September 28, 2007
Harshing my mellow
William Kuebler, left, and Dwight Sullivan, U.S. lawyers for Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr, talk about the detained Canadian in Toronto Monday, June 25. (Tim Fraser/The Globe and Mail)
Just reveived an e-mail from a friend that begins, "Need a blood-pressure boost?"
He knows me well -- and boy, he wasn't kidding.
You may have heard about the decision this week reinstating the charges against Omar Khadr, a Canadian terrorist who, at age 15, killed an Army S[pecial] F[orces] sergeant in Afghanistan with a hand grenade. The WSJ has an editorial today lauding the decision.
I read the decision, and it's a good one. But when I went digging for more information about the case, I found that Khadr's lawyer, a Navy JAG O-4 (and classmate of mine at USD law school), traveled to Canada and spoke, in uniform, to the Canadian Bar Association, urging them to apply pressure to the Canadian government to seek Khadr's release.
I am most disturbed by the image of a U.S. Navy officer, standing on Canadian soil in his Service Dress Blues, calling the U.S. a "lawless regime."
I'm not making this up. There are numerous articles (and even a Wikipedia page) about this.
The speech, of course, was the darling of the Canadian media last month. I don't begrudge Kuebler (the lawyer) his right to zealously defend his client in court, or even in the court of public opinion. But seeking to further his cause by aligning himself with a foreign government -- while maligning his own government -- strikes me as, well, treachery.
I agree. The image of a commissioned officer in the U.S. military, wearing the uniform as he denounces his own nation as a "lawless regime" is repugnant. That he does so on foreign soil in defense of a man who has killed a fellow American soldier is disgusting.
While Kuebler's actions may not be outrageous by the standards of criminal defense attorneys, he is a disgrace to the uniform -- and brings dishonor to himself and the military.
More details here.
Posted by Mike Lief at September 28, 2007 12:49 PM
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Comments
You may want to clarify that the one in the uniform in that picture is NOT the one you are talking about. The one who is said to have spoken in uniform to the Bar Association is the one NOT in the uniform in that picture.
Posted by: andrewdb at September 28, 2007 04:24 PM
Take a closer look at the picture; the guy on the left is LCDR Kuebler, with the ribbons on his coat peeking out from behind his left arm, and the gold braid on his cuffs denoting his rank.
Unless you're saying that the Marines are the only ones with uniforms martial enough to justify being called "uniforms."
Of course, all this is predicated on the caption -- written by the crack editors at The Globe and Mail -- being correct.
Posted by: Mike Lief at September 28, 2007 05:39 PM
The man on the left is Bill Kuebler. His photo (actually speaking in Canada) is here: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=9b78ecff-7bb7-423d-9ac8-60feb2fcb32d&k=2742. His Wikipedia page is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Kuebler.
His photograph, being hung as a traitor is... oh, wait, that won't happen, unfortunately.
Posted by: Dirk at September 28, 2007 06:52 PM
Opps, you are correct.
I missed the gold braid and thought he was in a suitcoat.
Posted by: andrewdb at September 29, 2007 10:41 AM