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**Klissineopar** · 10-28-2010, 02:46 PM

Guantanamo convict's victim recalled as a hero

Defendant Omar Khadr, a native of Toronto, Canada, listens to testimony during his commissions trial at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, in this courtroom sketch October 27, 2010. Khadr, who was 15 and gravely wounded when captured during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002, admitted he conspired with al Qaeda and killed a U.S. soldier with a grenade. Khadr plead guilty in a plea deal that could send him home to serve the rest of his sentence in Canada within the year. Credit: Reuters/Janet Hamlin/Pool

By Jane Sutton
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba | Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:44pm EDT

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Six days before a young Canadian lobbed a fatal grenade at a U.S. soldier, that soldier had run into a minefield and rescued two injured Afghan children, the U.S. war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay naval base learned on Wednesday. The military jurors who will sentence Toronto native Omar Khadr heard testimony about the special forces medic Khadr admitted murdering during a firefight in Afghanistan, U.S. Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer.

"Chris risked his own life and his opportunity to go back to his children because there were two Afghan children who had been injured in an active minefield," a colleague and friend identified only as Sergeant Major Y testified. "Chris went into that active minefield and rescued those children." Speer was posthumously awarded the Soldier's Medal, which commemorates acts of heroism, he said, stopping his testimony several times to breathe deeply and hold back tears. The incident occurred on July 21, 2002, six days before Speer's unit engaged in a firefight at a compound where the then-15-year-old Khadr lived and worked with a group of al Qaeda bomb-makers.

In his guilty plea on Monday, Khadr admitted he threw the grenade that hurled shrapnel into Speer's brain, becoming the fifth prisoner convicted in the much-criticized tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay naval base and the first person since World War Two prosecuted in a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a juvenile. Speer died 12 days later at a military hospital in Germany, a loss that fellow soldiers said devastated their unit. "The loss was absolutely catastrophic, it was immediate and it was long-lasting," said Captain E, who was once Speer's boss and later replaced him in the unit in Afghanistan.

'HEART AND SOUL'

The soldiers described Speer as a committed family man and outstanding medic, a serene and graceful man who never got rattled. "Sometimes you get an individual who just becomes the heart and soul of your unit ... that was Chris," the captain said. The special forces soldiers' names were not disclosed because they are still on active duty.

Khadr, now 24, looked down during their testimony but showed no emotion. He pleaded guilty on Monday to all five charges against him, including murdering Speer, conspiring with al Qaeda to attack civilians, and making and planting roadside bombs for use against U.S. convoys in Afghanistan. His plea agreement calls for him to serve one more year at the Guantanamo detention camp, where he has been held for eight yeas, and then return to Canada to serve the rest of his sentence.

The sentence is reportedly capped at eight years, but if the jury issues a different sentence he would serve whichever is shorter. Khadr is the son of a dead al Qaeda financier and was raised in what one sibling called "an al Qaeda family" now living in the Toronto area. Defense lawyers spent much of the day in an attempt to discredit a psychiatrist who was hired by prosecutors to assess Khadr and deemed him "highly dangerous."

The psychiatrist, Michael Welner, acknowledged he had relied in part on research by a Danish doctor. The psychologist, Nicolai Sennels, worked with young Muslim prisoners in Denmark and said the more religiously devout they were, the poorer their prognosis was for re-integration into Western society. Welner said he found some of Sennels' research useful but did not share his view that Muslims should not be allowed to immigrate to Europe, nor his view that the Koran was "a criminal book."

Sennels also wrote that massive inbreeding among Muslims had "done catastrophic damage to their gene pool" and impaired their intelligence and sanity. Welner said he did not share that view either, but that "It's my understanding that Omar Khadr is not a product of inbreeding." He said his opinion that Khadr was a risk for future violence was "not because he is devout, not because he is Muslim, but because he is a person who has a history of murder."

(Editing by Jim Marshall)

10-28-2010, 02:46 PM	#1
Klissineopar Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 421 Senior Member	Guantanamo convict's victim recalled as a hero Guantanamo convict's victim recalled as a hero Defendant Omar Khadr, a native of Toronto, Canada, listens to testimony during his commissions trial at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, in this courtroom sketch October 27, 2010. Khadr, who was 15 and gravely wounded when captured during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002, admitted he conspired with al Qaeda and killed a U.S. soldier with a grenade. Khadr plead guilty in a plea deal that could send him home to serve the rest of his sentence in Canada within the year. Credit: Reuters/Janet Hamlin/Pool By Jane Sutton GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba \| Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:44pm EDT GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Six days before a young Canadian lobbed a fatal grenade at a U.S. soldier, that soldier had run into a minefield and rescued two injured Afghan children, the U.S. war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay naval base learned on Wednesday. The military jurors who will sentence Toronto native Omar Khadr heard testimony about the special forces medic Khadr admitted murdering during a firefight in Afghanistan, U.S. Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer. "Chris risked his own life and his opportunity to go back to his children because there were two Afghan children who had been injured in an active minefield," a colleague and friend identified only as Sergeant Major Y testified. "Chris went into that active minefield and rescued those children." Speer was posthumously awarded the Soldier's Medal, which commemorates acts of heroism, he said, stopping his testimony several times to breathe deeply and hold back tears. The incident occurred on July 21, 2002, six days before Speer's unit engaged in a firefight at a compound where the then-15-year-old Khadr lived and worked with a group of al Qaeda bomb-makers. In his guilty plea on Monday, Khadr admitted he threw the grenade that hurled shrapnel into Speer's brain, becoming the fifth prisoner convicted in the much-criticized tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay naval base and the first person since World War Two prosecuted in a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a juvenile. Speer died 12 days later at a military hospital in Germany, a loss that fellow soldiers said devastated their unit. "The loss was absolutely catastrophic, it was immediate and it was long-lasting," said Captain E, who was once Speer's boss and later replaced him in the unit in Afghanistan. 'HEART AND SOUL' The soldiers described Speer as a committed family man and outstanding medic, a serene and graceful man who never got rattled. "Sometimes you get an individual who just becomes the heart and soul of your unit ... that was Chris," the captain said. The special forces soldiers' names were not disclosed because they are still on active duty. Khadr, now 24, looked down during their testimony but showed no emotion. He pleaded guilty on Monday to all five charges against him, including murdering Speer, conspiring with al Qaeda to attack civilians, and making and planting roadside bombs for use against U.S. convoys in Afghanistan. His plea agreement calls for him to serve one more year at the Guantanamo detention camp, where he has been held for eight yeas, and then return to Canada to serve the rest of his sentence. The sentence is reportedly capped at eight years, but if the jury issues a different sentence he would serve whichever is shorter. Khadr is the son of a dead al Qaeda financier and was raised in what one sibling called "an al Qaeda family" now living in the Toronto area. Defense lawyers spent much of the day in an attempt to discredit a psychiatrist who was hired by prosecutors to assess Khadr and deemed him "highly dangerous." The psychiatrist, Michael Welner, acknowledged he had relied in part on research by a Danish doctor. The psychologist, Nicolai Sennels, worked with young Muslim prisoners in Denmark and said the more religiously devout they were, the poorer their prognosis was for re-integration into Western society. Welner said he found some of Sennels' research useful but did not share his view that Muslims should not be allowed to immigrate to Europe, nor his view that the Koran was "a criminal book." Sennels also wrote that massive inbreeding among Muslims had "done catastrophic damage to their gene pool" and impaired their intelligence and sanity. Welner said he did not share that view either, but that "It's my understanding that Omar Khadr is not a product of inbreeding." He said his opinion that Khadr was a risk for future violence was "not because he is devout, not because he is Muslim, but because he is a person who has a history of murder." (Editing by Jim Marshall)
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