Omar Khadr is Canada’s problem now. DiManno,
One hundred and fifty-eight Canadian soldiers came home from Afghanistan in caskets, deadweight cargo loaded into the back of a Herc.
Most were killed by roadside bombs.
On Saturday, the casualty toll for American troops lost in Afghanistan hit the 2,000 mark.
Hours earlier, Omar Khadr was “repatriated’’ to Canada on a U.S. military flight from Guantanamo, landing at CFB Trenton, arriving on the same airfield where all those fallen servicemen and women also were received back on Canadian soil.
Returned, if not to the bosom of his appalling family, then at least to the small space of a Canadian prison cell in Kingston, where the convicted war criminal will reside for the time being, pending assessment and likely transfer elsewhere.
Had repatriation from Guantanamo occurred at a more quickened pace, and were all obstacles removed, as his most ardent advocates have long promoted, then, why, he could have been free to attend that noisy rally outside the U.S. consulate in Toronto a week ago, the one ostensibly aimed at condemning an obscure film that insults the Prophet Muhammad, but which actually turned into an Israel hate-fest, despite the fact that nation had nothing to do with the stupid movie.
One of Omar’s brothers was there, not sure which — whether Abdullah (the Khadr released from jail two years ago when an Ontario judge refused a U.S. extradition request that would have seen him tried on terrorism charges), or Abdurhaman (the black sheep of the family, who claims to have worked for the CIA as an informant inserted into Guantanamo), or Abdul Karim (confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed during a 2003 gun battle in Pakistan, the same firefight in which Khadr patriarch Ahmed Said was killed, some seven years after the Al Qaeda financier had been released from a Pakistani jail, arrested in connection with the bombing of Egypt’s embassy in Islamabad, thanks to the intercession of Prime Minister Jean Chretien.)
Yes, Canada has been very good to the Khadr clan, all things consid- ered, providing a fallback refuge for Ahmed’s spawn, including the charming Zaynab, who told CBC in a 2004 interview that it would be “heaven’’ to die as a martyr fighting perceived enemies of Islam. This is the family into which Omar, born in Scarborough 26 years ago, will eventually be restored, perhaps as soon as next summer, when he’ll be eligible for parole. The eight-year-sentence plea deal the Gitmo “rock star’’ received from an American military commission for throwing the grenade that killed a U.S. medic is now on the Canada Corrections get-out-of-jail clock. South of the border, where the Obama administration is reportedly immensely relieved to get rid of Gitmo Prison Inmate Number 766, Omar is little more than a footnote in the decade-plus War on Terror, only his age — 15 when taken into custody, youngest internee at the controversial detainment facility — a distinguishing factor. And his celebrity status, of course, among the Gitmo fraternity, emanating from the Khadr posse’s close association with Osama bin Laden. In Canada, Omar has been both cause célèbre and political conundrum, mostly unwanted as return-to-sender goods, but also impossible to reject. He’s a Canadian citizen and always had a right of return. It could never be avoided; just the timing in dispute. And, now, the transition to freedom, which means the interminable Omar saga is nearing, mercifully, its judicial conclusion. Not a child but an adolescent just shy of his 16th birthday when seized during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. Not a soldier but an “unlawful enemy combatant’’ and skilled bomb maker serving the aims of a terrorist organization. Had the 15-year-old Khadr used a sawed-off shotgun to kill, say, a rival gang member in Scarborough, he would have been arrested, charged and tried, possibly in adult court if a judge agreed. His background as the product of a nomadic family, incubated in violence, would have been considered as a mitigating factor only at sentencing, as those facts were presented to the military tribunal jury in Guantanamo that hung 40 years on Omar, capped at eight years by the judge via pre-trial agreement for pleading guilty on the five terrorism charges. The sentence did not include time served. There’s a strong argument to be made, and was, unsuccessfully, that Omar should have been sprung when that war was over. But the U.S. is still at war in Afghanistan — 87,000 troops on the ground — and a broader war on terror continues apace under U.S. President Barack Obama, by diverse means, from drone attacks to targeted assassinations. Omar has spent most of that war fermenting in the radical juices of Guantanamo. He’s never repented either crimes or violent jihad, expressed no remorse. The extent to which the adult Omar still cleaves to twisted ideology is evident in the seven hours of taped interviews with a forensic psychiatrist hired by the Pentagon, contents delivered to select Canadian officials only a few weeks ago and scooped by Maclean’s writer Michael Friscolanti. The Omar revealed in those conversations is alarming, far from the benign and guileless young man portrayed by his champions. There is clearly no credence to be placed in their soothing spin.
But he is Canada’s problem now. And, measured by the yardstick of Canadian sentencing guidelines for young offenders who’ve committed first-degree murder — 10 years, a maximum of six in closed custody — he’s done more than sufficient time behind bars, if not deemed a dangerous offender by the courts, which Omar hasn’t been. There’s the rub, because any felon’s future actions can only be a matter of informed speculation.
Given the family that awaits Omar on the outside, it’s ridiculous to hope he will receive moral guidance from that quarter. They won’t undo the damage inflicted by a sorry excuse of a father because there isn’t the slightest hint his toxic belief system has been repudiated.
So, the mind-altering catechism will depend entirely on the Corrections rehabilitation plan, not yet formulated, that will likely include psychiatric treatment, counselling by an imam and gradual reintegration program into Canadian society. Just like his father did, Omar will be indoctrinated, except he’s not a malleable child anymore.
Frankly, the sooner that reintegration begins the better. The longer Omar stays locked up, the less he will be subject to parole conditions and scrutinizing oversight once he leaves. Child killer Karla Homolka, for example, opted to serve her complete 12-year sentence and waltz out of prison unfettered by restrictions.
Much as it pains me to say this, there is no purpose to be served by keeping Omar in closed custody even one more year except the desire for vengeance and that’s not what our society is about. A decade in Guantanamo has exacted its pound of flesh with no thoughtcorrecting adjustments to show for it, as Omar’s own words make abundantly clear. Simultaneous with a vigorous rehabilitation program — and I have strong doubts that any moral instruction or psychological reset will alter Omar’s far-gone disposition — he should still begin receiving escorted passes immediately.
The pity is he can’t be prevented from associating with his family.
In that Guantanamo interview session with the psychiatrist, Omar was asked about returning to Canada, where he lived for only two years between overseas odysseys, attending Grade 1 and Grade 4.
Q: “When you say it’s a country you could call home, what do you mean by that?’’
A: “I can’t say, like, Afghanistan was my home or Pakistan is my home. But I can say Canada is my home. You go back to it.’’ Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.