Omar Khadr's Day In Court

Omar Khadr, the Canadian youth who spent his teenage years fighting alongside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, has been formally charged with murder after three years in Guantanamo Bay prison.

And already they're pleading for the U.S. to spare his life:

"Omar Khadr is a child," said Muneer Ahmad, a Centre for Constitutional Rights lawyer who represents the youth.

"Through torture, abuse and three years of illegal detention, this government has robbed Omar of his youth. Now they are demanding his appearance before a kangaroo court, wholly lacking in fundamental principles of due process."

If convicted, Khadr could face the death penalty, his Canadian lawyer Dennis Edney said.

"Will Canada now demand the U.S. administration withdraw the death penalty for this Canadian youth," he said. "So far Canada has not affected one single concession from the Americans."

The Canadian government should not waste its time beseeching clemency for Khadr. He may still be a Canadian citizen in law. In spirit, he has ceased to be one.

Had he not been captured, he might well have returned to Canada to train other young jihadis to fight in the streets of Toronto, just as the French rioters have been trained by French citizens who fought alongside the insurgents in Iraq.

Khadr wanted to fight like a man. Now he can die like a man.

Source: Toronto Star