The world is revolted by the treatment of Khadr in "Waterboard" Bay
By Ashley Fantz
CNN
(CNN) -- Omar Khadr begged them to do it.
"Kill me," he said. "Please, kill me."
Omar Khadr, is shown here in his early teens, when he was first accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
The men looming over the bullet-riddled 15-year-old were stunned. How was he still alive? The Special Forces unit had fired several rounds into him, shooting where a grenade had been thrown that mortally wounded their medic, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.
The air in the Afghan compound, which had been blown to bits, was a thick fog of dust. Hearts pumped from the adrenaline of a firefight. Speer was immediately choppered away. The 28-year-old father of two would die 10 days later.
The wounded teen, whose parents once lived with Osama bin Laden, was patched up and flown away too, headed for questioning at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. He would become one of Guantanamo Bay's most controversial detainees.
Khadr, now 22, is the youngest inmate and, as a Canadian citizen, the only Westerner still held at Gitmo. He is accused of receiving one-on-one training from al Qaeda and was allegedly caught on a surveillance video making and planting roadside bombs where U.S. troops traveled -- video the Pentagon will not release.
Due to go to trial last month, Khadr is charged with war crimes including murder, spying, conspiracy and providing support to terrorism. But President Obama's order to close the detention facility at Gitmo has postponed the trial, and left the case in limbo.
Like the other remaining 245 Gitmo detainees, Khadr could be tried in the United States and face a life sentence. Or he might be sent back to Canada, where he could avoid trial and be set free.
Khadr has already served more time than he ever would under Canadian law, his lawyers say. They paint him as a victim, a kid trying to please his father, an al Qaeda financier who raised Omar and his siblings in bin Laden's training camps.
"Omar is not a threat," said his attorney Nathan Whitling, who recently visited his client at the prison in Cuba. "He's a good kid, everyone agrees."
By Ashley Fantz
CNN
(CNN) -- Omar Khadr begged them to do it.
"Kill me," he said. "Please, kill me."
Omar Khadr, is shown here in his early teens, when he was first accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
The men looming over the bullet-riddled 15-year-old were stunned. How was he still alive? The Special Forces unit had fired several rounds into him, shooting where a grenade had been thrown that mortally wounded their medic, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.
The air in the Afghan compound, which had been blown to bits, was a thick fog of dust. Hearts pumped from the adrenaline of a firefight. Speer was immediately choppered away. The 28-year-old father of two would die 10 days later.
The wounded teen, whose parents once lived with Osama bin Laden, was patched up and flown away too, headed for questioning at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. He would become one of Guantanamo Bay's most controversial detainees.
Khadr, now 22, is the youngest inmate and, as a Canadian citizen, the only Westerner still held at Gitmo. He is accused of receiving one-on-one training from al Qaeda and was allegedly caught on a surveillance video making and planting roadside bombs where U.S. troops traveled -- video the Pentagon will not release.
Due to go to trial last month, Khadr is charged with war crimes including murder, spying, conspiracy and providing support to terrorism. But President Obama's order to close the detention facility at Gitmo has postponed the trial, and left the case in limbo.
Like the other remaining 245 Gitmo detainees, Khadr could be tried in the United States and face a life sentence. Or he might be sent back to Canada, where he could avoid trial and be set free.
Khadr has already served more time than he ever would under Canadian law, his lawyers say. They paint him as a victim, a kid trying to please his father, an al Qaeda financier who raised Omar and his siblings in bin Laden's training camps.
"Omar is not a threat," said his attorney Nathan Whitling, who recently visited his client at the prison in Cuba. "He's a good kid, everyone agrees."
