Obama waiver allows U.S. aid to 4 countries using child soldiers

[Mood]

By Mary Beth Sheridan

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 27, 2010; 7:37 PM


President Obama has granted a waiver allowing four countries to continue receiving U.S. military aid even though they use child soldiers, officials said Wednesday.

Human rights groups reacted with surprise and concern, saying the decision would send the wrong message.

"What the president has done is basically given everybody a pass for using child soldiers," said Jo Becker, children's rights director at Human Rights Watch.

Administration officials said cutting off aid would cause more damage than good in countries where the U.S. military is trying to fight terrorism and reform abusive armies.

Obama sent a memo to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, dated Monday, saying that it was "in the national interest" to waive a cutoff of military assistance for Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Yemen.

Those countries would have been penalized under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush shortly before he left office. The law took effect this year, after the State Department identified six countries that used government soldiers - including Somalia and Burma.

Senior U.S. officials said Wednesday that Yemen was exempted because ending military aid would jeopardize the country's ability to fight al-Qaeda. In Sudan, U.S. military assistance will be critical in helping the unstable southern part of the country build military institutions if it votes to secede in a January referendum, as expected, officials said.

Congo was exempted because U.S.-funded programs there are aimed at helping the military become more professional and less abusive, officials said. Chad got a pass because of its role in fighting terrorism and assistance with the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. In addition, U.S. aid goes toward helping that country's military end its practice of using child soldiers, officials said.

The exemptions were first reported by the Cable, a blog at ForeignPolicy.com.

One senior official said the countries were not getting off scot-free.

"We put all these countries on notice by naming them as having child soldiers, and making them automatically subject to sanctions," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Our view was to work with them over the next year to try to solve the problem - or at least make significant progress on the problem - and reassess next year."

Jesse Eaves, policy adviser on children's issues for the humanitarian group World Vision, noted that the law did not mandate a cutoff of all forms of military assistance for offenders. For example, they could have still gotten help in eliminating their use of child soldiers.

"That kind of assistance is still allowed under the law without invoking the waiver. That's why this is a disturbing step," he said.

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

American hypocricy, never!?!

[~Spectre]

Almost as if they are trying to will the concept of child soldiers out of existence, here is how the U.S. treats Child Soldiers that they get their hands on:


It boggles the mind that the military judge could find that Khadr was not coerced and gave these statements to interrogators voluntarily. Khadr, then 15 years old, was taken to Bagram near death, after being shot twice in the back, blinded by shrapnel, and buried in rubble from a bomb blast. He was interrogated within hours, while sedated and handcuffed to a stretcher. He was threatened with gang rape and death (http://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-national-security/interrogator-one) if he didn't cooperate with interrogators. He was hooded and chained with his arms suspended in a cage-like cell, and his primary interrogator was later court-martialed for detainee abuse leading to the death of a detainee (http://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-national-security/taxi-dark-side). During his subsequent eight-year (so far) detention at Guantánamo, Khadr was subjected to the "frequent flyer" sleep deprivation program (http://www.aclu.org/2008/06/20/guantnamos-frequent-flyer-program) and he says he was used as a human mop after he was forced to urinate on himself.
In closing arguments before the judge's ruling, Khadr's sole defense lawyer, Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, told the judge, "Sir, be a voice today. Tell the world that we actually stand for what we say we stand for."
Though President Obama promised that coerced evidence would not be used against detainees in the military commissions, today's ruling suggests that as a country, we stand for abusing a 15-year-old teenager into confessing, and using those confessions against him in an illegitimate proceeding.


http://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-national-security/what-we-stand

[Pretty Flaco]

Almost as if they are trying to will the concept of child soldiers out of existence, here is how the U.S. treats Child Soldiers that they get their hands on:



http://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-national-security/what-we-stand

That is one of the most disgusting things I've ever read. I didn't realize the abuse at Guantanamo was that awful

[~Spectre]

That is one of the most disgusting things I've ever read. I didn't realize the abuse at Guantanamo was that awful



Guantánamo is gulag of our time, says Amnesty



http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/may/26/usa.guantanamo

[Mood]

Almost as if they are trying to will the concept of child soldiers out of existence, here is how the U.S. treats Child Soldiers that they get their hands on:



On the topic of Khadr:


US NAVAL BASE AT GUANTANAMO BAY — A US military tribunal sentenced former child soldier Omar Khadr to 40 years in prison Sunday, but a plea deal means the Canadian citizen will serve up to eight years behind bars.

A seven-member military panel deliberated for nearly nine hours over a two-day period before reaching their decision for Khadr, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to throwing a grenade that killed a US sergeant in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was just 15.

Judge Patrick Parrish, a US Army colonel, said that under a plea agreement with US authorities to avoid a life sentence, Khadr would serve one year at Guantanamo Bay and the rest in Canada, pending Ottawa's approval.

Khadr, now 24, became the third Guantanamo detainee to plead guilty and the fifth to face court proceedings before military commissions, George W. Bush-era war tribunals reformed and reinstated by President Barack Obama.

He is the last Westerner held at Guantanamo Bay, the US naval base where 174 "war on terror" detainees remain.

"The world is watching," prosecuting attorney Jeffrey Groharing told Khadr Saturday in closing arguments at a sentencing hearing at Guantanamo.

"Your sentence will send a message to Al-Qaeda and others whose aims and goals are to kill and cause chaos around the world."

He called Khadr "an accomplished terrorist (who) committed adult offenses" and requested no fewer than 25 additional years in prison.

Khadr, who has already spent eight years at the Guantanamo prison camp, admitted in his plea agreement to throwing the grenade that killed sergeant Christopher Speer in Afghanistan in July 2002 and told his widow that he was sorry.

He pleaded guilty to murder in violation of the laws of war, providing material assistance to a terrorist organization and espionage.

Born in Toronto on September 19, 1986, Khadr was a beardless teenager when he was captured while severely wounded in Afghanistan. Today, he sports a sturdy physique, a tall man with a heavy beard and a scarred face.

Even prosecutors at the trial recognized he had a natural charm and a thirst for learning. At the time of his arrest, he spoke four languages -- English, Arabic, Pashto and Dari -- with some basics in French, even though he dropped out of high school.

Forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner described Kadr as a slick "rock star" of Guantanamo who has grown more devout during his lengthy stay at the prison camp, and chosen by his older fellow inmates to lead prayers.

Khadr's lead lawyer Lieutenant-Colonel Jon Jackson had asked the jury, which included three women, to take into account the time served at Guantanamo and sentence his client to two additional years in prison, rounding out his full punishment to 10 years.

"There is no deradicalization program in Guantanamo," Jackson said, recalling a psychiatrist who testified that Khadr was beyond redemption and a danger to society.

"Every day he has been marinated in this jihad sauce. That was our (US) decision."

Jackson said his client was "mislead" by his father and urged the prosecution to "send him back home" to Canada.

His Egyptian-born father was killed in a shootout with Pakistani forces in October 2003.

His sister Zaynab and brother Abdullah have been investigated for alleged ties to Al-Qaeda, and another brother, Abdurahman, has admitted that he and some of his siblings were trained by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The Khadr family went to Pakistan when Omar was a child to help with reconstruction along the Pakistan-Afghan border following the withdrawal of Russian troops, according to an online family biography.

Khadr returned to Canada in 1995, but returned to Pakistan the following year.

His family then lived in a compound in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where he allegedly met bin Laden for the first time.

Khadr returned to Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

A year later, he was captured by US soldiers, who shot him at least twice in the back.

In a heavily redacted affidavit, Khadr says he was treated brutally after his capture, when he was taken, severely wounded, to a military camp in Bagram, Afghanistan, and later to Guantanamo in October 2002.

A video posted online in July 2008 shows him sobbing and begging for help as Canadian agents interrogated him at Guantanamo.

[~Spectre]

"Your sentence will send a message to Al-Qaeda and others whose aims and goals are to kill and cause chaos around the world."

Translation:

"Your sentence will send a message to all those whose aims and goals are contrary to ours. It doesn't matter if you're a westerner or even a child, or if you're even guilty - The United States will fuck your world up. Fear us."

[Widerstand]

On the topic of Khadr:

The disgusting part is that Bagram Airbase is still operational, and possibly worse than Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo.

[Amphictyonis]

How many children do you think have died as a result of Obama's orders to use random drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen? I'd be willing to wager at least 150. At least. Possibly thousands.

[WeAreReborn]

How many children do you think have died as a result of Obama's orders to use random drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen? I'd be willing to wager at least 150. At least. Possibly thousands.
Yeah it is disgusting.. Although I must say all it does is save the marines the time from killing the children themselves. But hey at least it keeps those damn Communists from killing American children!

[Amphictyonis]

Yeah it is disgusting.. Although I must say all it does is save the marines the time from killing the children themselves. But hey at least it keeps those damn Communists from killing American children!

I think the westernization of the globe is inevitable. McWorld will beat all competitors until there is nothing left for McWorld to do other than eat itself. Like a suicidal virus.

[Robocommie]

If we treated every single civilian casualty killed by an American soldier the way we treat Abu Khadr for throwing a grenade at Christopher Speer, then we'd have prisons stuffed to the rafters with soldiers.

The hypocrisy is infuriating.