Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Omar Khadr was captured by American Forces in July 2002 in Afghanistan following a firefight between Afghani insurgents and US soldiers. Severely wounded by two M-16 bullets in his back, Khadr, who was just 15 at the time, was flown to Bagram airbase where he was treated for his injuries and later subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques” before being transported to the notorious US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The US government deemed Khadr an “enemy combatant” in 2002 which allowed US military interrogators to use “enhanced techniques” on the teenager that are described by various human rights groups as forms of torture that would otherwise be banned under the Geneva Conventions. Khadr’s “enemy combatant” status also allowed an American military tribunal to prosecute the young Canadian for war crimes despite being defined as a child soldier by the United Nations. Khadr is the only child soldier ever to be tried for war crimes. Khadr languished in Guantanamo Bay for eight years before pleadin