Khadr's Gitmo Military Tribunal is a Legal Mess

Canadian teen, Omar Khadr, and his lawyers appeared before a military tribunal hearing Wednesday in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and all hell broke loose over the lack of clear procedures - resulting in a show of intense frustration by one of his lawyers, US marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, who ended up shouting at the presiding officer and the government's lawyer while banging his hand on his table.

Khadr is charged with the death and wounding of two American soldiers in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was only 15. The main issues that complicate his case and that have brought it international attention are:

1) the fact that his lawyers have said it is international law for a juvenile to be brought before a military tribunal;
2) the frustration of having been denied a Canadian lawyer at the hearings;
3) Khadr is the only known Canadian being held at Gitmo;
4) although a special facility exists for "child detainees", Khadr was kept with adults;
5) his treatment at Gitmo has been heavily criticized by his lawyers as being inhumane; during a hunger strike he was force fed and he has spent long periods in solitary confinement and, reportedly, has been denied medical treatment.

During Wednesday's hearing Khadr calmly told the presiding officer that, since he was currently in solitary confinement for what he saw as "no reason whatsoever", "I say with my respect to you and everybody else here that I am boycotting these procedures until I (am) treated humanely and fair,".

The presiding officer, Chester, chastised Khadr's lawyer for not bringing this to his attention beforehand, but Vokey shot back with the fact that the procedures surrounding the military tribunals are so muddled that:

...the tribunal rules were unclear and not based on any legal framework, a common complaint from military lawyers assigned to defend the 10 Guantanamo prisoners charged before the tribunals.

"There's no precedent here," Vokey fumed. "I don't know what rule to look to. I don't know what law to look to."

Chester said he would consider the defense's motions, however, it's not clear what he would look to as a precedent for deciding if Khadr has the right to have a Canadian lawyer present.

One would think that, after 4 years of so-called tribunals at Gitmo, the military would have clear rules available for all legal counsel involved. The lack of such indicates that, once again, the Department of Defense and the Bush administration were woefully unprepared when ithey decided to sidestep the Geneva Conventions and invent their own processes for dealing with detainees. In doing so, the rights of those accused have continually been trampled upon.

Amnesty International's report on Omar Khadr also details the inaction on the part of the Canadian government to advocate on Khadr's behalf.

The Canadian government may not simply have neglected their responsibilities towards Omar Khadr. It may also have been complicit in his detention and ill-treatment.

AI also offers action items to help intervene on Khadr's behalf and to end the existence of the Gitmo facility.