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Canadian government deprives own citizen, Omar Khadr, of basic rights

By Tahir Mahmoud

Under pressure that followed a January 29th ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada, the Canadian government has been forced to send a note to the US asking “not to use evidence collected by Canadian agents” in the prosecution of Omar Khadr, the Canadian child soldier captured in Afghanistan in July 2002. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said on February 16 that Ottawa had made the request in a formal note to Washington not to use such evidence. In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that Khadr’s Charter rights had been violated during repeated interrogations by Canadian officials. Nicholson said in a February 16th statement, “The government of Canada today delivered a diplomatic note to the Government of the United States formally seeking assurances that any evidence or statements shared with US authorities as a result of the interviews of Mr. Khadr by Canadian agents and officials in 2003 and 2004 not be used against him by US authorities in the context of proceedings before the Military Commission or elsewhere.”

Selling the daughter of the Ummah to predators

By Fahad Ansari

“We have captured 689 and handed over 369 to the United States. We have earned bounties totalling millions of dollars. Those who habitually accuse us of ‘not doing enough’ in the war on terror should simply ask the CIA how much prize money it has paid to the government of Pakistan.”

So reads the back cover of the autobiography of former Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf, describing how Pakistan’s economy was boosted by the “war on terror” through a system of kidnapping and renditioning of suspected al-Qaeda operatives. One such exchange appears to have involved a mother and her three children, the youngest only five months old, back in 2003. Seven years later, that lady, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, has been sentenced by an American court for the attempted murder of US marines and FBI agents while she was being held captive in Afghanistan. She now faces life imprisonment. Her tale, which has been discussed in detail in a previous edition of Crescent International (October 2008), is one which Hollywood script writers can only dream about and one which shames the entire world.

Crescent Magazine

Canadian government deprives own citizen, Omar Khadr, of basic rights

Selling the daughter of the Ummah to predators

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