By Rick Moran
I covered the story last week about a former Gitmo inmate being given $10 million and offered an apology from the Canadian government for being incarcerated at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The former inmate, Omar Khadrm, was accused of killing a U.S. medic and injuring several others
The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came under withering attack and the country was split down the middle over the terms of the settlement. But what of the victims of Omar Khadr’s grenade attack?
The widow of the medic, Sgt. Chris Speer, won’t see a penny of Khadr’s millions. Neither will Layne Morris, one of the U.S. soldiers wounded in Khadr’s attack. Morris lost his sight as a result of the grenade tossed toward U.S. and Canadian soldiers trying to flush known al-Qaeda operatives from their hiding place. It was later established that Khadr threw the grenade.
The terrorist’s defenders say he was only 15 at the time and shouldn’t be held accountable, despite the fact that his father was an al-Qaeda leader who was killed in the allied assault. They also claim that Khadr was tortured by undergoing sleep deprivation and threats that he would be sent to Egypt for worse.
His lawyer claims that Khadr received inadequate medical care — a contention that is patently ridiculous. Khadr was near death when U.S. medics and U.S. medical facilities in Afghanistan brought the terrorist back to life. He also received first-class treatment at the medical facility in Guantanamo.
For these reasons, Trudeau awarded the terrorist millions of dollars and offered an apology for the U.S.’s treatment of him.
Now Layne Morris is has decided to break his silence about Trudeau’s unconscionable act. He told the Toronto Sun that the prime minister’s actions amount to “treason.”
In an interview with the Toronto Sun on Saturday, Layne Morris says Trudeau’s decision to reward the former al-Qaida terrorist with a formal apology and $10.5 million cash settlement feels “like a punch in the face.”
“I don’t see this as anything but treason,” said Morris. “It’s something a traitor would do. As far as I am concerned, Prime Minister Trudeau should be charged.”
Morris is also angry that Trudeau delivered the “compensation” money to Khadr in secret so that the settlement would be unknown to any U.S. court. Morris, along with Speer’s widow, Tabitha Speer, were awarded $134 million in a civil suit aimed against Khadr.
“It feels like a dirty deal to me,” the former U.S. Army special force sergeant said. Morris notes that Khadr was also removed from Guantanamo Bay in secret by then-president Barack Obama and sent to Canada.
“He sure gets special treatment,” Morris said, noting that the Khadr’s life was saved by American medics who could have left him to “die like a dog.”
Morris is bewildered that one of America’s closest allies would sanction a payoff to Khadr.
“We were fighting the terrorists. They were the bad guys. Something is really off here,” he said. “I can’t believe any government would get involved in something like this.”
“The fact is Chris Speer and myself were fighting with Canadians in Afghanistan. We were alongside the PPCLI [Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry]. There was a Canadian flag flying along with the American flag at our base there, so it’s quite a thing that now Canada is giving millions to a guy who would attack a compound where Canadians were serving.”
Is a 15-year-old young man a “child soldier”? Taken completely out of the context of the Middle East and terrorist groups in general, the answer is yes. But Khadr claims his father forced him to fight — another patently ridiculous notion that simply can’t be accepted without proof.
Kahdr is 30 years old now and will likely lay low for a while. But would it surprise anyone if he showed up in a few years at a pro-jihad rally? I think not.