General

Obama wants Canada to ask for Khadr back

Administration insiders don’t want to prosecute him

Officials in President Barack Obama’s administration with backgrounds as human rights advocates are reportedly behind a quiet move to persuade Canada to take back Omar Khadr. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has often said Canada will not seek Khadr’s return, since the Canadian citizen faces serious charges in the U.S. The case is problematic largely because Khadr was just 15-years-old when he allegedly threw a hand grenade that killed an American soldier, Sgt. Chris Speer, in a battle in Afghanistan in 2002. Khadr was to have been tried before a military commission, an alternative to regular court set up under former president George W. Bush. The Obama administration has named Khadr as one of just five prisoners at the notorious Guantanamo detention centre whose cases would stay before the controversial commissions. But the fact that he was only 15 when he allegedly committed war crimes makes his case particularly uncomfortable for some of Obama’s top advisers.

Ottawa Citizen

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