Obama administration seeking 'political cover' before it releases accused terrorist from U.S. justice system

From the National Post:

Obama administration officials are quietly seeking a way to repatriate Canadian-born terror suspect Omar Khadr, an authority in a position to know has confided...

Mr. Khadr's age of 15 at the time of the alleged offences is playing on the minds of certain administration officials – especially those with backgrounds in the type of activism that has clashed with some of the more controversial U.S. anti-terror efforts, the source signalled...

But even those seeking to return Mr. Khadr to Canada don't feel the United States can make the first move. They want Ottawa to ask for Mr. Khadr back so that the Obama administration has "political cover" to dodge any domestic backlash resulting from the release of an accused terrorist from the U.S. justice system."There are political repercussions," the source said. So administration officials are "looking for a Canadian [out]reach." Their determination to explore what "we can do" is nevertheless there, the source added. The U.S. "would like to send him back."

The U.S. Department of Justice declined comment on the issue.

The government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has long publicly maintained it will not seek Mr. Khadr's return, saying he faces serious charges in the United States that need to be addressed...

Mr. Khadr faces five war crimes charges before the military commission system created under the presidency of George W. Bush. Among them is murder in the death of Delta Force Sgt. Chris Speer, who was fatally wounded by a hand grenade that Khadr allegedly tossed during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan...

Sgt. Speer’s widow, Tabitha, is also expected to testify at any sentencing hearing. His death left her alone to raise their two young children.

h/t - Creeping Sharia

Related news:

Charming and chilling: Osma Bin Laden's bodyguard:
Osama bin Laden's [allegedly rehabilitated] former bodyguard, Nasir al-Bahri, says [in an interview] that he would like President Obama to commission him to establish a secure rehabilitation and re-education centre for terrorist detainees.

But then he goes on to say: “I do wish now that I had never left Afghanistan, that I was still with my sheikh [Osama Bin Laden].”

Heh.