Omar Khadr to cop a plea?

Between a rock and a hard place, he really has very little choice.

Khadr stated the obvious last July: "How can I ask for justice from a process that doesn’t have it?"

The presiding officer at his kangaroo-court "trial," Col. Patrick Parrish, has indicated shocking bias from the beginning, as I've observed before. There is no justice to be had when doctored evidence is blithely introduced by the prosecution with a wink and a nod from this "judge." Had Khadr been convicted, which was almost inevitable with the judicial cards stacked so obviously against him, he would, almost certainly, have been sentenced to life in prison.

Meanwhile, we know by now the attitude of the Harper government towards its brown-skinned citizens. There would be no assistance from that quarter. The government has fought strenuously against the very notion. Indeed, the plea deal is likely to put Stephen Harper in a very delicate position (although National Post correspondent John Iveson thinks the Tories might manage to eke out a win).

This shameful deal has nothing to do with justice, everything to do with politics and coercion. The bottom line? Khadr has had to cut his losses. The result is that a child soldier, tortured and then railroaded, will do even more time in prison. Another triumph of the American justice system--and Stephen Harper's politics of exclusion.

UPDATE: Guess who's standing up for Khadr's rights?