Slobodan,

Thank you for your report on the Omar Khadr trial. I followed up on what you wrote but found little in the way of corroboration, leading me to believe that you either invented it or are there, at Guantanamo (though unlikely given your tone).

The trial has once again made the front page of our country’s “national newspaper.” Not the central story (that belongs to the Congo), but a twelve-inch strip along the right-hand side of the page.

At the top of the story is a picture of Tabitha Speer, widow of the U.S. soldier who Khadr was convicted of killing. What at first looks like a Hilfinger purse is in fact one of those carefully folded U.S. flags given to the family of deceased U.S. military personnel. That and her veil suggest the photo was taken at her husband’s funeral.

The article has two headlines. The first is from Ms Speer: “You will forever be a murderer in my eyes”; below that, from Khadr: “I’m really, really sorry for the pain I’ve caused you.” Ms Speer’s headline was extracted from a fifty-minute courtroom statement. Kahadr’s statement was four minutes long.

In reading through the article, nowhere does it say who spoke first. We get a lot of information about how much Khadir’s body has changed in the nine years since his fifteen-year-old self threw a grenade at the Special Forces medic, mortally wounding him, and the cold looks sent his way by Ms Speer, but nothing of the order of events.

Is it important that we know how the trial proceeded? And if you were there, Slobodan, could you tell us?

Sincerely,
Michael Turner