Bring Khadr Home; In War On Terror, Some Lives Count More Than Others

Omar detained at Guantanamo since the age of 15

More than a month has passed since all charges were dismissed against Omar Khadr, the only Canadian citizen to be held at Guantanamo. Khadr, who was 15 when first picked up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, had his case thrown out of court because he had been classified only as an "enemy combatant" and not an "unlawful enemy combatant."

Having been accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier, the Canadian-born youth remains indefinitely detained. If his imprisonment seems caught up in a tangle of semantics, it is because shoddy legalities have long played a part in the operations of the U.S. military base.

One has come to expect this sort of appalling scenario from the Bush administration, which has continuously justified the erosion of ethical standards in the name of national security. What should be particularly disconcerting to Canadians, however, is the apathetic response of their government, which, in failing to take the steps necessary to protect Khadr, has demonstrated an unsettling complicity in the judicial darkness that has engulfed Guantanamo.

From its very inception, Guantanamo has been shrouded in a thicket of legal language that has served to obstruct a clear view of its shameful daily drill.

Deceptive euphemisms such as "robust interrogation" have masked practices that are scarcely short of torture and abuse while carefully crafted legal loopholes have made these meretricious conventions immune to the rulings of U.S. courts.

When news of suicide attempts and hunger strikes at Guantanamo began to raise questions about living conditions at the base, U.S. authorities resorted to reporting these acts of desperation as "asymetrical warfare," in an attempt to dissipate public concern.

But for all its coldly calculated and disingenuous language, Guantanamo's makeshift jurisprudence is unravelling at the seams. As stories of abuse seep through the cracks of Guantanamo's tawdry legal system, Britain, France, Germany and Australia have insisted on negotiating to bring their nationals home where they could be tried before a legitimate judiciary with respectable ground rules.

A recent decision on the part of the U.S. Supreme court may allow Guantanamo detainees to challenge their detention in federal courts, a right they heretofore have been denied. And yet, in the midst of all of this movement, Ottawa seems unable to find its backbone, remaining quietly on the sidelines as though Khadr's pleas for his country's involvement have not been heard.

Why is it that Stephen Harper's Conservative administration has remained so apathetic in the face of heinous practices that are in clear violation of international laws? When confronted with a letter signed by 25 federal politicians asking for Khadr's repatriation to his native Canada, the Harper administration responded that it would be "premature and speculative" to begin negotiations on behalf of its national.

Canada's silence cannot be chalked up to the neutrality that normally excuses it from taking a stance; inaction in this case demonstrates an eerie co-tenancy in the slum ethics of a military base whose existence has long been contested by the international community.

Similarly, Canadians cannot feign being deceived by Guantanamo's mass of heartless legalese, for no amount of fancy rhetoric can conceal that what is going on at Guantanamo Bay is not only unethical and inhumane, but outright illegal, as well.

Rather, Canada's failure to rally behind Khadr may reflect that it, too, has been sold on Bush's idea that human rights abuses are acceptable in the name of U.S. national security. It seems painfully clear that Canadians are now endorsing what has long been accepted in the U.S. - that in the "War on Terror," some lives count more than others.

What is most "unlawful" about Omar Khadr is that he is a youth who has yet to be convicted of anything, sitting in a prison camp renowned for its human rights violations while a dispute over technicalities pecks at his life.

After five years of word games, it is clear that an intervention in the Khadr case would not be "premature," but rather, is long overdue. It is time that the Harper administration revives its long-sedated conscience and comes up with some fancy footwork of its own to demand that Khadr be sent home, where he can obtain his fair day in a Canadian court.

Laura Wayne is a research associate with the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Source: http://www.thesudburystar.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=622715&catname=Editorial&classif=