This is the sad story of a Canadian teenager who grew up in Guantanamo bay. You know Guantanamo. That’s the CIA black prison site where they torture prisoners without a charge or trial and hold them indefinitely. That’s the place that Obama promised to close but didn’t. It’s a sad tale about what our complacency has turned us into.
Omar had just turned 15 when a foreign army invaded his homeland. Nine months later he was captured by the US military and charged with throwing a grenade at a US soldier which killed him. If he was in France and had thrown a grenade at an invading Nazi, he would have been given a medal. If he was in Canada or America and threw a grenade at an invading army, he would be revered as a war hero.
Instead, the 15 year old kid grew up in Guantanamo Bay. After 8 years in Guantanamo, if that kid doesn’t grown up to be a terrorist, then we know he is a saint and never should have been incarcerated in the first place. His father fought the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
After spending 8 years in that God forsaken institution where prisoners are tortured without a trial, he made a plea bargain. If he pleaded guilty to murder then he would receive another 8 year sentence with the possibility of being transferred back to Canada. He signed the plea agreement which makes the confession itself suspect.
So he returns to Canada and his lawyer contends that Harper has vilified his client. Harper claimed Omar was a convicted terrorist that supported Al-Qaeda. Wait a minute. Stephen Harper supported Al-Qaeda when he agreed to violating the no fly zone in Libya and helped Al-Qaeda terrorists overthrow Gadaffi. Should we put Harper in Guantanamo for that?
We know very well that Unicol supported the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. They were wining and dining them trying to win the contract for the oil pipeline across Afghanistan. Should we put Unicol in Guantanamo for their support of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda?
Nobody likes terrorism. Yet no one likes the invasion of a sovereign nation either. The Globe and Mail claims Omar Khadr ‘s return will test Canada’s commitment to war children. Indeed, the double standard is disturbing. If the Taliban are so bad, why did they stop opium production in Afghanistan and why did we increase it?
I think we as a people are diminished when we let this kind of injustice continue. Recently a blog reader sent me a list of You Know You Are a Conspiracy Theorist If… Sadly we could also use that list to define domestic terrorists. We are going in the wrong direction and we are letting our fear and hate take us there.
The War of 1812
Let’s turn back the hands of time and bring it home. What if this happened in 1812 when the Americans weren’t an ally they were an enemy who invaded Canada. Of all the tyrants and terrorists this world has to offer, the United States is the only country thus far that has actually invaded our country. We are seeing heritage commercials about the event on TV since it’s the 200th anniversary. Remembering that event is worth while.
So what if this Canadian born 15 year old was living in Canada in 1812 and had shot an invading American soldier? Would he still be called a terrorist? Would we still support his torture? Would we still say anyone who fires upon an ally deserves to die? The Americans invaded Canada and their navy kicked our ass. In response we marched across the border with some First Nations brothers and burned the White house to the ground. Was that an act of terrorism or an add for a heritage commercial?
The location of Guantanamo Bay
Another thing we need to discuss is the location of Guantanamo Bay. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is in Cuba of all places. It was turned into a prison camp for torturing prisoners without a trial in 2002 by War criminal George Bush. The one who vetoed the bill to stop torture. Not only were they caught torturing prisoners, George Bush vetoed the bill stopping it. That makes him a war criminal. By vetoing the bill, he assumed legal liability for the torture.
Cuba is not an ally. The prison does not exist with Cuba's permission. Before the prison camp was created in 2002, the US had a naval base on site. This was from Cuban-American Treaty of 1903 where they were permitted to have a coaling (fuelling) station. A naval base is not a fuelling station nor is a prison camp for torturing prisoners. According to the 1903 agreement the US are required to recognize the Republic of Cuba's ultimate sovereignty over the area. They have failed to do this by changing the purpose of the fuelling station against the will of Cuba. This is the invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation.
The Cuban government opposes the presence of the naval base, claiming that the lease is invalid under international law as it was not a sovereign nation at the time. Obviously. There is no longer an agreement between both parties. The United States argues this point is irrelevant because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty. That's like saying someone squatted in your house rent free for ten years and you cashed one of their rent cheques. That doesn't mean you agree to them being there. It means they accepted a token payment for all that time you squatted there rent free. It's time for Cuba to raise the rent and evict those evil squatters.
Dude you are messed up. First paragraph you say Khadr is a canadian. Next paragraph you say he was defending his homeland from invaders. Huh? His parents are egyptians. His father a confirmed financier for Al-Qaeda. He was involved in a combat situation with Nato forces, in which Americans were killed. Injustice? Not at all. Your discepancies on the facts continue. Did you just subscribe to the facts as they appeared on the Daily Onion?
ReplyDeleteThat his parents have yet to be brought to justice for child abuse at having put him in that position, is, Injustice.
He is a Canadian citizen. Homeland refers to heritage. Yes he is of Egyptian heritage but his father helped defend Afghanistan from a Soviet invasion which means he would have been trained by the Americans. My analogy holds. If Omar threw a grenade at an invading soviet he would not be called a terrorist. He would have been called an ally. Unicol's support of the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline and our support of returning Afghanistan to the largest opium producing nation in the world is what's messed up.
ReplyDeleteGuantanamo is satanic. Supporting Guantanamo is just like supporting Hitler. We have no right to complain about war criminals when we operate that as well as all the many other black prison sites around the globe. That is what I mean about what our complacency has turned us into. The point remains, if this kid threw a grenade at an invading soviet he would be called an ally. Because he threw one at a different army invading his country that insisted on reversing the Taliban's decision to give the contract to the oil pipeline to Bridas, an Argentina firm instead of Unicol, an American firm. That is how good soldiers get tricked into becoming mercenaries for the big corporations. Which is one step away from becoming mercenaries for big brother. If I stand alone on that then so be it. However, I know I'm not the only one that has these concerns.
ReplyDeleteI think your a wee bit ill and have sent too much time high as a kite. Hitler really.
DeleteAnother false flaming stereotype. If you haven’t noticed I am passionately opposed to crack and crystal meth. Although I oppose mandatory minimum sentences for pot as being a waste of tax dollars, I don’t support the legalization of pot and I don’t smoke pot. At all.
DeleteI agree there is a huge difference between water boarding and committing genocide. Yet water boarding is still wrong and water boarding isn’t all they did. In Afghanistan we saw pictured of men in black hoods with electric wires. We have politicians arguing torture is ok when it is not.
Many people supported Hitler in the beginning before the ovens were filled with human casualties. What he did before that was the road that led to where they ended up. We are on that same road. Supporting Guantanamo is like supporting Hitler before it was publically known he was gassing Jews in the ovens. Thus the poem First they came for the communists…
One thinks you'll have few takers on yer side there, AK, if only for the *homeland* excuse, for tossing a grenade at anyone. It seems a pretty cheap excuse, in this case, for trying to kill a guy.
ReplyDeleteThe Soviets attacked Afghanistan because they felt like adding another *stan* country to the Empire.
For the 99% of us, the USA attacked Afghanistan because they were attacked in their homeland; by a group, the AQ, which was then quite literally part of the Taliban, so-called Government of terrorists and murderous religious freaks-of-nature.
Personally, I was ready to wipe out the Taliban; simply for their previously destroying the huge Buddhist rock statues of Bamiyan. I hated them, and hoped someone would drop a small Neutron-Bomb on them; before the New York thing.
99% of the people do not believe that. Over 1400 architects and engineers in the field believe the collapse of the three towers was a controlled demolition. I thought Afghanistan was responsible for 911 at first and that is why I thought we helped with that invasion. I didn’t find out about the Central Asian Gas pipeline Unicol wanted to build and were wining and dining the Taliban in hopes to win the contract. That is a significant part of history. The dramatic increase in opium production since the invasion is another important historical fact. The fact that the “confession” video didn’t even look like bin Laden is yet another.
Deleteal qaeda is controlled by the cia and nwo scum.....
ReplyDelete"school of the americas"
ReplyDeletelooks to me like someone has multiple accounts, trying to get legitimacy, a la intelligence community using software to manage multiple accounts. Obviously these intelligence folks are quite seasoned, using terms like 'are you fucking serious' and 'dude' to start their comments.
It's unfortunate that there isn't a broader public that chooses to visit and comment. But it's nice to know 'someone' is taking seriously, even if they are being 'paid' to discredit it.
Wild accusations aside, I appreciate for the moment, at least, people can still post somewhat freely on the internet.
Not sure how much longer this will last, though.
And then, if the 'bad guys' when, certain people will get to pat themselves on the back, until they realize they were playing for the wrong team, and way too little, too late, realize there is no going back, and not even a shot at any kind of justice or reform possible.
Or we could start being a little more critical of the regimes that hold the power, and have all the reasons in the world to lie about this stuff, instead of staying on leash so we no we will get our little dog treats if we're good.
Looks to me like someone posting as "michael" is a fucking moron who believes that because an idea occurs to him this makes it reality. Since you are obviously referring to me (no one else has used the verbiage you quote) you don't follow this blog as much as you think you do, nor are you of course aware that Agent K and I communicate outside the blog. I have no need to shill my POV, although K and I disagree about a few things we agree on more than you are aware of. Our disagreements most often center on matters of degree. At least when K is caught up in some conspiracy thing he has a source for it, whether it is correct or not. You on the other hand just pulled your belief that I post using multiple accounts out of your ass. Nice guess, but completely wrong. The only part you got right is the "quite seasoned" thing, it is true that I have been around more than one block. So, in penance for your foolishness, go back to your corner and pound yourself in the face until I tell you to stop.
DeleteTrailrunner isn’t intelligence, he’s military : )
DeleteSorry, you know what I mean. He’s in the military he doesn’t work for military intelligence. That we know of. Unless of course they were ever to contract that out...
Hah, I see what you did there.....I know you like to say that contractors are military, no difference....while you pretty much have to be ex-mil to be a contractor, saying that we're military is not accurate.
DeleteI thought you'd like that. Contractors aren't military? Technically yes but for the layman they are. You're doing security with automatic weapons in Iraq. You're not flipping burgers at McDonalds.
DeleteFor you they are. Not for the "layman" as you put it, most people understand very well the difference between the two.
DeleteWhile your basic characterization of the job is true, (as far as it doesn't go) your description leaves out more than it tells. It is more accurate to call us very well trained and experienced security guards, no "black ops" or any of the other stuff you fantasize about. No one is running around blazing away with those automatic weapons.
It is NOT true to say we are in the military. We're not. You do this kind of thing frequently, where to you one or two facts equals a much bigger, detailed picture than can be readily accounted for in most people's minds by those same facts. It's at the root of the whole conspiracy thing really, without that characteristic one could not readily make these leaps of illogic, but I digress.....
Laymen/the public understand very well that if you are in the military, you enlist, you are part OF the military. (whatever branch) You wear a standard uniform, your behavior is strictly controlled, you follow orders and have no choice in the matter. You gave that up when you enlisted.
Contracting is a job. You are here to protect people from those who would do them harm. You work for a private company and can refuse any order you like. You will get fired, (just like any other job) but no one will court martial you and put you in prison for it. Nobody really gives actual orders much anyway, everyone knows what needs to be done, so they do it. If they had a problem with that they wouldn't be here to begin with. The military is a virtual prerequisite for this reason, not just the other "skill based" training and abilities you've learned. You can leave anytime you want, unlike the military. There ARE similarities between the two, but that does not make them alike, and certainly does not make them identical or interchangeable.
On another note, wow, record number of comments for a post or what? Has to be close anyway.
DeleteYes. Surprising for a political post not a gang related post. You be blazin alright - 420 style. And I don't fantasize about black ops, I oppose them.
DeleteThis post is begging to hit 40 replies, we're at 39, so I'll put us over the top. While I do get the "420" reference, wrong again. I'm a white rum and diet Pepsi with lime twist kinda guy, that or Keonig Ludwig weissbier. Cheers.
DeleteI know you don't smoke pot. I was just being sarcastic with regards to the blazing reference.
DeleteLet’s turn back the hands of time and bring it home. What if this happened in 1812 when the Americans weren’t an ally they were an enemy who invaded Canada. Of all the tyrants and terrorists this world has to offer, the United States is the only country thus far that has actually invaded our country. We are seeing heritage commercials about the event on TV since it’s the 200th anniversary. Remembering that event is worth while: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38BO7GI0vQQ
ReplyDeleteSo what if this Canadian born 15 year old was living in Canada in 1812 and had shot an invading American soldier? Would he still be called a terrorist? Would we still support his torture? Would we still say anyone who fires upon an ally deserves to die? The Americans invaded Canada and their navy kicked our ass. In response we marched across the border with some First Nations brothers and burned the White house to the ground. Was that an act of terrorism or an add for a heritage commercial?
England invaded, fought the french. The French invaded and fought the English...1700's...both of which stole Kanata from the Natives. The US invaded Canada twice. the first time was during the American revolution.
DeleteThe burning of Washington DC's public buildings were done after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg. Not because they kicked our Naval ass. No terrorism here...However, torture was more accepted in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Grade seven history class covered this in depth...
Indeed, if you visit the Tower of London you can see many artefacts from an old era where torture was common in England. I think it was horrible. I was referring to over all in the war of 1812 that the US navy kicked our ass. We did hold out own with ground troops.
DeleteWow. Sounds like some unresolved issues there. The war of 1812 is totally relevant. That is what this is about. If a 15 year old kid shot an American soldier who invaded Canada back then, he would not be considered a terrorist. They are being tortured in Guantanamo. That's why it's such a huge public concern. The whistle blower that blew the whistle on water boarding didn't just get fired, he's being charged criminally for telling the truth. There are tons more secret prison sites that we don't know about. All we know is they argue torture is ok when it's not and we aren't allowed to know what they do to prisoners there. Like I said, we saw prisoners with black hoods and electric wires in Afghanistan. That is wrong, immoral and illegal. We are supposed to be better than that.
ReplyDeleteguatanamo is satanic?
ReplyDeleteyou cry for Khadr and neglect the plight of 1000s of canadians that languish in US jails and prisons primarily for "drug crimes"
you are an ill informed hypocrite in my opinion although i appreciate your blogs on canadian crime for some reason...
i listened to your podcasts the other day...very informative
what military service did you serve in again agent K?
keep writing
I don't support the torture of prisoners arrested for drug crimes either. I do oppose crack and crystal meth. I just don't see defending your country from an invading army as a war crime. Since I have received so many death threats and more concerning, threats to rape my daughter, I have chosen to be anonymous. I know it is lame and cheap but it is to protect my kids. I haven't served in the military, I served in something else and it wasn't the police force. After having worked on a Kibbutz in Israel I was planning on working on an ulplan and joining the Israeli military. However, I figured as soon as they figured out I wasn't Jewish I'd likely be dead. Yet there are many things about the Israeli military I admire. Usually it's the high ranking officer shot first because he leads the troops in a come follow me manner, not stand behind ordering his men to attack.
DeleteAK, Don't give in to the whiners about anonymity; it's not "cheap & lame" for you, man. It's called life & death, the poster above should wake up. Doesn't understand our gangland here, either, with such comments, calling out AK for anonymity is stupid & ignorant, even of the nature of the internet. It's a necessity to keep from gettin' shot. That's all there is.
DeleteAny kid could get upped, make his bones, by taking out AK.
Guess what's happening all the time in Mexico; killing blog writers; well, those same Cartel guys are here.
Narco Mundo head shot & killed last week. It was one of the biggest Mexican crime Blogs.
Yes, they've been pretty ruthless towards people who do what I do in Mexico.
DeleteAK: "99% of the people do not believe that (9/11 attack). Over 1400 architects and engineers in the field believe the collapse of the three towers was a controlled demolition.
ReplyDeleteBut 1400 folks is well below even the 1% you & the "Truthers" claim to be more than, no...?
In fact you have no way of knowing the number of Truthers. But when I see the 9/11 Memorial coming-together-s, of millions of Americans; hundreds of thousands in one single city, I know who believes the real truth about the AQ & 9/11.
And I didn't say *Dude*; so I guess I'm not a secret CIA member!
In September 2006 an Ipsos-Reid poll found that 22 percent of Canadians believe "the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden and were actually a plot by influential Americans." A September 2008 Angus Reid poll showed that 39% of Canadian respondents either disagree or are unsure that Al Qaeda carried out the attacks. About a third of those surveyed believed the United States Government allowed the attacks to happen and 16% believe the U. S. government made the attacks happen.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polls_about_9/11_conspiracy_theories
Mind you Newsweek conducted a poll of Americans in 2007 and asked: "Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?" 41% Yes, 50% No, 9% not sure. Somewhat amusing since it was never implied Iraq had anything to do with 911. It was as you say implied Afghanistan did. Just shows you that public opinion is unreliable. If 99% of the world’s population thought the world was flat, those opinions would not make it so.
Surely everyone here arguing that torture is OK will agree that A) Communism is bad. B) Stalin is bad. And C) The Gulag is bad. Very bad. In fact even the CIA will agree to that. They even go so far as to claim that those three things are so bad, their generations of drug trafficking and arms dealing are justified by the lesser of two evils.
ReplyDeleteNotwithstanding our huge difference of opinions, all of us can agree that none of us want to ever see that happen again. Nor do we want to contribute to the kind of compliancy that created the conditions for such a great evil to engulf a group of people. (Referring specifically to Stalin’s death camps not the ideal of social justice.)
I submit that if our genuine goal is to avoid that calamity from ever happening, then we are right now on the wrong road to preventing that kind of catastrophe. This is where Ron Paul steps in and says less government is good. The less government intervention in our lives, the better. The less spying they do, the less controlling they do, the less brainwashing they do, the better.
Allowing torture is the wrong thing to do if we want to prevent a Stalin style death camp in Canada. Allowing secret prisons to exist where we are not allowed to know who is in them, why they are in there and what they do to the prisoners in them is the wrong thing to do if we want to prevent a Stalin style death camp from existing in our modern world.
Letting a secret police force exist without any public or financial accountability whatsoever is the wrong thing to do if we want to avoid having a Gulag or SS police state invade, arrest and disrupt our lives. I submit that despite our good intensions, right now we are on and are proceeding down the wrong road.
Charging the whistle bower who blew the whistle on water boarding in criminal court is a prime example. That is no different than imprisoning Alexander Solzhenitsyn for revealing the state secret about the death camps. Keeping an unlawful secret is unlawful. In fact keeping unlawful secrets is a threat to national security. This is why the founding fathers left us with the sacred measuring stick: the US Constitution. When we violate the Constitution in the name of national security, we are only fooling ourselves.
anyone who doesnt belive larry silverstein was behind 9/11 is ignorant
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your stance that Omar Khadr was a child soldier. However, I also think that with his upbringing, he had no chance for a normal childhood or to be anything other than what he turned out to be, which was someone who was vocally in support of al Qaeda, as was his father. He deserved to come home because he was not treated fairly at Guantanamo, and his treatment probably constituted torture.
ReplyDeleteNow we have degenerated to name calling. Wonderful. I'm not sure what the war of 1812 has to do with being a hippie but I've never pretended to be an agent. Agent K is a username taken from the movie Men in Black. It was a fictional comedy. As freddy pointed out, I have chosen to be partially anonymous because in Mexico the drug cartels tend to murder and dismember people who write about the gangs. One person posted implying that Intelligence agencies post biased opinions on the Internet in the form of propaganda. Freddy once implied the same thing of the KGB on the thread about Pussy riot, the female punk rock band that stormed a church in Russia. I have no doubt both sides post propaganda. As for a false remake of the towers, no plane hit the third tower. Every scientific model that we currently have of a tower collapsing into it's own blueprint at freefall speed is that of a controlled demolition. Refusing to look at every conceivable existing scientific model isn't being a hippie. It's what architects and engineers in the field are doing. It's not even being a hippie to object to Operation Northwoods. That would be a concerned citizen.
ReplyDeleteWhen he was 15, his family sent him to Afghanistan to translate for a group that the U.S.A identified as al qaeda. There is a picture of him in the condition he was in before he got sent to gitmo. Special Forces team attacked the camp Omar was in blinding him with shrapnel crippling him with two gunshot wounds. During the attack, a US soldier was wounded and later died. forensic evidence determined that the wounds the soldier recieved was from an american grenade. While the camp didn't have any grenades, members of the special forces team were throwing them into the compound. The USA rewrote the details of his detainment making it appear that Omar had thrown the grenade. It's a pretty smart move if you're trying to justify having just pumped shrapnel in the face of a 15 year old boy without provocation.
ReplyDeleteIf that was true, it would put the story and the practice of black prison sites and military commissions in an entirely different light:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2008/04/11/guantanamo-khadr.html