Now 22, Khadr has spent almost a third of his life in U.S. custody. He was raised in a militant Muslim family and was surrounded in his teen years by holy warriors. His lawyers describe him as confused, immature and emotionally damaged.
Seven inches taller than when he arrived, the 6-foot-3 Khadr could be seen on a recent weekday walking alone through the laundry-strewn courtyard outside his Camp 4 bunkhouse, behind fences topped by concertina wire and under the gaze of guards in watchtowers. He perused the tattered offerings of a library cart and selected an issue of National Geographic.
The Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child hold that it is the responsibility of the state whose soldiers capture juveniles on the battlefield to work to rehabilitate and integrate them into society. Appeals for consideration of Khadr and Jawad's age have been consistently rebuffed at the tribunal.
Army Col. Patrick Parrish has ruled that Khadr's trial can go forward on charges of murder, attempted murder, spying, conspiracy and material support for terrorism. His predecessor as judge in the case, Army Col. Peter E. Brownback III, ruled last spring that the defendant's age and upbringing were "interesting as a matter of policy" but irrelevant to prosecution under the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Jawad's military judge, Army Col. Stephen R. Henley, ruled similarly on the child soldier question(child%20soldier).pdf but excluded evidence the government was relying on to convict the Afghan of attempted murder and other charges. Henley ruled that Jawad's confessions were coerced, a decision prosecutors have asked the Court of Military Commission Review to overturn, but it is unclear when that appeal will be decided.
"My hope is that the Obama administration, as its first action, will say, 'We don't want to be the first administration in history to preside over the trial of a child soldier for war crimes,' " said Navy Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, Khadr's lead defense lawyer.
Kuebler said he was troubled by the mid-December hearing before Parrish, who refused to allow him to introduce as evidence photographs taken at the scene of the July 27, 2002, firefight near Khowst, Afghanistan, in which Khadr is charged with throwing the grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.
