U.S. Case Against Gitmo Youth Shaken
Secret Testimony That Could Damage Government's Case Accidentally Released
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Photo
In 2002 U.S. forces arrested 15-year-old Omar Khadr (seen here in a 60 Minutes profile last November), and claimed he was the only person alive at an Afghan compound under siege who could have thrown a grenade that fatally wounded a U.S. soldier. But previously secret testimony by an eyewitness says there was another man there. (CBS)
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Minor Tried As Terrorist
Omar Khadr is the only person in modern history to be tried for war crimes that he allegedly committed as a minor. Bob Simon reports on the controversy surrounding his case.
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Simon's Reporter's Notebook
Bob Simon talks about his upcoming "60 Minutes" report on the youngest suspected terrorist, Omar Khadr. Khadr is awaiting trial at Guantanamo Bay for allegedly killing an American soldier.
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Mukasey Wavers On Waterboarding
Michael Mukasey's inability to qualify waterboarding as a form of torture has stalled his nomination as incoming Attorney General. Chip Reid reports.
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Gitmo Tribunals
Detainees on trial, photos and a history of the naval base.
Now, as the first U.S. war-crime tribunals since the Second World War era begin at the military base in Guantanamo Bay, the trial of Omar Khadr has taken a shocking turn that has increased calls for his release.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) expressed its concern that Khadr's trial on charges of war crimes allegedly committed when he was 15 years old, "in particular in front of a military commission not equipped to meet the required standards, would set a dangerous precedent for the protection of hundreds of thousands of children who find themselves unwittingly involved in conflict around the world," the agency said in a statement.
Church groups and international rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, have asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper to request that Khadr either be tried under juvenile offender laws or be sent back to Canada.
And now, a secret government document mistakenly handed to reporters attending the trial appears to contradict the Bush administration's charges against Khadr, throwing his trial into a tailspin.
Khadr was 15 when he was captured after a 2002 firefight at an al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan. He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier, Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, a Special Forces commando. Khadr has been held in detention ever since.
Prosecutors said Khadr, who is now 21, was the only person alive at the compound (which had been hit by U.S. air strikes), and so was the only person who could have thrown the grenade that fatally wounded Speer.
On Monday, reporters attending the tribunal were handed a packet of pretrial motions by a spokesperson for the Office of Military Commissions, which included previously classified testimony by an unnamed witness who said Khadr wasn't the only living person at the scene, and may not even have been in a position to throw a grenade at all.
The 5-page document was based on an interview with an eyewitness identified as "OC-1," who shot Khadr twice in the back.
There's no openness about this process.
Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler,Khadr's military lawyer
A Pentagon spokesperson would not identify to what unit or agency OC-1 belonged.
While OC-1 states that he believes only Khadr was in a position to throw the grenade, he did not see him do so. But his admission that there was another person who could have been the assailant contradicted previously reported facts in the case.
The Toronto Star reports that the release of the document caused a stir outside the military courtroom, when a security official - realizing the mistake - asked reporters to return the papers immediately, and threatened those who did not do so with being locked out of future hearings.
The journalists refused, and after an hour and a half of negotiations, it was agreed that the documents could be kept as long as certain identifying information (such as the names of soldiers in relevant units, dates and locations, as well as Khadr's prison number) be withheld. The Star noted, dryly, that most of that information was already in the public record.
Khadr's lawyer told reporters that the eyewitness testimony (which he claimed exonerated his client) might have never been made public if not for the mistake, and that the entire episode belied the Pentagon's claims of transparency in its tribunals.
"There's no openness about this process," Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, Khadr's military lawyer, said after the hearing.
The revelation shocked a former Green Beret, who was blinded in one eye during that 2002 firefight. "Everyone had told me from the get-go that there was only one guy in there," Layne Morris told the Toronto Star from his Utah home.
Meanwhile, The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Army's charge sheet against Khadr has been amended to add conspiracy charges in the death of two Afghan military personnel. The charges state that "On or about July 27, 2002, Khadr engaged U.S. military and coalition personnel with small arms fire, killing two Afghan Militia Force members."
When asked by reporters about the charges, Guantanamo's chief prosecutor, Army Colonel Lawrence Morris, admitted that the Afghans' bodies were removed from the scene and so sufficient evidence could not be obtained about who fired at them, but that did not mean the government has to show that Khadr actually killed the two men himself.
"Mr. Khadr is charged as a principal, meaning he did not have to commit the act directly so long as he was in concert with and shared the criminal intent of those who did the shooting," Morris was quoted in The Globe and Mail. "We see this all the time in instances such as bank robberies, where the driver of the getaway car is still responsible for the theft, as well as any harm to persons that might ensue while he is outside with the motor running."
Defense lawyers also said that a 2002 treaty signed by the United States which treats child soldiers as victims rather than war criminals is being ignored.
In response, prosecutors said the Military Commissions Act, which Congress passed in 2006, did not make a separate distinction for juveniles when it set up procedures for trying individuals classified by the government as enemy combatants.
A murder charge against Khadr was thrown out by a military judge last year, who said the military commissions did not not have jurisdiction over his case.
©MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 111 Comments-Again we see the lies and more lies, and more lies, and more lies and more lies and more lies.... oh yeah more lies, and more lies, and more lies... This Canadian boy needs to go back to his school in Ontario, Canada.
-Get our troops back! Troops, home today!
Posted by artrick at 03:49 PM : Feb 07, 2008
-GOPig spirited Creature, Huh! America votes for murderers by voting Repukons!
I can''t wait for you a Hillary to come crawling out of the spider hole with that ashkenazi doof Letterman. "Why don''t you spend the campain money on the starving..." Why don''t you ashkenazis feed them? You ran to hellywood and let the poor jews go to the camps for your swindling. Then impersonated them to steal even their money from Germany.
Posted by artrick at 03:49 PM : Feb 07, 2008
I noticed you made a mistake so I corrected your post for you arttrick
How sad that the Bush regime can not convict and sentence children who pose NO threat to us, after holding them without charge, and torturing them, for years.
That''s a real shame.
Meanwhile, the US is subsidising an Iranin nuclear reactor... Why?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/washington/07nuke.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/0
7/washington/07nuke.html?_r=1&oref=slogi
n
Posted by Inventagod at 04:14 PM : Feb 07, 2008
Looking for a new home to dock the USS Dpleated Urainum and USS Civilian Killer.
What a ******* **** you turned out to be. George Washington wants off the dollar and out of your history books!
Posted by Nancy_Naive at 04:30 PM : Feb 07, 2008
He only chickened out on a landing, ejected and his plane whiped out the whole deck crew. His own people shot him down...LOL! You just one big happy family... Family values.
Someone ask MaCain how he feels about this and get a straight answer. If you ask Mikey he will so he is just a muslim we can kill him.
I will never again be fooled by the reactionary right wing or the Republicans again wait they are one and the same.
I hope you haven''t procreated, your "views" are incoherent, uneducated, and honestly intolerable. I was in NYC on 9/11 and WITNESSED the planes hitting the towers. Now if you want to talk about our government being responsible go ahead, you should be concerned however that anyone can be named an "enemy combatant" and imprisoned without evidence for years in our secret prisons and judged by a military tribunal at their leisure. Yes, we have moved into a preliminary dictatorship much like the Hitler and Stalin eras (who also used secret prisons and tribunals for "enemies of the republic"), but honestly? I REALLY hope whoever is keeping tabs on these message boards comes after you.
Posted by rukindr at 04:41 PM : Feb 07, 2008
Did you film it off your new LCD screen for an all new exclusive CNN shot of the same old stock war drill video?
Posted by rukindr at 04:41 PM : Feb 07, 2008
We witnessed you too... Echo This Peace Phantom Breath!
Posted by zootallures2
No, you think they would have bought it? MAN, did I miss out on making some money?
zootallures is a crazy person. That is not exagerration or hyperbole, he has severe mental problems. We all just ignore him.
Have a great weekend.
Geezus keeeeriiist!
Posted by rukindr at 04:41 PM : Feb 07, 2008
They do all the time but it''s beginning to frighten them that God is is keeping tabs more than message boards!
Ever wonder?
Posted by pierson98 at 04:52 PM : Feb 07, 2008
Voted most ignored 1978-2008...LOL!
Posted by MCVet at 05:08 PM : Feb 07, 2008
I heard US storm trooper recruiting is practically nill.
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