Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.
This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.
So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.
This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.
Shocking Footage of China’s Uighurs Shackled and Blindfolded
Boris Johnson says the Supreme Court was wrong
Labour MPs horrified by Boris Johnson’s ‘humbug’ retort
Labour MPs reacted with fury after Boris Johnson mocked a request to stop using phrases such as ‘Surrender Act’ and ‘traitors’ in relation to Brexit.
Trump’s Ukraine Transcript Reveals That The Democrats Made a HUGE Mistake, Are HELPING Trump
Britain’s Activist Supreme Court
“Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.” – Hong Kong Protesters
U.S. military court appoints panel to hear Omar Khadr’s war-crimes appeal
TORONTO – An American military court has appointed three judges to hear Omar Khadr appeal his war-crimes convictions, signalling a possible end to a years-long delay in the Canadian’s quest to clear his name.
The panel appointment comes just days after a civilian court ordered the U.S. government to respond to Khadr’s latest plea to have his appeal heard.
Sam Morison, Khadr’s American lawyer, said the Department of Defence has opposed having Khadr’s case decided because it considers him a fugitive.
“It’s just irrational. How can Khadr be a fugitive? They transferred him to Canada,” Morison said on Wednesday from Virginia. “They know that their case is vulnerable (and) they’re trying any way they can to avoid having to confront the merits of his appeal”
Since the Americans returned him to Canada in September 2012, the Toronto-born Khadr has been trying to clear his name. He filed an appeal of his convictions in November 2013.
American soldiers had captured Khadr as a badly wounded 15-year-old following a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002 in which a U.S. special forces soldier was killed. He was moved to the notorious U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay within months.
In October 2010, Khadr pleaded guilty to five purported war crimes before a widely maligned U.S. military commission and was sentenced to eight more years in prison. He later said he pleaded guilty as his only way out of Guantanamo Bay.
Khadr’s appeal argument – with some support from U.S. courts – is that the commission convicted him of offences that weren’t crimes at the time he allegedly committed them. However, the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review that sits as a first appeal forum for commission verdicts has steadfastly refused to hear his case.
That precludes Khadr, who turned 33 last week, from taking his fight to a civilian appellate court where normal rules of evidence apply.
Last month, Khadr petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to force the military review court known as CMCR to hear his appeal.
“The CMCR has obdurately failed to exercise its affirmative statutory obligation to review the validity of his conviction,” Morison states in the petition. “After nearly six years, the CMCR’s continued foot-dragging amounts to little more than a pocket veto of Khadr’s right to direct review, and this court’s appellate jurisdiction.”
On Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court gave the U.S. government 30 days to respond. However, the Court of Military Commission Review issued a terse order on Tuesday appointing William Pollard as presiding judge to hear the case along with Chief Judge Paulette Burton and Judge Jan Aldykiewicz.
The review court did not respond to a request for comment and it remained unclear when Khadr might finally get a hearing.
Khadr became a political flashpoint in July 2017, when the Canadian government paid him $10.5 million for violating his rights. The Supreme Court of Canada had previously ruled the government had failed him during his detention in Guantanamo Bay.
However, he remains a convicted war criminal. His conviction looms large in a civil suit by the widow of the American special forces soldier Khadr is alleged to have killed in Afghanistan and a former soldier blinded in that battle. A court in Utah awarded them US$134 million based on Khadr’s military commission confession and conviction. Their attempt to enforce the award in Canada is scheduled to continue in November.
Khadr has married and lives in Edmonton without restrictions. An Alberta court had ordered him released on bail in April 2015 pending disposition of his appeal in the U.S. but earlier this year, the court ruled he had served his sentence and released him unconditionally.
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/u-s-military-court-appoints-panel-to-hear-omar-khadr-s-war-crimes-appeal-1.4610486
The Perfect Analogy On Democrats “Walking Away,” The Party Has Abandoned Moderates
UN: ‘Full determination to preserve’ Iran nuclear deal – Mogherini after signatories meeting
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said that there was full determination on behalf of the signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to preserve it. She made the remarks while speaking to journalists at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Wednesday.
Mogherini’s statements came after meeting with the top diplomats from Germany, France, Italy, Russia and China on one side, and Iran on the other.
“They underlined the importance of the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA by all sides and confirmed their determination to continue all efforts to preserve the agreement which is in the interests of all,” said Mogherini.
“As you know the agreement has two pillars: the nuclear commitments and the economic side that is linked to the sanction-lifting. On both elements there is full determination to try and preserve the agreement. On both elements there are challenges and there is a will to try and preserve the deal,” she added.
Mogherini stated that it was “increasingly difficult” to preserve the deal, but added that the steps that Iran took to reduce nuclear deal commitments were “reversible.”
“This is in the security interest for sure, of all of us. It is also in the economic interest of Iran. So, I believe that… I hope – I am not sure I believe, I hope, that rationality will prevail,” she said.