‘I don’t lie awake at night thinking about him,’ Khadr victim says
The pending bail of former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr has been hailed as a victory by supporters across Canada, including a core group in Edmonton, where the 28-yearold will make his new home. But the decision is not sitting well with Layne Morris, the retired Green Beret who lost his right eye to a grenade thrown by Khadr when he was 15. The National Post reached Morris by phone at his home in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Q What’s your initial reaction to news that Omar Khadr will soon be out of prison?
A To let him out on bail simply because the guy’s appealing his conviction, I think that’s an outrageous lack of concern for Canada specifically and western society in general. He should be sitting in Guantanamo counting down the 45 years. But since that’s a bridge we’ve already crossed, we certainly shouldn’t be having some silly judge giving Omar bail while he launches an appeal. That’s not in the interest of justice or security for Canada or western society.
Q Khadr has shown no remorse for his actions in Afghanistan and expressed no repentance of violent jihad. If he had, would you be of a different mind surrounding his release?
A I’m a western-civilization Christian. I’ve been raised with the knowledge that people can and do change and improve themselves. I think most of us are trying to do that. But some people aren’t, and Omar Khadr has chosen a path which dictates that, as a result of his religion, he’s got to go to war against our society. Until he changes from that attitude, I’m not sure why we should turn him loose to wreak havoc on our friends and families and neighbours again.
Q Freedom for Omar Khadr, of course, has long been the chief goal for a committed network of Canada-based campaigners. How have you viewed this effort?
A I think people who support the release of Khadr are uninformed, and in many cases deliberately uninformed. They ignore the facts of Omar Khadr’s life, his history and the terrible choices Omar Khadr made to get him to the spot he is in now. The Obama administration, in its zeal to shut down Guantanamo, is willing to make any sacrifice to empty that prison. Omar Khadr is simply the fortunate beneficiary of that tactic.
Q Thousands of American soldiers returned from Afghanistan and Iraq with wounds. However, in most of their cases they never knew their enemy — and they certainly didn’t know their name. Is it different for you that your assailant is so well-known?
A I embraced the risks of going to war. And whether it was a privileged combatant or an unprivileged combatant who ended up wounding me on the field of battle, it doesn’t make a difference.
Q With the Omar Khadr case continually hitting the news, has it ever made it hard for you to move on to civilian life?
A I don’t think about Omar Khadr, I don’t follow Omar Khadr. I don’t lay awake at night thinking about him. I think about Omar Khadr when the media calls me to get my reaction to something. I’m not going to go home and kick the dog because Omar is getting bail. This interview has been edited for
length.