Fakirs Canada
Dennis Edney, Omar Khadr and the Pentagon's admission of torture at Gitmo
Posted on: 01/14/2009 16:19
Oh sure, now that some democrats are pushing for a war-crimes commission on whether or not Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield and George Bush abused their power with respect to "detainees" - now, a Pentagon official decides she'd better www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372.html get on the band-wagon of growing anti-Gitmo protests. Where was her voice two years ago when she was appointed? Waiting to see which way the cat was going to jump, that's where. By contrast, Omar Khadr's Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney, has been saying the same thing for six years. Dennis's loyal and unflagging advocacy on behalf of the unlucky Omar Khadr has brought him to the brink of financial ruin. No agency has stepped forward to offer him any money - even though he and his partner, Nate Whitling, have scored significant legal victories for Omar Khadr (see refs 5 and 6 here: fakirscanada.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!BCDFFB6F4CF5AAB!543.entry Omar doesn't have any money. Supreme Court and Federal Court victories cost many thousands of dollars - all of which came out of Dennis's own pocket. He has travelled extensively to raise public awareness of how Canadian officials were "complicit" in the U.S.'s serious violations of Omar's rights - and nobody paid his travel expenses either. Dennis is in despair, his bank account has been "depleted" on account of his refusal to abandon a client who needs him desperately. And now Susan Crawford, after two years of silence, would like to step in and be counted among "the good guys." May she sit in God's waiting room an equally long time...
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graeme
The curious question, aside
Posted on: 01/14/2009 16:38
The curious question, aside from how Harper can stand upright without having a spine, is why the US government is so keen to get khadr. He's scarcely a major figure.
graeme
Fakirs Canada
Omar Khadr was shot in the
Posted on: 01/15/2009 00:41
Omar Khadr was shot in the back three times by U.S. marines. There is credible evidence that the marines altered their first version of the report on the firefight, which originally said that the person who killed Sgt. Speer was himself killed in the firefight. I suspect there would have been a negative impact on the careers of the marines who pumped a 15-year-old Canadian citizen full of lead - unless they could find a way to justify it. The U.S. would have let him go, though, if Canada had asked for it. All of the other western countries who demanded the return of their citizens got them with a phone call - France, Germany, Britain and Austria. The problem is Canada - and the prospect of a multi-million dollar payout to the scion of Canada's most thoroughly hated family. Both the Supremes and the Federales have said that Canadian officials Jim Gould and Scott Heatherington were "complicit" in the repeated and serious violations of Omar's rights. As soon as Omar's feet hit the ground in Canada, his lawyers will sue Gould, Heatherington, Harper, Bernier, and a few others for violating his rights under the Charter - which the courts have affirmed apply to him. Given that a substantial number of Canadians would have a huge problem with giving Omar any money at all, Harper will get blamed - and maybe even lose the next election on account of it. I suspect it's not spinelessness - although he may have been thinking about the vindictiveness the U.S. has shown on previous occasions when Canada stood up to it. But I think Harper is primarily worried about Stephen Harper.
SLJudds
I am ex-military and I
Posted on: 01/15/2009 09:32
I am ex-military and I believe Cheny et al belong in a war crimes trial.
Gilmore
There has to be a significant
Posted on: 01/15/2009 11:01
There has to be a significant consequence to lying so that you can go in and destroy a country--even an imperfect country. I doubt it will happen, but a war crimes trial sounds like the appropriate course.
Fakirs Canada
Lawyers, politicians and
Posted on: 02/11/2009 13:26
Lawyers, politicians and community leaders held a news conference this morning in Toronto, calling on Stephen Harper to work with them on a repatriation plan for Omar Khadr, that would include assessment, monitoring and re-integration strategies. CTV has the best video coverage of the various speakers in the news conference: watch.ctv.ca/news/latest/bringing-khadr-back/#clip138877
trishcuit
The question is, "Can the
Posted on: 02/17/2009 14:43
The question is, "Can the leopard changes it's spots?"
graeme
which leopard? Bush? Cheney?
Posted on: 02/17/2009 19:16
which leopard? Bush? Cheney? Harper?
graeme
cate
graeme wrote: The curious
Posted on: 02/17/2009 19:44
The curious question, aside from how Harper can stand upright without having a spine...
LOL Graeme, I'll be using this one in daily conversation fer sure.
cate
trishcuit wrote: The
Posted on: 02/17/2009 19:47
The question is, "Can the leopard changes it's spots?"
Never met one that could.
cate
As a mother, I find the most
Posted on: 02/17/2009 19:50
As a mother, I find the most disgusting aspect of the Khadr case to be the issue of child soldiers. That is the story that needs to get out to the public. If the Canadian public can stop seeing Khadr as a terrorist and start seeing him as a lost little boy, that would make the world of difference.
I have often wondered where the media was in all this. We heard the "terrorist" side over and over, but where was the hard-hitting journalism that delved into the child soldier issue?
Fakirs Canada
Personally, I find the most
Posted on: 02/18/2009 00:17
Personally, I find the most disgusting aspect to be the fact that Canadian Foreign Intelligence and CSIS officials knowingly acted as agents for a foreign state, "interrogated" a Canadian minor on behalf of that state, knowing he had been subjected to severe violations of his rights, and then they smugly wrote about that child's subsequent nervous breakdown, saying that it proved "he has some feelings." Here is the URL on one of my sites where you can find the report of "the Canadian delegation" in its own words, bundled together with a report by a U.S. intelligence observer to the Canadian delegation's "interrogations." It is reference 20: fakirscanada.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!BCDFFB6F4CF5AAB!543.entry
At the same URL you can access loads of other records, including the 2004 FBI report on incidents of torture at GITMO, court records, and more, also the URL for a YouTube video I did highlights some of the evidence, called "To Bring Omar Khadr Home Or Not - the Facts" www.youtube.com/watch
Motheroffive
I can't watch it but believe
Posted on: 02/19/2009 23:29
I can't watch it but believe it to be true. I think about my own children at 15 - that's far too young to be held accountable for war crimes, let alone tortured and abused for several years, and on top of that, all of this without any kind of due process. It's sad, sick and cruel and it's to be hoped that those responsible are someday held accountable, our own Prime Ministers top among them.
graeme
Harper is certainly a pretty
Posted on: 02/20/2009 10:17
Harper is certainly a pretty miseralbe wretch, but a reminder for those who got all enthusiastic about Obama...
1. He has not addressed the case of Omar Khadr.
2. He has not put an end to torture. It is still possible to send victims to allied states who will torture them, and who will do so under American guidance. In fact, that was always how the greater amount of torture took place.
3. He has not cut down on the general American policy of commercial expansion through war. On the contrary, with his stepping up of Afghanistan and his attitude to Iran, he has increased it.
4. Almost all of the people now entrusted with reviving the economy are the same ones who killed it.
plus que ca change....
graeme
Fakirs Canada
Yes, Graeme, I am afraid you
Posted on: 02/21/2009 13:54
Yes, Graeme, I am afraid you are right. Obama is learning that idealism isn't going to cut it with the Republicans, who, furious that they lost the election, are working to trip him up or otherwise work against his plans. I think Obama thought he was making conciliatory gestures by offering hostile parties a place in his administration. What he should have done is to purge places like the Pentagon.
graeme
Boy, good thing we have
Posted on: 02/21/2009 19:27
Boy, good thing we have Stephen Harper to straighten him out.
graeme
Fakirs Canada
I have written a post on why,
Posted on: 02/25/2009 21:43
I have written a post on why, neither Bill Kuebler's unquestionably sincere devotion to his client, Omar Khadr, www.thestar.com/article/592461 nor any of the facts surrounding Khadr's case matter anymore, because Omar Khadr is never coming back to Canada: fakirsca.blogspot.com/2009/02/life-and-times-of-omar-khadr.html
graeme
Cannon made it very clear
Posted on: 02/25/2009 22:09
Cannon made it very clear today in a meeting with American officials in New York t hat the government of which he is a member has confidence in the American justice system (and therefore, presumably, confidence in torture), that Khadr is accused of murder (and should therefore be tried by the US military), and that Canada will never ask for his return.
Anyone familiar with Quebec politicis will know that the Cannon family has a long history of accomodating itself with power, and not a whole lot of moral scruples in the process.
An eminently suitable agent for a Harper.
graeme
Fakirs Canada
I don't understand why
Posted on: 02/26/2009 00:26
I don't understand why Canadians, whatever they may think of the Khadr family or their lawyers, aren't enraged by the fact that Canadian Foreign Affairs officials acted as lackeys for a foreign power - on our tax dollar (see my post fakirsca.blogspot.com/2009/02/life-and-times-of-omar-khadr.html for details and links to the evidence, all freely available online).
Tell us about the Cannon family, if you would be so kind, Graeme. Enquiring minds want to know what to expect from the latest Foreign Affairs Harper lap-dog.
graeme
The Cannon family is based in
Posted on: 02/26/2009 08:26
The Cannon family is based in Quebec city.Anglos in that city are rather a special group. Once they were a very large and prominent minority in that city. Indeed, as late as the second world war, one of them was a major figure in the federal government. (Chubby Power)
But they soon found themselves overwhelmed by a francophone majority that was becoming profoundly separatist and intolerant. Salvation lay in adapting themselves to that large separatist and quasi separatist element. So, as legislation restricting the use of english began to appear,leaders in the Quebec city anglo community almost never criticized it, and were more often to be seen urging acceptance of the legislation as just and reasonable. They also showed a pretty placid face, to say the least, to separatism.
Prominent among those anglo leaders were the Cannons.
Remember Watership Down? The rabbits with sad weary faces who accepted the "free" carrots placed near their dens and never questioned the disappearance of so many of those those who went to eat them?
graeme