Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Military Court: Khadr Just Another Lying Al Qaeda P.O.S.
Thomas Jocelyn tells how a military judge has demolished Omar Khadr's torture claims.
Reading between the lines, it appears the judge thought it was likely that Khadr’s lawyers authored the affidavit (“at least in part”) as part of their legal ploy. This document portrayed the American military as serial torturers and Omar Khadr as an innocent, oppressed victim. Here is yet another instance, then, in which the detainees’ lawyers are not the heirs of John Adams. At a minimum, Khadr’s lawyers passed on unsubstantiated claims of abuse and torture. At worst, some of the lawyers may have helped Khadr make up his claims. Either way, their actions are not part of some noble legal tradition. (A number of private lawyers have rushed to Khadr’s defense. It would be interesting to learn if any of them were responsible for authoring the affidavit.)
In the end, because Khadr would not testify concerning the affidavit’s contents, it was rebutted by virtually all of the evidence that was provided to the Commission, and since the defense did not explain how the affidavit came into existence in the first place, the judge gave little weight to Khadr’s torture claims.
