Trial opens for youngest Gitmo inmate

[unhappycamper]

Trial opens for youngest Gitmo inmate
By Mike Melia - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Aug 12, 2010 17:38:18 EDT

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A war-crimes trial for Guantanamo’s youngest detainee opened Thursday with prosecutors showing an al-Qaida video of him making — and apparently planting — bombs in Afghanistan.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers offered competing views of whether Omar Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured in 2002, was capable of acting independently from the Islamic extremist father who took him to Afghanistan.

In the video found in an al-Qaida compound, Khadr showed only the faint beginnings of a mustache. Now a broad-shouldered, full-bearded man of 23, he sat before a military jury charged with crimes including spying, supporting terrorism and murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces soldier. Khadr has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Prosecutor Jeff Groharing accused Khadr of embracing terrorist ideology as his own and describing operations against U.S. forces with pride even after his capture.

“‘I am a terrorist trained by al-Qaida.’ Those are Omar Khadr’s own words,” Groharing said, describing one of the detainee’s first interrogations at Guantanamo. “Omar Khadr decided to conspire with al-Qaida so he could kill as many Americans as possible.”



unhappycamper comment: I find it incredulous that the United States would a) pick up a 15 year old kid and b) hold him basically incommunicado for eight years and then c) try him for war crimes.

Want to try some war crimes? Here ya go:

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. BBC radio news reported even though he's older

He is still a kid, the lawyers give him comix books to read during the trial.
His lawyers say that he is still a kid after so many years locked up and hasn't developed much over the years.