The question out of all this is how he is being treated.

“One prime allegation is that al-Haj served as a financial courier for Chechen rebels and other armed groups in the Caucuses, delivering large sums of cash from the United Arab Emirates to Azerbaijan on several occasions between 1996 and 2000. Azerbaijan was a known transfer point for arms and materiel in support of Chechen armed groups.

U.S. officials allege that al-Haj made cash deliveries on behalf of his boss at Union Beverages, Abdel Latif al-Umran, to the Baku branch of the Islamic charity Al-Haramain. Al-Umran, son of the company’s listed owner, did not respond to several requests for comment. The elder al-Umran also did not respond to messages from CPJ. Al-Haramain was not on a U.S. terrorist watch list at the time, although it was placed there after the September 11 attacks.

Al-Haj is also accused of meeting with and helping secure a visa for reputed al-Qaeda founder Mamdouh Mahmoud Salim, who was extradited to the United States on conspiracy charges stemming from the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. Salim was convicted in 2004 of maiming a Manhattan corrections officer.

Military officials also say al-Haj falsified Romat International documents as a way to establish a corporation in Azerbaijan. Investigators allege Salim was affiliated with Romat, but provide no details about Salim’s role or the intent of the alleged scheme.

On their face, other accusations appear to be an indictment of al-Haj’s journalistic work. At his 2005 Administrative Review Board hearing, military officials said al-Haj had “interviewed several Taliban officials” and top al-Qaeda figure Abu Hafs al-Mauritani while in Afghanistan.

The U.S. government’s classified file could include other allegations, but such accusations, if any, have not been disclosed to the public, al-Haj, or Stafford Smith.

n a January 2005 report in The Wall Street Journal, U.S. commanders acknowledged that many Guantanamo detainees are not a threat and likely have no valuable intelligence about al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Stafford Smith said his client did nothing wrong and has no involvement with terror groups. He said al-Haj traveled to Azerbaijan for family and business reasons, delivering money for his boss to Islamic charities on one, or possibly two occasions.

“At the time Sami didn’t know what it was for,” said Stafford Smith, who said his client acted solely on his boss’ instructions. “He thought it was going to charity.” On one occasion, when he was carrying US$220,000 to Azerbaijan, al-Haj declared the cash to customs officials, the lawyer said.

The defense lawyer said his client picked up Salim at an airport on one occasion, and drove his family around Dubai another time, both at his boss’ direction. Stafford Smith said that al-Haj helped secure a visa to the United Arab Emirates, not for Salim, but for Salim’s relatives, again at the behest of his employer”

He had been id’d as a courier in the late 90’s to armed Islamic groups (on an international watch list)and then turns up in Afghanistan and is not allowed into pakistan by the Intel arm of the Govt. for connections to whatever. He had contact with and had taped OBL.

He may just be a dupe for his old boss and totally innocent, I’m just not sure.
Those were the circumstances.

The kid murdered someone. He murdered a soldier, a medic. A highly respected person. Innocent, my ass. He was caught red-handed.

Not a single person here said that this kid is innocent. We are questioning this whole terrorist and racist procedure, the treatment of minors, and the innocent lives that were ruined, like that of Al Jazeera’s cameraman Sami which I have discussed here and linked to. Tell me what this man was accused of and why he was held without charge for 5 years while he was simply trying to do his job. Otherwise, try reading the thread more extensively before you write another comment defending something you don’t even get.

I’ll try next time not to bother with your remarks. But the shallow way you address others is getting quite tedious and is getting more and more annoying to have to swift through.

Gitmo is the BEST protection the little shit ever had.

Do us all a favor and take your own advice:

Get some reality in your life!

Screw that little whiner.

They said that too about every single innocent prisoner in that sorry excuse for a terrorist center (yes, Gitmo.) So much for human rights in the “great nation.”

so he should be bad ass enough to put up with an imprisonment he so justly deserves.

A minor American murderer would have never suffered the same fate. But I guess for those backwards Muslims, Arabs and Pakistanis, everything is deserved.

Guantanamo is WAY worse than just any “imprisonment,” especially for all the kids in it, some of which I’m sure are completely innocent.

Patb is right that the US Supreme Court has never once declared Gitmo “illegal” it simply has attacked the ways that some prisoners at Gitmo have been tried, which have been deemed unacceptable under the US constitution. Those members of US forces who use torture methods on prisoners are tried in military courts. And Esra’a, regarding your point that both candidates agree that Gitmo is not ok, I wonder how you formed that opinion – McCain recently voted in the Senate for a bill that declares that waterboarding is not torture and is an acceptable interrogation method.

I agree with some of the other posters, Patb and Jamal included, that international law permits what is going on at Gitmo for one major reason: domestic law supercedes international law. If someone has a human rights complaint against a country, it must first be heard in that country (hence what is going on with the cases regarding Gitmo – they are reaching the US Supreme Court). If the individual continues to appeal, then it would go to a regional court (in this case, the Inter-American court which covers North and South America), which must decide first and foremost if the individual did/did not get a fair trial at the domestic level. Let me reiterate that point: the higher court will not decide whether or not there was a violation of human rights until it decides if the previous courts gave a fair trial.

Nothing gets to the Hague until passing by the regional courts. Of course, this is different when crimes are brought against heads of state (recent Sudanese pres is an example), or in the cases of mass violations (tribunals in Rwanda after the genocide).

I don’t think anyone here is saying that using torture against Omar was OK – the question now becomes what will happen to Omar and to those who tortured him. Omar should be tried for his crimes (as noted by a previous poster, he is 15 – which according to US domestic laws means he can be tried as an adult if the crime is henious enough), and those who tortured him should also be punished. There is accountability here, even if you don’t agree with what forms that accountability takes.

Es, I really enjoy reading the posts here but I think that instead of focusing on this rather silly example which is acceptable under International Law the focus should be more on the huge issues that the ME is facing. You simply can not compare the human rights abuses of the western world with what is happening in the ME.

This is a disgusting and racially motivated statement, based on nothing but hypocrisy. Crimes by American soldiers or the American government are “silly” even if some of them are 10 times worse than crimes in the Middle East (what a gross generalization by the way) and according to you, should go unpunished, unmentioned, and uncondemned, despite how despicable they may be. Sorry, but I don’t flow that way. A human rights crime is a human rights crime regardless of who you are – I expected to get a comment like yours here so read my conclusion in the post again. I don’t care about your race or rank; if you commit the crime, you get condemned. This is just how it is. Americans are no better. Your bias won’t change my mind that this is a crime against human rights caused by disrespect for international law, which frankly does not allow for this operation to be permissible – and I’m not the only one who feels that way.

The Bush administration’s treatment of juvenile prisoners shipped to Guantánamo Bay defies logic as well as international law.

Read more.

With little fanfare earlier this month, the Bush administration floated potential solutions to what one could call the “detainee problem” – that is, what to do with the hundreds of prisoners of war being held indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay in open violation of international law since 2002.

Read more.

Two years after opening a detention camp at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the United States continues to ignore international law in its treatment of the detainees.

Since January 11, 2002, the U.S. government has sent over seven hundred people picked up from around the world to Guantanamo. Currently some 660 are in detention, including an undisclosed number of children.

Read more.

I can go on if you want me to.

Of course I would get emotional over this, anyone who doesn’t get emotional over this kind of deliberate abuse must not respect human rights, especially considering the fact that there are children and innocent individuals involved in this mess. I can’t stomach this kind of bullshit any longer.

Maybe the bigger question should be, is is right that such activity is permitted under international law? I am not sure, we just live in hard times, the issue is that we are living in a world with a new type of “warfare” and the western world has no clue how to tackle it.

Es, I really enjoy reading the posts here but I think that instead of focusing on this rather silly example which is acceptable under International Law the focus should be more on the huge issues that the ME is facing. You simply can not compare the human rights abuses of the western world with what is happening in the ME. For one, Omar is receiving the support and help of thousands of americans and canadians as they live in countries where they can publicly disagree with their government and act to bring about change (exp the video was released and available for the eyes of the world). This type of open society is no where to be seen in the ME (except Israel, where Israelis are permitted and regularly protest the treatment of Palestinians), I personally think that this forum should focus on building these types of open societies which allow for open discussion and critic of the government. Peace, J.

ps PATB, hope to read more of your comments here, you seem to be from the field, what is your background?

You’ve not answered my question about the legality of Canada trying this man, I don’t think it would be legal as his actions predate the Canadian involvement and believe this is why Canada is not asking for his release.

I guess amongst the unethical things that the U.S army are taught and forced to swallow is abusing teenagers and eventually killing them, which apparently is not frowned upon but like I said, encouraged and disgustingly justified in what is one of the worst human crimes that this generation has ever seen.

Few things for you:

Omar Khadr cannot receive a fair trial through the seriously flawed military commissions set up in Guantánamo Bay. Amnesty International is further concerned that Omar Khadr was granted none of the special protections for juveniles under international law and that his human rights continue to be denied.

Other governments worked to protect the rights of their citizens in Guantánamo Bay. But Canada has remained silent.

Shame on the hypocritical and abusive U.S government.

“I think it’s deplorable that he would say that there’s nothing to be done,” Khadr’s U.S, military lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler told CTV Newsnet. “This Canadian prime minister refuses to stand up to the Bush administration and protect the rights of a Canadian citizen.

Shame on Canada for its silence and discrimination.

In early June, individuals and groups across The United Church of Canada were urged to contact the Chair of the parliamentary subcommittee on International Human Rights, Scott Reid, requesting the committee recommend Omar Khadr’s repatriation to Canada from Guantanamo Bay prison.

Everyone who respects international law and human rights wants Omar to be sent back to Canada in order to face Canadian justice.

This is terrorism in every sense of the word. Kidnapping people, many of whom are innocent, torturing them, including minors, for YEARS on end without being allowed a fair trial or sufficient access to their lawyers, families, et al, is simply disgusting. Have some shame in yourself and the terrorists you are serving.

The U.S military is involved in terrorist activities and should be condemned – we are lucky right now that there are 2 presidential candidates who are against this filth and plan to shut it down. The current administration is a disgrace to humanity.

He was not a ‘child’ at 15 but a youth, a young man, and I might add old enough to marry and carry a weapon in the ME.
What would he have grown into as a 15 year old AQ soldier, another suicide bomber perhaps, maybe we saved his young life.
Gitmo is not illegal under US law and is tied to the US thru the Defense dept. UCMJ and thru the Civilian Judiciary. He would not have an assigned lawyer in an illegal operation would he.
What status are you claiming for it’s illegality?

No one mentions that.

Because the post is not about that. It’s not about his background as a child or his familial issues. It’s about the illegal Guantanamo detention camp.