Can a Zebra change its stripes?

LTC Scott O'Neil — Thu, 07 May 2015 13:41:31 -0400

Here is what our President has done and he continues to put convicted terrorist back on the street.

"Omar Khadr is a convicted Al Qaeda terrorist, guilty of war crimes," Ezra Levant, author of “The Enemy Within: Terror, Lies, and the Whitewashing of Omar Khadr,” told FoxNews.com. "He murdered a U.S. medic in cold blood. A jury sentenced him to 40 years in prison, but President Obama offered him a plea deal for just eight years, and now parole will reduce that further. This isn’t sufficient, especially given that Khadr has never publicly renounced terrorism or Al Qaeda, or his own father’s terrorism.”"

Canadian judge frees former teen terrorist who killed US Army medic -

“Omar Khadr is a convicted Al Qaeda terrorist, guilty of war crimes," Ezra Levant, author of “The Enemy Within: Terror, Lies, and the Whitewashing of Omar Khadr,” told FoxNews.com. "He murdered a U.S. medic in cold blood. A jury sentenced him to 40 years in prison, but President Obama offered him a plea deal for just eight years, and now parole will reduce that further. This isn’t sufficient, especially given that Khadr has never publicly renounced terrorism or Al Qaeda, or his own father’s terrorism.”

Speer, 28, of Denver, was a sergeant first class who was with four other soldiers on reconnaissance patrol when they entered a building in the Khost province that had been destroyed by air attacks. They were ambushed by terrorists, including Khadr, and Speer died a month later at a facility at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Khadr, who was born in Toronto, but grew up mostly in Pakistan, where his father was accused of being an associate of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, confessed to throwing the grenade as part of a plea deal he accepted in 2010. The confession Khadr signed acknowledged that he built and helped place explosives for Al Qaeda, and noted that U.S. soldiers gave women and children an opportunity to leave the compound where Khadr and Al Qaeda fighters were hiding before they began the bombing. One woman and a child left the compound and survived, but Khadr stayed. Khadr, who was badly injured, was arrested at the scene, and sent to Guantanamo.

Although a military jury gave him a 40-year sentence, the term was merely symbolic, as the U.S. Justice Department had agreed to limit the sentence to eight years, and permitted the time to be served in Canada. Khadr is appealing his U.S. conviction of war crimes, for killing a medic.

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US Army Medic Christopher Speer was killed in Afghanistan in 2002.

U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke was asked Wednesday at a press briefing about whether the U.S. was opposed to an early release, but declined to say and noted that “we respect the independent processes of the Canadian judiciary, and we respect Canada’s sovereignty.”

Khadr’s lawyer said he is sorry for his actions

“Omar apologized to Tabitha Speer [the wife of the murdered medic] in the courtroom in Guantanamo. He has no memory of throwing a hand grenade as he had been seriously injured from the bombing,” Dennis Edney, Khadr’s attorney, told FoxNews.com on Wednesday.

In prison, Khadr gave up useful information about Al Qaeda, including the location of roadside explosives he had helped plant, according to a Pentagon report filed when he was held at Guantanamo. However, the report also noted that Khadr "has never expressed any genuine remorse for the killing of that soldier" and that he "has grown increasingly hostile toward his interrogators and the guard force and he remains committed to extremist Islamic values."

Reports from when he was kept at Guantanamo Bay also indicate that he was sometimes abusive to guards, calling one black female guard a "slave" and a "b****", according to testimony by forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner at Khadr's sentencing. Welner has interviewed Guantanamo prison guards and reviewed Khadr's files.

Khadr’s lawyer disputes Welner’s account, calling it “untrue” and saying that “the judge advocate in charge of the Guantanamo prisoners -- McCarthy -- gave evidence at the trial that Omar was a good kid, was helpful and had no ideological beliefs.”

He also questions the reliability of the U.S. government’s account in general.

“One cannot consider Guantanamo as a reliable place. Its people and its processes are unreliable. The trial was a kangaroo court,” Edney said. Khadr is also trying to have his 2010 conviction formally overturned in the Canadian court system.

There have been no complaints about Khadr’s behavior in prison in recent years, and one Canadian court has found that he has been a “model prisoner.”

Critics note that even if Khadr poses little risk, there is no doubt about his radical background.

“When he was captured, the U.S. seized home movie propaganda videos of Khadr building IEDs, etc. There is no doubt he was a terrorist,” Levant said.

Few believe that Khadr would commit terrorism again given his recent track record – and he will also have to wear a tracking device and follow a 10 p.m. curfew as part of his release terms – but terrorism experts say that in general, penalties for terrorists should be stiff to keep them from attacking again.

“The terrorism recidivism rate is quite high, particularly for Islamist terrorists,” Max Abrahms, a political science professor at Northeastern University, told FoxNews.com. “Indeed, a very large portion of the most senior Islamic State [ISIS] leadership was once behind bars. When you release from prison an Islamist terrorist, do not be surprised if he re-engages in terrorism.”

Advocates for Khadr, who have started groups like “FREE Omar Khadr NOW,” argue that Khadr, in particular, cannot be held responsible for what he did due to his young age when he was part of Al Qaeda.

Levant says that Khadr’s youth has been exaggerated.

“He was just a few weeks shy of his 16th birthday. We prosecute murderers at that age all the time. He was no child,” Levant said.

“There were real children involved here — the fatherless kids of the murder victim, Christopher Speer,” he added.

The author, Maxim Lott, can be reached on Facebook or at [login to see]

Response by LTC Scott O'Neil made May 7 at 2015 1:45 PM

LTC Scott O'Neil — Thu, 07 May 2015 13:45:41 -0400

Lets just free the Boston Marathon Bomber, How about On November 5, 2009, a mass murder took place at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas.[1] Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others.[2][3] The shooting produced more casualties than any other on an American military base.[4][5] Several individuals, including Senator Joe Lieberman,[6] General Barry McCaffrey,[7] and others have called the event a terrorist attack.[8][9] The United States Department of Defense and federal law enforcement agencies have classified the shootings as an act of workplace violence. Should he be freed as well. Stop the nonsense!!!!!!!

Response by SFC Joseph James made May 7 at 2015 3:22 PM

SFC Joseph James — Thu, 07 May 2015 15:22:00 -0400

He took a life. He owes society a debt. But he took one of us, his ass owes us a debt. Life for a life.

Response by MAJ Bryan Zeski made May 7 at 2015 4:40 PM

MAJ Bryan Zeski — Thu, 07 May 2015 16:40:10 -0400

LTC Scott O'Neil Sir, Did you look at the details of this story, or just the FoxNews version?

If you look a little deeper, you'll find that the President isn't pardoning Khadr. This whole thing is part of the plea deal offered by the U.S. Government in 2010 in exchange for Khadr "confession" just prior to a military tribunal.

Now, I have little doubt that Khadr is guilty, but I doubt that he's as guilty as the plea deal says he is. Aside from that, he was tortured to get at least some of that "confession." But, FoxNews seems to think that the President is just up and pardoning people... and that is just not the case. If the U.S. Justice Department didn't want him to be freed after eight years, they probably shouldn't have put that in the deal. If they had him so dead-to-rights on his crimes, why offer a plea at all, much less such a light one? Clearly there are behind-the-scenes issues that we aren't supposed to dig into.

But, at least we have FoxNews on the spot to spin anything and everything as the fault of the President.