Khadr's twice-derailed trial set to open

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Source: The Associated Press

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — The Pentagon's twice-derailed effort to try a former child soldier who allegedly killed a Delta Force commando in Afghanistan resumes Thursday — and few expect the proceedings to go smoothly.

Almost six years after the first men captured by the United States and its allies were brought in chains to this U.S. military base, not a single one has been tried by the military tribunals, called commissions, set up by the Bush administration. One detainee, an Australian, was convicted in March in a pretrial plea bargain.

Anticipation has been building for the trial of Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002. Lawyers for the prosecution and defence, journalists and members of human rights groups that will monitor the proceedings arrived in Guantanamo on military planes Tuesday.

Even before Mr. Khadr, who is now 21, can enter a plea on charges of murder, conspiracy and others in a small hilltop courthouse, the judge must resolve the thorny issue of whether he can even legally stand trial here.



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