The Dirge of “Saint Romeo”
ridenrain @ Fri May 23, 2008 12:22 pm
$1:
Liberal Senator and command washout Romeo Dallaire pumps up the volume and keeps his rhetoric fact-free in today’s National Post:
We are permitting the United States to try a Canadian child soldier using a military tribunal whose procedures violate basic principles of justice.
Let’s parse this one.
Canadian?
Like the rest of his loathsome, misbegotten family, Omar Khadr was a willing and proud minion of al Qaeda who regarded Canada as nothing better than “the greatest hotel on Earth”, as described by that other Great Canadian™, Yann Martel. Waving a passport doesn’t trump one’s membership in a pathologically criminal enterprise.
Soldier?
In whose army, precisely, as determined by the much invoked albeit barely read Geneva Conventions? It takes a bit more than sporting dirty pajamas and shouting “Allahu Akhbar!” to be a uniformed party to a military conflict. Again, Omar Khadr has no legal status greater than that of a pirate or brigand.
Basic principles of justice?
Why should the people of the United States, particularly the families and neighbours of servicemen slain by Khadr and his fellow irregulars, be denied justice in seeing murderers punished for their crimes? And does anyone think a criminal proceeding fair to both the offender and his American victims can occur in a neo-Trudeaupia where the public utterance of the “I-Word” is being criminalized?!
What finally places Senator Dallaire firmly beyond the pale is the headline of his tract, “Who are the real criminals in Omar Khadr’s case?”. What can one say of a man who holds public office yet, clasping to his chest the faint title of “national hero” , calls an entire state and nation criminals for not attempting to free a willing servant of evil from the burden of his crimes?
Senator, you disgust me.
We are permitting the United States to try a Canadian child soldier using a military tribunal whose procedures violate basic principles of justice.
Let’s parse this one.
Canadian?
Like the rest of his loathsome, misbegotten family, Omar Khadr was a willing and proud minion of al Qaeda who regarded Canada as nothing better than “the greatest hotel on Earth”, as described by that other Great Canadian™, Yann Martel. Waving a passport doesn’t trump one’s membership in a pathologically criminal enterprise.
Soldier?
In whose army, precisely, as determined by the much invoked albeit barely read Geneva Conventions? It takes a bit more than sporting dirty pajamas and shouting “Allahu Akhbar!” to be a uniformed party to a military conflict. Again, Omar Khadr has no legal status greater than that of a pirate or brigand.
Basic principles of justice?
Why should the people of the United States, particularly the families and neighbours of servicemen slain by Khadr and his fellow irregulars, be denied justice in seeing murderers punished for their crimes? And does anyone think a criminal proceeding fair to both the offender and his American victims can occur in a neo-Trudeaupia where the public utterance of the “I-Word” is being criminalized?!
What finally places Senator Dallaire firmly beyond the pale is the headline of his tract, “Who are the real criminals in Omar Khadr’s case?”. What can one say of a man who holds public office yet, clasping to his chest the faint title of “national hero” , calls an entire state and nation criminals for not attempting to free a willing servant of evil from the burden of his crimes?
Senator, you disgust me.
http://www.barrelstrength.com/2008/05/2 ... int-romeo/
commanderkai @ Fri May 23, 2008 3:36 pm
Wow....ouch.
ridenrain @ Fri May 23, 2008 6:07 pm
In the spirit of free discussion, I should have put this first but here it is for reference:
$1:
Dallaire: Who are the real criminals in Omar Khadr's case?
Romeo A. Dallaire, National Post
Published: Friday, May 23, 2008
Canadians must realize by now that our government's cynicism toward Omar Khadr's tragic predicament reflects an unacceptable moral position. We are permitting the United States to try a Canadian child soldier using a military tribunal whose procedures violate basic principles of justice.
Stephen Harper's Conservatives slough off this reality using clever words and pat responses.
Speaking recently about his government's inaction on the Khadr file, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier glibly told the House that "the current policy of the government is one that has been in place since 2002," and that the government "is making sure that justice takes its course."
The policy toward Mr. Khadr formulated by the Canadian government in 2002, during the panicky aftermath of 9/11, was unquestionably wrong. Sticking stubbornly to this six-year-old approach illustrates an inflexible policy mechanism, and perhaps even a compulsion to bow and scrape to the Bush administration
In recent years, we have heard troubling facts about Guantanamo Bay and incontrovertible evidence of U. S. malfeasance.
In July, 2006, the United Nations called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, terming the indefinite detention of individuals without a charge "a violation of the convention against torture." Two months later, more than 600 U. S. legal scholars and jurists called on Congress not to enact the Military Commissions Act of 2006, as it would rob detainees of fundamental protections provided by domestic and international law.
This act allows prosecutors to use evidence gleaned from abusive interrogations, including coercion and torture. The commissions also sabotage individuals' ability to defend themselves by barring access to exculpatory evidence known to the U. S. government. In Mr. Khadr's case, documents to be used as evidence for war-crimes charges, laid in February, 2007, have been altered.
In December, 2007, Colonel Morris Davis, then chief military prosecutor of the military tribunals, resigned in protest over such political interference. "It's a disgrace to call it a military commission," he said. "It is a political commission."
Omar Khadr's ordeal began in 2002, when the 15-year-old was present during a firefight with U. S. troops in Afghanistan. Despite his age and the two serious gunshot wounds Khadr suffered during the incident, he was taken prisoner as an adult combatant for allegedly killing a U. S. serviceman. Even while he lay healing from his wounds, he was ill-treated, possibly tortured and certainly threatened with rendition, rape and death. We now know that even Canadian officials capitalized on Khadr's incarceration at Guantanamo Bay to question him.
Despite all this, Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister sticks to his line that the government "is making sure that justice takes its course." It's difficult to imagine how anything resembling justice can come out of Guantanamo Bay.
Within the international community, Canada is viewed as gullible for allowing one of its citizens to be processed by an illegal tribunal system at Guantanamo, and as hypocritical for quietly acceding to the first ever child-soldier war-crimes prosecution.
Canada's inaction has profound ramifications. The UN Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, says Khadr's prosecution sets a hazardous precedent in international law, which will endanger child soldiers in conflict zones. The impunity enjoyed by the real criminals -- those who have recruited child soldiers -- continues to the detriment of real victims: the thousands of child soldiers around the world.
This government must act now, as all of our allies have done already, to bring its citizen home. Otherwise, through our citizens, we are abetting an affront to human rights and international law that will have detrimental consequences for the thousands of child soldiers we agreed to protect around the world. - Lieutenant-General (ret'd) Romeo A. Dallaire is a Liberal Senator.
Romeo A. Dallaire, National Post
Published: Friday, May 23, 2008
Canadians must realize by now that our government's cynicism toward Omar Khadr's tragic predicament reflects an unacceptable moral position. We are permitting the United States to try a Canadian child soldier using a military tribunal whose procedures violate basic principles of justice.
Stephen Harper's Conservatives slough off this reality using clever words and pat responses.
Speaking recently about his government's inaction on the Khadr file, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier glibly told the House that "the current policy of the government is one that has been in place since 2002," and that the government "is making sure that justice takes its course."
The policy toward Mr. Khadr formulated by the Canadian government in 2002, during the panicky aftermath of 9/11, was unquestionably wrong. Sticking stubbornly to this six-year-old approach illustrates an inflexible policy mechanism, and perhaps even a compulsion to bow and scrape to the Bush administration
In recent years, we have heard troubling facts about Guantanamo Bay and incontrovertible evidence of U. S. malfeasance.
In July, 2006, the United Nations called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, terming the indefinite detention of individuals without a charge "a violation of the convention against torture." Two months later, more than 600 U. S. legal scholars and jurists called on Congress not to enact the Military Commissions Act of 2006, as it would rob detainees of fundamental protections provided by domestic and international law.
This act allows prosecutors to use evidence gleaned from abusive interrogations, including coercion and torture. The commissions also sabotage individuals' ability to defend themselves by barring access to exculpatory evidence known to the U. S. government. In Mr. Khadr's case, documents to be used as evidence for war-crimes charges, laid in February, 2007, have been altered.
In December, 2007, Colonel Morris Davis, then chief military prosecutor of the military tribunals, resigned in protest over such political interference. "It's a disgrace to call it a military commission," he said. "It is a political commission."
Omar Khadr's ordeal began in 2002, when the 15-year-old was present during a firefight with U. S. troops in Afghanistan. Despite his age and the two serious gunshot wounds Khadr suffered during the incident, he was taken prisoner as an adult combatant for allegedly killing a U. S. serviceman. Even while he lay healing from his wounds, he was ill-treated, possibly tortured and certainly threatened with rendition, rape and death. We now know that even Canadian officials capitalized on Khadr's incarceration at Guantanamo Bay to question him.
Despite all this, Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister sticks to his line that the government "is making sure that justice takes its course." It's difficult to imagine how anything resembling justice can come out of Guantanamo Bay.
Within the international community, Canada is viewed as gullible for allowing one of its citizens to be processed by an illegal tribunal system at Guantanamo, and as hypocritical for quietly acceding to the first ever child-soldier war-crimes prosecution.
Canada's inaction has profound ramifications. The UN Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, says Khadr's prosecution sets a hazardous precedent in international law, which will endanger child soldiers in conflict zones. The impunity enjoyed by the real criminals -- those who have recruited child soldiers -- continues to the detriment of real victims: the thousands of child soldiers around the world.
This government must act now, as all of our allies have done already, to bring its citizen home. Otherwise, through our citizens, we are abetting an affront to human rights and international law that will have detrimental consequences for the thousands of child soldiers we agreed to protect around the world. - Lieutenant-General (ret'd) Romeo A. Dallaire is a Liberal Senator.