Khadr case in limbo; U.S. relents on journalist ban

With Monday's crucial pre-trial hearings in Omar Khadr's war-crimes case in limbo, the Pentagon relented late Friday by unbanning at least one of three Canadian journalists barred from heading to Guantanamo Bay.The hearings, scheduled to begin early next week, were thrown into doubt Wednesday when Khadr fired his American lawyers with just a month to go before the scheduled start of his trial. Khadr, 23, the only Westerner in custody at Guantanamo Bay and also the infamous prison's youngest resident, is charged with war crimes that include killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in July 2002 when he was 15 years old.

Of four journalists barred from the hearings by the U.S. Department of Defense, one of them -- Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald -- suddenly found herself back in the Pentagon's good graces on Thursday.

The three Canadians remained on the no-go list until late Friday, when the Pentagon informed the Toronto Star's Michelle Shephard she was cleared to travel. There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon on its change of heart. Rosenberg, Shephard, Steven Edwards of Canwest, and Paul Koring of the Globe and Mail were all barred in early May after military officials said they named a witness whose identity was protected. The reporters had tried unsuccessfully to argue that the name of the disgraced former soldier, who interrogated the Toronto-born Khadr in Afghanistan and was convicted of abusing prisoners, was already widely known. They also noted the judge himself made no finding against them.