How were they violated?
Omar Khadr was born in Canada, this makes him by default a Canadian citizen. His father took him to His native Afghanistan and enlisted him in the army at the age of 13 or 14, making him a Child Soldier. A child soldiers are essentially internationally illegal, because most countries thought that it should be so, including the United States and Canada. In 2001 the Afghanistan government perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States dubbed 9/11 after dated that it took place. Later that year, the United States invaded Afghanistan and there was an attack where 14 year old Khadr was stationed. In the attack the American soldiers overwhelmed all the soldiers and shot Omar in the back and he dropped a hand grenade that subsequently killed an American Medic. For that the Americans packed him up and shipped him to their military base in Cuba where they treated his injuries and then tortured a confession of terrorism out of him and then put him on trial. He was found guilty on the basis of his confession and a plea deal allowing him to spend half of his sentence in prison in Canada.
First he was a child soldier. He was a equal to a grade nine student when he joined the Army. In Canada he would have been in high school when he attacked and killed the medic. The Americans might paint him as an evil terrorist that was involved in the planning of 9/11, because lets be real, that was the only terrorist attack in 2001 and he was charged as a terrorist. Maybe they said that he maliciously targeted the Medic with one of those grenades that sticks to the person you throw it on like in those video games all 14 year olds play. After being shot in the back. Maybe the Americans shouted out that they were coming in peace and not to shoot at them, they were coming to free them. I am sure that only person to die in that attack was the medic, no afghan soldiers died that day. I mean that would be the difference between an armed assault on a military base and a terrorist attack.
Terrorists are people who attack civilian targets. They attack unarmed targets. They seek to cause terror by killing or hurting the a lot of people quickly. Mostly they kill themselves in the process but generally they get killed performing the attack. They try to kill, but the killing is really secondary to the insecurity that the attack spreads through the community. This is the goal of terrorism. The result of the 9/11 terror attacks was that people avoided flying. More people died in additional car accidents than died in the attacks. More American soldiers died attacking Afghanistan than died in the attacks. Americans felt insecure in the world and felt that people were generally against them as a result of the terror attacks. And the American response to the 9/11 terror attacks inspired more terror attacks than the number of people that died in those attacks. Americans attacking Afghanistan and Iraq essentially destabilized the region for decades to come.
Omar Khadr dropped a grenade in response to the American attack on the compound. I say dropped because he was injured; he had been shot in the back. This suggests that he had been trying to get away. Hand grenades are not a targeted effect weapon; they explode and injure everyone in range. The medic died, that is too bad, but it was in the job description when they invaded the country. Throwing a hand grenade suggests desperation rather than calculated intent.
I am suggesting that he was not a terrorist. He was a child soldier and he was being attacked by American soldiers who had just shot him, unless it was a self inflicted injury?
He was shipped to Cuba, to an American base there, because if he was shipped to American soil, he would have rights. In Cuba he had none. It is like he was still in transit. And they tortured him. And there were other foreign nationals staying there with Omar. There were Australians and British people and many others, but their governments called the Americans and asked them to release their citizens and they were released and sent back to their country and tried or not tried for anything. But the Canadian government, first with the Liberals and then the Conservative leadership, did nothing. They knew that the Americans were torturing Omar and they chose to let it happen. The confession acquired from the torture was the evidence they used to convict him along with the testament of the medic's coworkers. Do you think that Omar's coworkers were allowed to testify on his behalf? Do you think that a casualty list of the battle was read into the court trial about how many of Omar's colleagues were killed that day? My point is that it was all one sided and there was a plea bargain involved where he accepted a lesser charge to avoid more torture and solitary confinement.
He gat a settlement. It was not the first or the only settlement from the Canadian government from this time period. Other Canadians were detained in Syria and tortured on our government's behalf, even asked questions that the RCMP supplied to the torturers. But theses cases were short and they were all returned to Canada quickly, you know after a year or two. Omar Khadr spent his teenage years and most of his twenties in prison being tortured and in solitary confinement, arguably torture, with the full knowledge of the Canadian government.
Ten million dollars is probably too little, because ten million is pocket change for this country. The fine should be punitive, it should reflect the seriousness of the breach. They trampled on his unalienable rights granted to him as a citizen. The Americans should pay as well, because they imprisoned a Child Soldier and charged him with terrorism when by that logic they should have charged every POW they ever captured, before or since, with Terrorism. Also, the American government did not declare war on Afghanistan. They had provocation, but they should have declared war anyways. The last time they declared war was in World War II. Think about that. If America feels that they can just invade a country, and all the West follows suit, are we the terrorists?
My real point is that a punitive settlement should actually hurt the party that did the damage. If a country is not forced into major discomfort for violating a persons rights, they may feel that it is something they could do when ever they feel there ideals are only worth the paper they are written on. 10 million is worth a debate in the media, but it will not hurt anyone. 10 million out of the Liberal and Conservative Parties campaign budgets on the other hand. 10 million doesn't impact the Canadian government at all. 100million would impact the Canadian Military a tiny bit, but the impact would be on all of the people of Canada mostly. Ten million split 4:1 from the party re-election funds would send a message to all political parties about running over people's human rights and the rights of Canadians.
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