Obama Admin Pushes Terrorist's Gitmo Release; Canada Reluctant

According the U.S. State Department, the Obama Administration has not only sought the Gitmo release of Canadian terrorist Omar Khadr but has already lessened his sentence from 40 years to 8 years via a pre-trial agreement.

As I wrote on Thursday, in mid-October 2010 Khadr was found guilty of killing US Army medic Sgt. Christopher Speer and sentenced to 40 years by a military jury. But at the same time, the Obama administration intervened for his transfer back to his homeland of Canada.

Questions remained, however–like, which country was pushing hardest for this and why? And with this line of questions, a press release from the U.S. State Department dated April 18 makes one thing clear–the U.S. has gone full steam ahead seeking Khadr’s transfer since even before his military trial took place, and the Obama administration is now waiting on Canada to do its part to finish the process:

The U.S. and Canadian Governments have been in regular contact on this case. Both sides have worked diligently to take the appropriate steps to act on Omar Khadr’s application for transfer to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence, pursuant to his pre-trial agreement and in accordance with diplomatic notes exchanged in October 2010. …The U.S. government has completed the necessary steps to approve the transfer and passed the application to the Canadian government for its consideration.

Here’s the bottom line: The Obama administration is working relentlessly to release a Gitmo terrorist convicted for killing a U.S. soldier. But to date, the Canadian government remains somewhat “reluctant to accept Mr. Khadr,” because it considers him “a dangerous terrorist.” At least someone still recognizes that terrorism is a reality.