Over the course of the past two years, the New English Review and its blog, The Iconoclast  have published articles and posts about the Guantanamo trial, the appeals, questionable defense expert witnesses and  the deal struck by the US and Canada to send home former al Qaeda terrorist Omar Khadr. (See: “Omar Khadr’s Hail Mary (Allah) Pass at GITMO Tribunal” April 2011).  Khadr, at the age of 15 "killed his American." Special Forces Sgt. Christopher Speer at the battle of the Khost Al Qaeda bastion in Afghanistan in July 2002. Khadr was captured; his wounds treated and has spent the last nine years in detention at the Guantanamo Naval Base. Khadr was sentenced  to 40 years in October 2010 by a US Military Tribunal convened to hear charges against him. While that tribunal was deliberating the US State Department worked out a deal with the Harper Government in Ottawa to have the sentence commuted to eight years with one year served at Guantanamo before repatriating Khadr to Canada to serve an additional seven years. The Harper government could pardon Khadr to walk free on the streets of Toronto. The year sentence under the terms of the Obama deal with the Harper government is nearly up. The Levant interview with Welner is timely given the looming repatriation of Khadr to Canada.

Dr. Michael Welner is a ranking American forensic psychiatrist who was an expert witness for the prosecution in the Khadr military tribunal. Dr. Welner figured prominently in our NER series on the controversial Khadr tribunal. The interview was conducted before an audience of residents of Khadr’s neighborhood in Toronto who asked Dr. Welner questions regarding the risks of bringing Khadr home to Canada. Clearly the Levant objective in this hour long interview with Dr. Welner was to make the case to the Harper government in Ottawa not to repatriate Khadr. Levant is the author of The Enemy Within: Terror, Lies and the Whitewashing of Omar Khadr.

Dr. Welner is chairman of The Forensic Panel based in Manhattan. He has served as prosecution expert witness in a number of high profile American cases. Welner spent over 500 hours in preparation for his testimony at the Guantanamo tribunal including extensive video interviews with Khadr, his jailers and others. His assessment was that Khadr was a jihadist warrior and not a likely candidate for rehabilitation. This despite the publicity campaign waged in support of the release of this ‘child soldier’ Canadian and international media. In fact, Welner argues that this campaign has painted al Qaeda through Khadr as the victim of US intervention in the Muslim Ummah.  

Concerned Canadians should view these You Tube videos of Levant’s Sun-TV interview with Dr. Welner that aired earlier this week. The program has since been taken down from the channel’s website.

Those Canadians enlightened by Levant’s interview with Welner might pick up the phone number displayed on the bottom part of the screen in these videos and called Ottawa to say “no” to the deal struck with Obama.

Watch Parts  1, 2, 3. and 4. of the Levant Sun TV interview with Dr. Welner.