Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Controversial author wants Omar Khadr barred from Canada

FBI psychiatrist says so-called child soldier who killed a U.S. soldier and is jailed at Guantanamo Bay is 'highly dangerous ... full of rage'


Convicted al-Qaida terrorist Omar Khadr is due to be returned to Canada any time now - something Ezra Levant is working to scotch.

The scrappy journalist, lawyer and Conservative-minded activist is trying to goad the tough-on-crime Harper government to revisit its pact with the U.S. government to repatriate the Canadian prisoner at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In his just-published book titled The Enemy Within: Terror, Lies and the White-washing of Omar Khadr, Levant asserts the Conservatives would be justified in nixing the deal.

That's because it was struck before a pertinent psychiatric report was issued, a report Levant says that Canadian officials did not see.

That report reveals that the so-called child soldier who tossed a grenade that killed American medic Christopher Speer in 2002 in Afghanistan remains, in the view of expert FBI psychiatrist Michael Welner, "highly dangerous ... full of rage ... a high risk of dangerousness as a radical jihadist."

In other words, he's a good bet to return to terrorism, as 13.5 per cent of the 598 detainees released from Guantanamo in fact have been con-firmed to have done; another 11.5 per cent are "suspected" of re-engaging in terrorism.

"The true nature of Khadr's dangerousness was kept a secret from the Canadian government when the Obama administration was pressuring it to accept the plea deal," writes Levant, a television host for the right-leaning Sun News Network. "The testimony of Dr. Welner had not yet been given at his trial in Guantanamo Bay."

Khadr, imprisoned in Cuba since 2002, pleaded guilty to five war crimes charges in October 2010. He was convicted by a U.S. military tribunal and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

But that sentence was superseded by an Oct. 13, 2010 Canada-U.S. plea deal that featured an eight-year sentence for the young terrorist, with the option of being transferred back to Canada after serving one year at Guantanamo.

Khadr, now 25, has been eligible to return since last Oct. 12. Once repatriated, he'd be able to apply for parole immediately because he already has served a third of his sentence; he spent nine years in Gitmo in pre-trial custody.

"It's a brazen demand for Canada to put a confessed murderer on Canadian streets so that the U.S. president can save face with his antiwar base," says Levant. "It's using Canadian streets as a garbage dump."

The author heaps legitimate scorn on the Canadian media for sympathizing with Khadr, an al-Qaida translator and explosives expert just shy of his 16th birthday when he murdered Speer.

"If he is released from prison at the end of his sentence for time served Khadr would be a free man: free to leverage all the sympathy he's amassed in his years in prison for murder to spread whatever perverted ideas he wants - all the while forcing Canadians to tolerate him walking their streets, flying in their airplanes. ..."

Levant wants Canada's National Parole Board to hold an open hearing into Khadr's case, and for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to intervene to prevent the plea deal with the Americans from ever being acted upon.

Mike Patton, spokesman for Toews, would not comment Tuesday, saying only: "When an application for transfer is received, the minister considers the facts of each case and bases his decision solely on those facts."
Insists Levant: "Letting in Omar Khadr is a full-force slap in the face to the Conservative base in Canada."
By the way, for those not already turned off by this sordid tale, Khadr's counsel has filed a civil lawsuit against Ottawa, claiming $10 mil-lion in damages for having allowed him to remain in U.S. custody.

Original Article
Source: vancouver sun 
Author: Barbara Yaffe 

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