In a recent Justia blog post, Professor Lesley Wexler discussed the unique case of Omar Khadr, which represents the first instance in which a government has both compensated and publicly apologized to an acknowledged member of a terrorist organization involved in the War on Terror.

She argues that while the short-term pressures to engage in torture can be high, the Khadr settlement suggests that the long-term costs of doing so may be even higher.

"On July 7, the Canadian government officially apologized to Omar Khadr and settled with him for 10.5 million Canadian dollars. Who is Omar Khadr and what makes his settlement so interesting? In 2002, Omar Khadr was a 15-year-old member of al-Qaeda who fought against the United States in Afghanistan. After being captured by U.S. forces, he was eventually transferred to Guantanamo Bay and detained as an enemy combatant. In 2007, the U.S. government brought him before a military commission on war crime charges. Khadr then pled guilty to killing a U.S. Army soldier, Sergeant Christopher Speer, in exchange for an eventual transfer to a Canadian prison. After Khadr’s return to his native Canada, he was eventually released on bail in 2015, having been detained 13 years."

Read the full post at verdict.justia.com.