Wednesday 06 August 2008 UNITED STATES: LAWYERS FOR GUANTANAMO CANADIAN MANEUVRE
A military lawyer defending a Canadian terrorism suspect detained at Guantanamo, Cuba, has presented several motions aimed at the invalidation of the accusations pending against 21-year-old Omar Khadr. Naval Cmd. William Kuebler presented a motion to have the proceedings of the military commission annulled on the grounds that the U.S. government exercised an improper influence over the tribunal and also compromised the integrity of the legal process. Cmd. Kuebler justifies his contention by claiming that Khadr's interrogators destroyed written notes of the interrogations. A second motion challenges the integrity of the military commission because the U.S. defence department dismissed one of its judges earlier in the year. The motion claims the dismissal was due to the judge's refusal to set a date for Khadr's trial. The motions will be heard on Aug. 13.

The U.S. defence department says that some of the terrorist suspects detained at Guantanamo, Cuba, may never be released "...because of the threat they pose to the world." The Pentagon's press secretary says that even those tried and acquitted by special military commissions will nonetheless continue to be held as enemy combatants. The revelation comes as a military jury weighs the fate of Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, who is the accused in the first of a series of military commissions for Guantanamo's inmates. He's accused of aiding al-Qaeda and of conspiring to kill Americans. The press secretary says that he could appeal his verdict in U.S. courts but that "in the near term" he would continue to be considered an enemy combatant and therefore remain a prisoner.

TORONTO: ELDER KHADR SEEKS BAIL
Meanwhile, Omar Khadr's older brother Abdullah is seeking to obtain $300,000 bail. His lawyer argued in court that his client should be released and allowed to work at a Toronto mosque pending the outcome of his extradition fight with the U.S., which wants to put him on trial on charges of buying weapons for al-Queda and of plotting to kill Americans in Afghanistan. The 27-year-old Abdullah has been in jail for two-and-a-half years. His lawyer says he ought to be allowed to work at the Salaheddin Islamic Centre. The Crown told the court that the mosque has ties to terrorism because its co-founder was linked to al-Qaeda and because his late father, who was an associate of Osama bin Laden, once had his charity's office there. The lawyer retorted that the co-founder left the mosque a dozen years ago, and that the father was killed by the Pakistani security forces five years ago.

Sunday Jul 27, 2008 TORONTO: HUNDREDS BRAVE BAD WEATHER FOR KHADR RALLY
Hundreds of people turned out in thunder showers and strong winds in Toronto Saturday to call on the federal government to bring Canadian Omar Khadr home from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Members of Mr. Khadr's family were present, including brother Karim and sister Zaynab. Neither spoke, but Karim Khadr told reporters he hoped the rally would spur Canadians into action for his older brother. Omar Khadr was arrested as a 15-year-old in Afghanistan after a firefight with American troops in 2002. He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US medic. Earlier this month, Mr. Khadr's lawyers released a 2003 video that showed the then 16-year-old calling out in despair while being interrogated by a Canadian security agent at the prison. Mr. Khadr is the only remaining Westener being held at Guantanamo. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that he will await the outcome of Mr. Khadr's US military trial before making any statements.

Wednesday 16 July 2008 The U.S. justice department wants to start the first of some 80 war crimes trials for terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo, Cuba, next week. Salim Hamdan, who was Osama bin Laden's driver and bodyguard, has been at the military prison for six years and has been charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. His trial would be the first by a military war tribunal since World War Two. His lawyers are trying to have the system declared invalid in a court in Washington.

Wednesday 16 July 2008 EDMONTON: GUANTANAMO CANADIAN WANTED TO COME HOME
Two lawyers representing a Canadian who is the only Western terrorism suspect detained by the U.S. at Guantanamo, Cuba, have released a seven-hour video of him. The secretly taped video shows interrogations of 21-year-old Omar Khadr over four days by an unnamed agent of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service. The video was made public under court order. Khadr was captured by the U.S. military in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old and stands accused of killing an American soldier. Khadr is seen pulling his prison shirt over his head to display wounds he received in a fire fight and he complains about his medical treatment. He also asks to be able to return to Canada, to which the CSIS agent responds that he cannot help with that, commenting that at least there's no snow at Guantanamo. One of the lawyers, Dennis Edney, says Canadians don't need to ask themselves whether Khadr is guilty but whether he deserves the full protection of Canadian law. A spokeswoman for Foreign Minister David Emerson repeated the government's position that Khadr is in "a legal process that must continue." Liberal foreign policy critic Bob Rae called Khadr a "child soldier" who should be repatriated for treatment and rehabilitation.

Tuesday 15 July 2008 'First Guantanamo video' released
A video of a 16-year-old detainee being questioned at the US's Guantanamo Bay prison camp is made public for the first time.

Gunmen kill Guatemala prosecutor
A prosecutor investigating the murders of three Salvadorean politicians in Guatemala last year is shot dead, police say.

Friday 11 July 2008 TOKYO: PM SAYS CAN'T INTERVENE FOR GUANTANAMO CANADIAN
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has sought to place distance between his Conservative Party government and the previous Liberal government in power when a Canadian teenager was incarcerated as a terrorism suspect at Guantanamo, Cuba. Foreign affairs department documents made public on Wednesday by Omar Khadr's lawyers indicate that the Canadian government was told by the Americans in 2004 that he was being severely treated by his captors. The documents show that a Canadian official who visited Khadr in that year was advised that he was being deprived of sleep to render him more co-operative during interrogations. Mr. Harper says the Liberal government had "a whole range, all of the information when they made the decision on how to proceed..." Mr. Harper says his government has sought assurances that Khadr will be treated humanely and that Ottawa "has no real alternative" to the U.S. legal process. Khadr's military lawyer, Navy Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, says the claim is wrong, and that if the Canadian government requested his client's release, the U.S. government would agree.

Thursday 10 July 2008 EDMONTON: GUANTANAMO CANADIAN DEPRIVED OF SLEEP
Lawyers representing the only Western terrorism suspect at Guantanamo, Cuba, say U.S. military documents reveal that the federal government knew he was being deprived of sleep for weeks on end to make him more forthcoming during interrogations. According to the documents, a Canadian official visited Omar Khadr in 2004 and was informed by the Americans that measure had been taken to make him inclined to talk. The official also was told that Khadr would be subjected to prolonged isolation before his next interrogation. One lawyer says the document should convince the Canadian government to pressure the U.S. to release Khadr and to return him to Canada immediately. The Americans accuse him of having killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15 years of age.

Friday 27 June 2008 EDMONTON: GUANTANAMO CANADIAN WINS RULING
A second terrorism suspect, this one a Canadian, also has won a court decision. Omar Khadr is the only Westerner still being held at Guantanamo, Cuba. Last month, the Supreme Court of Canada found that his lawyers have the right to partial access to Canadian government documents connected to his case. The high court left it up to Federal Court of Canada to determine which ones. The latter tribunal ruled on Wednesday that the lawyers must be given a 2004 document which indicates how the U.S. military sought to prompt Khadr before a meeting with an interrogator from the foreign affairs department. Federal Court ruled that the document shows that the Americans broke human rights laws, including the Geneva Conventions, and that the Canadian government "became implicated" after being aware of the situation.

Wednesday Jun 25, 2008 Khadr claims he was chained and choked by U.S. jailers
Omar Khadr said his interrogators promised to free him if he revealed information that led to the capture..

Tuesday 24 June 2008

‘J’ IS FOR JIHAD
CTV News, the Globe, the Post, the Star, and the Citizen lead, while the National goes inside with the trial of Mohammad Momin Khawaja, the first person charged under Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act. If there’s one thing MediaScout takes away from the coverage of the first day of the trial, it’s that the Big Seven seem bursting at the seams with a desire to pronounce Khawaja guilty, perhaps in order to justify the expansive coverage devoted to the story today. All sources devote quite a bit of space - as much as several pages, heavy with visuals and sidebars - to the trial’s proceedings, focusing on the Crown’s case against Khawaja and the beefed-up security presence at an Ottawa courtroom. Khawaja is accused of collaborating with a British terror cell planning on attacking civilian targets in London; he allegedly trained at a terrorist camp in Pakistan, and planned to use his job as a Department of Foreign Affairs contractor to ship equipment to the UK. Khawaja pleaded not guilty to all seven charges against him, and all sources bury the allegation from his lawyer that the testimony of the prosecution’s star witness, convicted terrorist-turned-informant Mohammed Junaid Babar, is “95 percent” secondhand. One embarrassing element of today’s news cycle is the Globe’s, the Post’s, and the Citizen’s look at the slang used by Khawaja and his alleged co-conspirators; both Christie Blatchford and the Canwest papers seem tickled by the use of sho’ fo’ (”j” for jihad) and other gangsta lingo. Hopefully, future coverage will focus more on the proceedings and less on the patois.

Sunday Jun 22, 2008 Judge denies Khadr's defence access to interrogation info
The new judge in Omar Khadr's war-crimes prosecution has denied his defence lawyers access to so-called...

Saturday 21 June 2008 McCain backs Khadr's return
Senator John McCain says he would favour returning Toronto-born Omar Khadr to Canada from Guantanamo Bay if Prime Minister Stephen Harper requested it.

WASHINGTON: GUANTANAMO CANADIAN'S TRIAL WILL PROCEED
A U.S. appeals court has said it won't rule on an appeal by a 21-year-old Canadian held as a terrorism suspect at Guantanamo, Cuba, until his case is decided by a military tribunal. Omar Khadr is scheduled to go on trial on Oct. 8 for allegedly having killed an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. Khadr is one of two inmates at Guantanamo who were captured as juveniles and charged with crimes that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Saturday 14 June 2008 The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners at the U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detentions in a U.S. federal court. The ruling reverses a decision by the Republican-led Congress two years ago that took away the right of prisoners in Guantanamo to have their detentions reviewed. President George W. Bush says he will abide by the ruling even though he disagrees with it. The justice department says the military commission trials will proceed because the high court's ruling concerns the status of detainees held as enemy combatants not the trials themselves.

Friday 13 June 2008

SHEDDING LIGHT ON A LEGAL BLACK HOLE
The Post leads, while La Presse teases, and CTV News, the Globe, the Star, and the Citizen go inside with the US Supreme Court’s ruling that Guantanamo Bay detainees have a right under the Constitution to challenge, in a civilian court, their detention without charge. In a five-to-four decision, the majority ruled that prisoners at Guantanamo “have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus,” regardless of whether they are classified as “enemy combatants,” which means that they can legally dispute the constitutionality of their imprisonment. The decision is praised throughout today’s sources by human rights advocates appalled by what one jurist, quoted in the Post’s thorough article, describes as the “legal black hole” that is Gitmo. Meanwhile, the conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia suggests in his dissenting opinion that the decision will “almost certainly cause more Americans to get killed”—a worry reiterated by US President George W. Bush in Rome yesterday. Bush said that he “strongly agreed” with the minority opinion, and though he would abide by the ruling, “I don’t have to like it.”

Big Seven sources are predicting that the court’s decision will spell the end of Guantanamo and the controversial war crimes tribunals, which, according to the Globe, are “designed … to be beyond the reach of US law and the Constitution.” The tribunals, which are currently hearing several cases, are expected as a result of this ruling to be disrupted and significantly delayed by a spate of habeas corpus invocations. The prison and the tribunal have been criticized by both presumptive nominees for president, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, and are unlikely to survive long after the next administration takes office. An editorial in the Globe calls the decision “a triumphant moment for the rule of law in the United States,” and urges the Canadian government to act now to have Omar Khadr—the Canadian arrested at fifteen and subsequently jailed at Guantanamo—removed from the unconstitutional prison in which he has spent his adolescence.

Friday Jun 13, 2008 Top U.S. court backs Guantanamo detainees
In a setback for the Bush administration's policy on holding foreign terror suspects, the U.S. Supreme...In a setback for the Bush administration's policy on holding foreign terror suspects, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Guantanamo Bay detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution to challenge being held without charge.

Saturday 07 June 2008

Tuning Out Torture

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on America, was finally arraigned yesterday in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom, along with four accused co-conspirators, on 2,974 counts of murder, among other crimes. Mohammed is the first “high value” detainee to be brought before the controversial war crimes tribunal, which has so far busied itself with relatively small-time suspects such as Omar Khadr, the Canadian arrested at fifteen for the murder of a US soldier. Mohammed, however, is accused of being a major al Qaeda player: He has confessed to more than thirty offences, including his involvement in the 9/11 attacks, several deadly bombings, and the beheading of Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Pearl in 2002. Regardless, his conviction will not be easily attained; the prosecution will first have to show that his confessions should be admissible, despite the fact that they were obtained through, among other dubious methods, the practice of waterboarding, which is widely viewed as torture, and therefore a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Yesterday, the judge in the case asked Mohammed if he understood that he faces the death penalty if found guilty, to which he replied, “This is what I wish, to be a martyr, for a long time.” The accused’s trial poses a lose-lose conundrum: Either a man generally agreed to be a legitimate, high-ranking terrorist is not brought to justice, or he is found guilty and torture as a means of extracting evidence is implicitly condoned.

Meanwhile, the ethical and legal transgressions of America’s “war on terror” are haunting the Bush administration in more than one news story today. The US government announced yesterday that it would reopen its probe into the rendition of Maher Arar after new evidence emerged that suggests the Canadian engineer, who was arrested by US authorities and deported as a suspected terrorist in 2002, but has since been fully exonerated, may have been sent to Syria to be tortured. The Bush Administration has claimed that they were assured by Syrian authorities that Arar would not be tortured, but a report by Richard Skinner, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, delivered to the House of Representatives yesterday, indicates that those assurances were “ambiguous” and unchecked. The Arar probe and the Mohammed tribunal both provide good opportunities for Canadian media to evaluate the practices and likely legacy of the moribund war on terror—issues with far-reaching implications for Western democracies. But only Marcus Gee in the Globe begins to consider them. Of today’s sources, two lead and four front (only La Presse goes inside) the uncertain future of the Hockey Night in Canada theme song (see “Is Dunt Da-Dunt Da-Dunt Done?” below). This is slightly more prominent attention than is given to these two stories combined. While protecting the traditional symbols of our national pastime is a subject of interest to many, MediaScout would have hoped that the Big Seven would recognize that human rights violations allegedly committed by Canada’s closest ally, against Canadians among others, are of more importance.

Sunday 25 May 2008 OTTAWA: HIGH COURT RULES IN FAVOUR OF GUANTANAMO CANADIAN
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a Canadian accused of terrorism is allowed access to Canadian government documents to help his defence. The documents contain information about interrogations of Omar Khadr by American and Canadian intelligence agents. Mr. Khadr is accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. He was 15 years old at the time. For the past six years, Mr. Khadr has been held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Supreme Court ruling says that the United States violated international human rights law by taking Mr. Khadr to Guantanmo Bay. The court also says that Canada was an accomplice with the U.S. because it sent intelligence agents to Cuba to interrogate Mr. Khadr. However, the ruling doesn't give Mr. Khadr's lawyers unlimited access to all the documents they requested. Federal Court of Canada will determine the material to which they're entitled.

Wednesday 21 May 2008 US 'stuck' with Guantanamo prison
The US is "stuck" with the Guantanamo Bay prison as it cannot send some inmates home, its defence chief says.

Wednesday 16 April 2008 WASHINGTON: COURT WEIGHS CASE OF GUANTANAMO CANADIAN
A U.S. Court of Appeals has taken under advisement the question of whether it should intervene in the case of the only Canadian terrorism suspect held at Guantanamo, Cuba. Lawyers defending 21-year-old Omar Khadr want the court to invalidate a decision last year by a military tribunal which restarted the extraordinary proceedings underway against him. U.S. government lawyers argued on Tuesday that the Court of Appeals has no jurisdiction until the suspect has had a full trial before a military tribunal. But one of Khadr's lawyers argued that it's not even clear yet whether his client should be considered an "unlawful" enemy combatant. Khadr is accused of the murder of an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.

Wednesday 19 March 2008 WASHINGTON: GUANTANAMO CANADIAN CLAIMS TORTURE
Twenty-one-year-old Canadian Omar Khadr says he made confessions to his American captors to stop them from torturing and abusing him. He made the claim in an affidavit released in Washington. Khadr was captured in Afghanistan in July 2002 and is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade. He was shot twice in the back during a firefight. Khadr says he was then taken to Bagram prison and questioned 42 times before being sent to Guantanamo. It was revealed last week that his main interrogator at Bagram was a sergeant who was court-martialled and discharged from the U.S. Army after an Afghan prisoner was murdered. Khadr says in the affidavit that he told the Americans whatever he thought they wanted to hear to avoid being abused but that his treatment became worse when he acknowledged having lied. The terrorism suspect says he received visits from Canadian officials at Guantanamo but that they did nothing to help him and even called him a liar and shouted at him. Khadr's military lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, says it makes no sense for the Canadian government not to intervene on his behalf in light of the evidence of abuse.

Monday 11 February 2008 "My opinion is, if the death of 3,000 people isn’t sufficient for a death penalty in this country then why do we even have the death penalty?"
DEBORAH BURLINGAME, whose brother died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, on the government’s decision to seek capital punishment against six Guantánamo Bay detainees.
Military prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for six Guantánamo detainees who are to be charged with central roles in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, government officials who have been briefed on the charges said Sunday.

Tuesday 05 February 2008 GUANTANAMO: PROCEEDINGS HELD IN CANADIAN TERROR SUSPECT
Lawyers representing the only Canadian held at a U.S. military prison in Cuba on suspicion of terrorism invoked a variety of arguments that Omar Khadr's case be dismissed. The 21-year-old Canadian is charged with killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in July 2002 when he was 15 years old. He's accused of murder, conspiracy and providing material support to terrorism. His lawyers told a special military tribunal that the crimes with which he's charged occurred in the context of a legitimate military conflict. The lawyers argued as well that the special tribunal was created only in 2006 and that it was therefore incompetent to hear the case. However, the lead prosecutor said Khadr deserves prosecution because he carried out surveillance in civilian clothing and lived with women and children at the compound where the firefight in question took place, arguing as well that Khadr was not a combatant with a legitimate army but rather with al-Qaeda terrorists. An unidentified U.S. military witness testified that Khadr was shot twice in the back after he had already been injured in the chest by shrapnel, a revelation which his lawyers claim will help their effort to have the case dismissed. Khadr is one of only four of the 275 suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo to have been formally accused.

Tuesday 05 February 2008 Time Runs Out for an Afghan Held by the U.S.
By CARLOTTA GALL and ANDY WORTHINGTON
The fate of the first detainee to die of natural causes at the U.S. prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, reveals the problem of military tribunals, Afghans say.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Abdul Razzaq Hekmati was regarded here as a war hero, famous for his resistance to the Russian occupation in the 1980s and later for a daring prison break he organized for three opponents of the Taliban government in 1999.
But in 2003, Mr. Hekmati was arrested by American forces in southern Afghanistan when, senior Afghan officials here contend, he was falsely accused by his enemies of being a Taliban commander himself. For the next five years he was held at the American military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where he died of cancer on Dec. 30.

Thursday 17 January 2008
TONGUE-TIED AT THE PENTAGON
The National, the Star, and the Citizen lead, CTV News and the Post front, and the Globe goes inside with the fallout from US Defence Secretary Robert Gates’ slight against NATO forces in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Gates said that NATO troops in southern Afghanistan—where Canadian, Dutch and British troops are stationed—are badly trained and unable to wage an effective counterinsurgency. The comments sparked international outrage and sent Gates and his press secretary scrambling to undo the diplomatic damage. According to Defence Minister Peter MacKay, Gates called him yesterday afternoon to apologize and assure him that the quotes were “taken out of context.” In fact, MacKay suggested on CTV News, Gates had been “laudatory in his comments” about the Canadian effort in Afghanistan. Unfortunately for Gates’ PR campaign, he and his press secretary, Geoff Morrell, did not get their stories straight. The National had Morrell trying to soften the blow of his boss’s comments by saying that the criticisms were intended for all NATO countries, including the US. The defence secretary’s criticisms came one day after the death of the seventy-eighth Canadian soldier to lose his life in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, The National, CTV News (neither available online), the Globe, and the Citizen go inside with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion’s own controversial comments on Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. After a two-day trip to the country last weekend, Dion concluded that the success of the Canadian mission depends upon staunching the unhindered flow of terrorists over the porous Pakistani border into Afghanistan. Upon his return, the Globe reports, Dion told reporters that Pakistan’s government is aware of the problem, but is unwilling to do anything about it. He suggested that NATO “help Pakistan help us bring peace to Afghanistan”—a suggestion ridiculed by Peter MacKay as “ludicrous.” CTV News has MacKay decrying, “Mr. Dion seems to be suggesting that we now invade Pakistan as opposed to continue or further our mission in Afghanistan.” The leader of the opposition later clarified that he is suggesting only a strictly diplomatic intervention, and does not propose any military incursion into Pakistan.

Saturday 12 January 2008 Protest demonstrations Friday marked the sixth anniversary of the opening of the US detention base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The base holds close to 300 suspected terrorists, including one Canadian. Some of them have been detained for years without formal charge. In protest, the human rights group, Amnesty International, organized public demonstrations in major cities around the world, including London, Rome and Madrid. A demonstration in Washington, DC called on President George W. Bush to close the base. Meanwhile, a US court Friday rejected claims by four British detainees that they were tortured at the base.

2007

Saturday 22 December 2007 LONDON:
BRITISH LAWYERS CRITICIZE CANADA OVER GUANTANAMO CANADIAN
Five British law societies have sharply criticized the Canadian government for not doing enough to secure the release of Omar Khadr. Mr. Khadr is awaiting a war crimes trial at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The heads of five legal organizations have sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying that he must take urgent action to obtain Mr. Khadr's release. They also say Canada in violating international laws that protect juveniles, and accuse Mr. Harper's government of breaching basic international standards of conduct. Mr. Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in Afghanistan six years ago. He is charged with murder for allegedly killing an American soldier. He also faces charges of attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying. He is expected to go to trial next year.

Sunday 09 December 2007 British lawyers for four men held at the U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, say that their clients are going to be released. The four have all lived legally in Britain. Their lawyers say that U-S authorities no longer consider the men to be a threat to national security. Three of the men will returned to Britain, while the fourth will return to his native Saudi Arabia. A fifth detainee who also lived in Britain will remain in detention. No dates of their release were reported. Four months ago, Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, reversed his country's policy of declining to negotiate the release of former residents who lacked British citizenship. He called for the five to be freed. Prisoners at the detention centre are held without charge and have no chance to have their case heard in an open court. Human rights groups have long called for the detention centre to be closed.

Sunday 11 November 2007

Op-Ed Contributor: Guantánamo by the Numbers
Here are data that provide a historical snapshot to the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Guantánamo by the Numbers

Tuesday 02 October 2007 TORONTO: GUANTANAMO CANADIAN'S LAWYERS WANTS DECISION RECONSIDERED
Lawyers for the only Canadian terror suspect held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are asking a special military appeals court to reconsider its decision to allow the case to resume. In 2003, Omar Khadr was arrested after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan. He was 15 years old at the time. Last month, the U.S. military appeals court ruled that Khadr could face murder and terrorism charges. Khadr's lawyers say he was a child soldier deserving of international legal protection.

Wednesday 26 September 2007 Court Advances Military Trials for Detainees
A special military appeals court’s decision could allow the administration to resume its prosecutions of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The ruling allows military prosecutors to address a legal flaw that had ground the prosecutions to a halt. The decision, by a three-judge panel of a newly formed military appeals court, was an important victory for the government in its protracted efforts to begin prosecuting some of the 340 detainees at Guantánamo.

Sunday 19 August 2007 Hungary on Saturday granted political asylum to 29 Cubans who were held at the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The asylum seekers were part of a group of 44 Cubans at Guantanamo who were caught by U.S. authorities at sea during attempts to flee Cuba. Seventeen of them held a three-week hunger strike to protest the conditions in which they were held and the unwillingness of U.S. authorities to grant them asylum. They ended the hunger strike on Friday after receiving news that Hungary, the United States, and an unnamed third country would grant them asylum.

Thursday 09 August 2007 Hurdles Frustrate Effort to Shrink Guantánamo
The effort to reduce the population at the detention center has been hampered by a number of diplomatic, legal and political challenges, officials say.

Thursday 26 July 2007 WASHINGTON: DISMISSAL OF CASE AGAINST GUANTANAMO CANADIAN APPEALED Meanwhile, the U.S. defence department says it will appeal the decision of a military judge to dismiss the charges against Mr. Khadr. The judge ruled that the 20-year-old could not be tried under the military commissions system because he hadn't been defined as an "unlawful enemy combatant" under the 2006 law which required that designation. A military panel, however, defined Khadr as an "enemy combatant" which the department argues is the same thing. The judge's ruling was a setback for the U.S. government which wants to start trying the 375 foreign terrorism suspect being held at Guantanamo. Khadr is accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan five years ago.

Friday 06 July 2007 WASHINGTON: U.S. DENIES GUANTANAMO CANADIAN ABUSED
The U.S. state department has denied claims that 20-year-old Canadian Omar Khadr, who is imprisoned at Guantanamo, Cuba, is being mistreated, claims put forward by his lawyers. A department legal adviser issued the denial at a briefing before Khadr's arraignment next week on terror-related charges. The adviser says the conditions at the military prison at Guantanamo are consistent with those found in federal maximum-security prisons. Canadian lawyers visited their client for the first time last week and one of them claimed afterward that he's "wasting away" in a basement, doesn't see daylight and cannot exercise. Khadr's American lawyers have contended that he has been tortured. The young Canadian is accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan with a grenade and maiming another.

Monday 02 July 2007 MIAMI: JUDGE'S RULING FAVOURS CANADIAN PRISONER AT GUANTANAMO
A U.S. military judge has rejected an attempt to reinstate criminal charges against a Canadian citizen held at the American military compound in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The detainee, Omar Khadr, was accused of killing an American soldier and wounding another in Afghanistan in 2002. Earlier this month, a U.S. military judge dismissed the murder charge, saying that Mr. Khadr could not be tried because he had not been properly designated a terrorist suspect. Prosecutors asked the judge to reconsider, but he refused because no new evidence was presented. None of the 375 terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay have been charged, leading civil rights groups to criticize the U.S. government for ignoring human rights. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the law that allowed captives to be held at the detention centre indefinitely without formal criminal charge.

Saturday Jun 30, 2007

Saturday Jun 30, 2007 KHADR LAWYER HAILS TOP COURT DECISION ON GUANTANAMO
The U.S. Supreme Court changed course Friday and agreed to review whether Guantanamo Bay detainees can go to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite confinement.

rci UNITED STATES In an unusual reversal, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to reconsider an appeal by the terrorist suspects being held at Guantanamo, Cuba, that the U.S. government has no right to confine them indefinitely. The high court has ruled 6-3 against the hearing of such an appeal last April. The case has to do with a law which the administration of President George W. Bush had Congress approve last year which removes the right of the foreign terrorist suspects at Guantanamo to have their detention reviewed judicially. The administration unsuccessfully argued against the Supreme Court dealing again with the case. The justices didn't explain why they had changed their minds. Some of the 375 detainees have been there since the government opened its "war on terror" after the Sept. 11 attacks. One of them is 20-year-old Omar Khadr, a Canadian.

Thursday 28 June 2007 TORONTO: GUANTANAMO CANADIAN'S LAWYER WANTS CANADA TO TRY HIM
The American military lawyer assigned to defend the only Canadian held as a terrorism suspect at Guantanamo, Cuba, says the Canadian government should intervene in Washington to obtain Omar Khadr's return to his country. Commandant William Kuebler was in Toronto on Tuesday to meet his Canadian lawyer. Khadr was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 and is accused of having killed an American soldiers and maimed another. Earlier this month, a military judge rejected the accusations against him on procedural grounds, but the U.S. government has declined to release him. The American lawyer says Khadr should be returned to his country to face its justice system. On June 14, Amnesty International and some 100 prominent personalities including several former Canadian justice ministers called on Ottawa to demand Khadr's repatriation and subsequent trial.

Thursday 17 May 2007 GUANTANAMO:CHARGES AGAINST CANADIAN DROPPED
A U.S. military judge at the American naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has dropped all charges against Canadian Omar Khadr. The judge argued that he did not have the jurisdiction to try him. The judge based his decision on the way a new law authorizing the trials was written. Khadr was captured in a firefight in Afghanistan at the age of 15. He is accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade and wounding another in a battle at a suspected al-Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. In another development, a second judge has dismissed the charges against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver. The judge ruled that the prosecution hadn't proved that Mr. Hamdan was both an "enemy combatant" and an "unlawful" extremist.

Monday Jun 11, 2007

Guantanamo must go: Powell

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the U.S. prison at Guantanamo should be closed.

• Full Story
• Watch report on Colin Powell's comment