Post-9/11 Detention and Torture: An Analysis of the Imprisonment of Omar Khadr

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Post-9/11 Detention and Torture: An analysis of the imprisonment of Omar Khadr

        Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen captured by American forces in 2002 in Afghanistan, was held a Guantanamo Bay prisoner at the age of fifteen. He was the youngest criminal apprehended and spent over a decade in detention where he struggled in inhumane conditions and demoralizing improbability of release (Schwartz, 2015).

        Omar Khadr’s horrific treatment in Guantanamo Bay is recognized to be of mental and physical torture, submission, and groundless delay of repatriation (see for example Mia’s “Khadr, omar: Guantanamo's child the untold story of omar khadr”). In Crook’s “Omar khadr pleads guilty, sentenced to maximum of eight years”, Khadr’s impatience in repatriating is revealed through his false plead to crimes he either did not commit, or committed as a teenage offense (Dore, 2008). Khadr suffered not only torture, but also from “injustice international law and court decisions”, where in his home country failed to properly respond to his request to repatriate due to violations of human rights and support for juvenile jsutice (Woo, 2011)

While conflicts arise on whether Omar Khadr’s release is justified, his 13 years of degrading imprisonment experience due to a war crime speaks for him. The torture he received while his time behind the bars oversea from home cannot be vindicated and should be brought under spotlight for investigation. My research question is: should Omar Khadr have experience his “detention and torture” during his nearly 13 years of imprisonment due to a teenage offense that he barely has memory of? If he did not, what justifies his case of release (inhumane treatments? Torture? degrading conditions? uncertainty?)?

Annotated Bibliography

*Crook, J. R. (2011). Omar khadr pleads guilty, sentenced to maximum of eight years, may be transferred to canada.American Journal of International Law, 105(2), 151.

        After spending eight years as a military detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Khadr pleads guilty to five serious offenses in hope that he may return in Canada. After his return, he explains that he only plead guilty to leave Guantanamo. This peer-reviewed source provides the background info supporting Khadr’s story and reveals how the indefinite future of Khadr influenced his decisions.

*Dore, C. L. (2008). What to do with omar khadr? putting a child soldier on trial: Questions of international law, juvenile justice, and moral culpability. John Marshall Law Review, 41(4), 1281.

This source comes to question the international juridical system of justice and support Khadr’s case of repatriation as his offense was committed in his juvenile years where he is greatly under the influence of his cultural background.

*Mia, Z. (2008). Khadr, omar: Guantanamo's child the untold story of omar khadr University of Hawaii Press.

This book reveals Khadr’s first hand experience in Guantanamo Bay as a prison and reveals his hardships and suffering he endured from torture physically and mentally. This source contributes to acknowledging Khadr’s pain and misery in his 8 years of imprisonment overseas at Guantanamo Bay.

*Park, A. S. J. (2014). Constituting omar khadr: Cultural racism, childhood, and citizenship. International Political Sociology,8(1), 43-62. doi:10.1111/ips.12039

        This peer-reviewed source advances Omar Khadr’s case to argue that he was a captured child soldier who should be an object of sympathy and suspicion. He is a victim of his cultural up bringing and racism. This book is constructive in building up arguments to support how culture and racism led to Omar’s case of delayed return to Canada and proper shelter from the government.