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Khadr's family ties to al-Qaeda worry U.S.: UN official

by albertacowpoke | October 15, 2009 at 04:50 am

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Omar Khadr was picked up on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2002. This was at the end of a four hour firefight with US Forces.

Khadr, who was 15 at the time, is accused of murdering a US soldier as result of throwing a grenade. Khadr has spend seven years in GITMO. Khadr is a Canadian citizen and the only Westerner remaining at GITMO.

His plight has been in the courts in Canada, when the Canadian Government refused to intervene on his behalf. The Government has been ordered to intervene on his behalf in the lower court and the case is presently under appeal in the Supreme Court of Canada.

Khadr is a member of a family with ties to Al Quaeda and has at one point lived in a compound with Osama Bin Laden.

The United States is reluctant to release Khadr due to his families' ties and fears that he may return to the battlefield.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations' Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict has been meeting with White House Officials. According to her Khadr.s file is one that is most troubling to US Officials.

The US, because of Khadr's family links to Al Quaeda, is leery that he will return to the terrorist organization. I suspect the Canadian Government has the same reservations. Khadr's family is closely linked Al Quaeda, many of them living in Pakistan.

The UN believes that Khadr, who is born in Toronto, can be rehabilitated.

More on Omar Khadr here.

A top UN official says the United States is leery of freeing Canadian Omar Khadr from Guantanamo Bay for fear he will return to al-Qaeda once he is released.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations' Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, has been meeting with the top-level White House committee reviewing the Toronto-born Khadr's file.

She said on Wednesday that of all the cases involving detainees remaining at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba, Khadr's file is the most troubling for the U.S.

"The issue is Mr. Khadr's family is quite closely linked to al-Qaeda, many of them in Pakistan, and there is this fear he will go back to that," said Coomaraswamy.

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Barry Artiste

at 17:56 on October 15th, 2009

I think many here on Now Public know my sentiments on this Ass

Barbara McPherson

at 07:45 on October 16th, 2009

The whole situation is troubling. After what Omar Khadr has gone through, I would be surprised if he didn't dedicate his life for revenge. Since when did our country or the U.S. jail people and keep them for years for crimes that they might commit? We'd all be incarcerated for those murderous thoughts when some #%** cuts us off in traffic.