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JANET HAMLIN

At Guantanamo Monday - as Paul Koring reports on the front page of The Globe and Mail (at least outside of Toronto) - "Omar Khadr, reversing years of denial, has admitted he is a murderer, a terrorist and a war criminal." And Mr. Koring goes on to quote Dennis Edney, Mr. Khadr's lawyer, explaining that the decision to plead guilty was "in exchange for the Canadian government agreeing to repatriate him back to Canada after one year."

Turning to the Canadian Press report from Guantanamo, we find Mr. Edney again stressing the quid pro quo. But we also find him saying something much more troubling: "In our view, it's all a fiction. … In our view, Mr. Khadr is innocent."

As the Miami Herald reports Tuesday morning, "To plead guilty, Khadr swore to the truthfulness of a 50-paragraph, eight-page narrative." Which raises two questions that reporters on the ground should be asking him before the week is up: Is Mr. Edney of the view that Omar Khadr committed perjury? And, if so, did he counsel his client to do so?

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Update Here is the signed stipulation of fact entered into by the prosecution and Omar Khadr, wherein it is "stipulated and agreed, by and between the Prosecution and Defense, with the express consent of the accused, that the following facts are true."

For me, one sentence stands out:

47. Khadr voluntarily chose to conspire and agree with various members of al Qaeda to train and ultimately conduct operations to kill United States and coalition forces.



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