Turning The Other Cheek

"People who have demonstrated their ability to damage our country significantly ... and who have shown no ability or willingness to change, we would be foolish to turn those people loose on us once again."
Sgt. Layne Morris, U.S. Military, Afghanistan war casualty

"Canadians will see and meet a different Omar Khadr than the one wrongly portrayed by the Harper government."
Dennis Edney, lawyer for Omar Khadr

"Omar Ahmed Khadr pleaded guilty to heinous crimes ... we have vigorously defended against any attempt to lessen his punishment for these crimes."
Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety, Canada

"We realize there's probably a very slim chance of ever receiving any compensation."
"He's never publicly stated any remorse for anything he's done ... it's a principle matter, rather than a money matter."
Laura Tanner, lawyer for Speer and Morris families

Omar Khadr

Canada's notorious Khadr family never seems to quite leave the news. They go and they return. They are Canadian citizens. Their notoriety has been well earned, their Islamist credentials out front for all to scrutinize and admire or loathe, as the case may be. Born in Canada to Egyptian parents who had emigrated from their country of origin, father Ahmed Khadr was a close associate of Osama bin Laden.

He was a fund-raiser in Canada for al-Qaeda, and righteously so, as a committed Islamist fanatic who took his family out of Canada and into Afghanistan to live amongst uncorrupted people for whom modern mores of casual alcohol and drug consumption, free sex could destabilize what the Khadrs taught their offspring; the tenets of Islam rejecting the way of the West and democracy.

In Afghanistan their faith could be re-affirmed and the young men of the family given the privilege of jihadist training, learning how to handle firearms, how to construct bombs, how to be Islamist jihadists spurning the falsity of Western-inspired values which have no value whatever in Islam. Jihadists use all means required to champion Islam in defeat of other cultures and other religions.

And Omar Khadr is an alumni of those Afghanistan jihadi training camps. He and his siblings had the honour of knowing Osama bin Laden personally. But all is forgiven. "Omar is excited to begin a normal life, continue with his studies, explore his new hometown of Edmonton and spend time with friends" a statement from his supporters, Free Omar Khadr Now claimed.

Well he once did have a life normal to Islamist jihad; his education consisted of bomb-making and guerrilla action. It was what brought him to throw a grenade at American troops, killing a U.S. medic and wounding others. Now, his lawyer is happy upon Khadr's imminent release on bail, to have the lad live with him. Failing that, he has an offer from Green Party leader Elizabeth May to "stay with me".

King's University, a Christian college in Edmonton, has offered to embrace Khadr as a mature student, if he is free on bail and able to pay the tuition fee. However, "for the safety of our students, we don’t see him coming on our campus for a long time, if ever," added the university's vice-president VanKeeken. Wot!?!!!

In his Afghanistan days Khadr had employment as a translator for al-Qaeda, and he helped to construct roadside bombs targeting U.S. convoys. Those same 'roadside bombs' known as IEDs -- improvised explosive devices -- were of course, responsible for the deaths of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

That experience may be useful to him in passing on his rather unique knowledge to any others he may come across professing an interest in the Khadr lad, still a boy at heart. His myriad supporters would have nothing but contempt for the families of the American soldiers that Khadr's experience in a conflict zone killed and wounded.

They have the unmitigated gall, those families, to launch a civil lawsuit against the boy who became a man for over $45-million in reflection of their grievous loss.