3:41 PM EDT

OTTAWA — U.S. soldiers were seconds away from executing Omar Khadr when Special Forces members told them not to, newly released documents show.

According to the diary of a U.S. military officer who was present at the end of the 2002 Afghanistan firefight where Mr. Khadr was captured, another soldier had the then-15-year-old Canadian in his sights.

I was about to tap [identity redacted] on his back to tell him to kill him [Khadr] but the SF guys stopped us and told us not to," the officer's diary states.

The account of Mr. Khadr's near death was revealed in newly public documents released by the Guantanamo Bay military commission this week. The 112 pages of documents — all relating to several defence motions asking for more disclosure in the case — also contain gruesome details about the wounds Mr. Khadr sustained in the battle, and allegations that the decision to charge the Canadian in the first place was politically motivated.


Last month, the testimony of a soldier identified only as "OC-1," accidentally released to the public, showed that another fighter was alive inside the Afghan compound where the 2002 firefight took place and a grenade was thrown at U.S. soldiers, killing one of them. Until last month's revelation, it had long been assumed that Mr. Khadr was the only person alive inside the compound, and so must have thrown the grenade. Mr. Khadr now faces multiple charges in connection to the incident, including murder.

The U.S. officer's diary, snippets of which were made public this week, confirms the OC-1 account that another fighter was alive, but sheds more detail on how that fighter was killed.

"I remember looking over my right shoulder and seeing [redacted by government] just waste the guy who was still alive. He was shooting him with controlled pairs . . . ." the officer writes.

The newly released documents also show the extent of Mr. Khadr's injuries. The 15-year-old had been shot at least two times, leaving large holes in his chest. He also appears to have suffered shrapnel injuries to his eye. One soldier who was present at the scene of the firefight wrote in his diary "[Mr. Khadr is] missing a piece of his chest and I can see his heart beating."

In one of the motions filed with the military tribunal, Mr. Khadr's U.S. military defence lawyer says he's not sure how many surgeries his client eventually underwent for his injuries, but adds that "Mr. Khadr's chest wounds were infected, swollen, and still seeping blood nearly seven months after the firefight, and Mr. Khadr was in the hospital receiving treatment for the gunshot wounds ten months after the firefight."

The extent of Mr. Khadr's injuries in the period following his capture are vital to the defence argument that their client was in no shape to be interrogated at the time. What Mr. Khadr may have confessed to during those interrogations is in turn vital because no eyewitnesses actually saw him throw the grenade that killed the U.S. soldier.

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