GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — In selecting Canadian Omar Khadr for the first contested case at the war-crimes tribunal, the Bush administration is looking for a slam-dunk conviction to deliver on its 6-year-old vow to bring the alleged terrorists here to justice.
But like previous efforts to start the military commissions, the trial, scheduled to begin today, is likely to be fraught with delays and unexpected twists.
Discord among Khadr's defense team has left his Canadian lawyer barred from the proceedings, prompting complaints that the accused is being denied the defense of his choosing.
Khadr, captured in Afghanistan at age 15, is the only Guantanamo Bay prisoner charged with directly causing the death of a U.S. service member. He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher J. Speer during a July 2002 firefight.
He was brought before a commissions judge in June to be arraigned on charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing material support to terrorism.
The judge presiding over his case, Army Col. Peter Brownback, ruled that the commissions lacked jurisdiction. The 2006 Military Commissions Act set up the tribunals to try enemy combatants deemed "unlawful," but a Combatant Status Review Tribunal had designated Khadr only an "enemy combatant," without determining whether he might have been lawfully fighting against invading U.S. soldiers.
The Geneva Convention makes a distinction between foreign mercenaries and those captured defending their own country or recognized alliance.
A review panel for the commissions has sent the case back to Brownback and ordered him to decide the issue so Khadr's arraignment can proceed.
Prosecutors are expected to screen a video that reportedly shows Khadr building bombs as part of his Al Qaeda training to bolster their argument that as a foreigner in Afghanistan, he was unlawfully resisting the U.S. assault.
Human rights monitors and legal scholars say Khadr's case is probably being tackled first because it is one of the few where the government has hard evidence and witnesses to the alleged crimes.
But Jennifer Daskal, senior counter-terrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch, called the decision to try Khadr first "an ill-conceived move" because of several complications. Khadr was 10 when his father allegedly began shepherding him through Al Qaeda training camps, which raises questions about his volition. He was a minor when he was apprehended. And Daskal said there are concerns about whether he was accorded the protections mandated by international law for child soldiers after he was brought here five years ago.
