My friend Michelle Shephard is an amazing reporter. No journalist knows more about Omar Khadr than she does. And she even kills snakes.
And what a writer. I just had occasion to read this November 6 Toronto Star dispatch of hers, a kind of epilogue for Khadr’s military commission. Holy crap. Imagine something like this ever being printed in an American newspaper.
Was [Khadr's guilty plea] proof that justice was possible here and that while meaningless — Khadr’s plea deal had capped his sentence at eight years — the jury’s decision was a strike against terrorism?
Or was it that our Madonna impersonator wasn’t so different from the rest of us — all participants in a show trial that had more to do with politics than the rule of law?
Just read the piece to understand the Madonna explanation. And buy her book. Then get ready for the next one she’s writing. From what she’s described to me, it’s going to be even better.



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Michelle’s book, “Guantanamo’s Child” is great. It’s well researched, includes interviews with many people on all sides of the issue. It’s well documented and balanced. She’s an excellent and principled reporter and it shows in the book.
The book provides insight into how a young Canadian teenager ended up fighting in the war in Afghanistan, and being accused under Bush laws of “violation of the law of war” and “material support for terrorism” as a result of his two month participation in the insurgency and one combat confrontation with the US military, in the summer of 2002 when he was 15. It also provides insight into the issue of so-called “home grown terrorism” generally.
I’m looking forward to her next book.