geoswan's Journal: Khadr extradition: FBI agent Hughes needs a refresher course

I attended the extradition hearing for Abdullah Khadr this morning. FBI agent Gregory Hughes, where ever he is, needs a refresher course,He wasted an hour of the court's time because he did a truly incompetent job preparing the extradition paperwork.

The first page of the package of documents had the US charges against Khadr. Unfortunately Agent Hughes didn't bother noticing that the court seal obscured the charges, making them illegible. Duh!

Later pages of the package contained allegations against Khadr. But extradition is only based on charges, not allegations. Everyone was ready to acknowledge that if those allegations had been framed as charges the US claim for extradition would have been a lot clearer.

The defense counsel argued that the US charges should be translated into their closest Canadian equivalents. While those charges counted as terrorism charges in the US, their closest Canadian equivalents were merely weapons charges.

The Crown Attorney argued strongly that the extradition could be based on the supporting allegations, but the judge wouldn't swallow it.

But the real winner among Agent Hughes's allegation was that Khadr had been in possession of WMD. WMD! The rest of the affadavit said that he had sold AK47 bullets, Russian PK machine gun bullets, Russian anti-tank missiles, and 80 and 120 mm mortar rounds to al Qaeda. Yes, these are deadly weapons. If true, this is a serious charge. But, for crying out loud, bazooka rockets and mortar rounds are not WMD!

During a recess I tried to join in a discussion these two young guys were having. They were reporters, as it turned out. I pointed out that mortar rounds are not WMD, that this was a court of law, and we should be able to count on documents filed with it to be truthful. Their response? "Yeah, but look who he gave them to."