Jul 15 2008

UPDATED Canadian teen’s gitmo interrogation film released

(9:30PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

Graphic photo at end depicts the wounds Khadr was denied treatment for while he was being interrogated.

Mandated by a high court ruling, the defense lawyers representing Omar Khadr have been given and will release 7 1/2 hours of videotaped interrogation tomorrow. Khadr was arrested at 15 and held in Gitmo, where he remains today.

While Khadr’s supporters have claimed for years he was tortured in custody, his lawyers say the latest revelations have finally caught the attention of a Canadian public that’s growing less willing to sacrifice human rights in the name of national security.

It seems that Canadians are sick of their government participating in America’s illegal torture/detention practices, and their courts agree.

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Some background on Omar, from CBS:

(CBS) Omar Khadr seems an unlikely poster boy for the war on terror. Khadr is a Canadian citizen, he likes Harry Potter, and he was only 15 years old when he was captured by the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. And that’s what makes his case so controversial: his age.

SNIP

The U.S. accuses Omar Khadr of murdering an American soldier, conspiracy, spying and more, all done, they say, when he was just 15 years old. Khadr has been detained in Guantanamo Bay for five years, much of it in a maximum security prison, in a cell with no windows, awaiting a military trial. His lawyers say that due to his age when he was taken prisoner, he should have been considered a child soldier and shouldn’t be there at all.

As correspondent Bob Simon reports, Omar Khadr is the only person in modern history to be charged for war crimes he allegedly committed while a minor.

From the Canadian Press:

The release of the video, expected Tuesday, comes amid fresh accounts of abuse the Canadian teen suffered at the hands of his American captors that appear to have finally touched a public nerve in Canada.

Documents released under Canadian court order last week show the teenager had been subject to sleep deprivation and other abuse to soften him up for interrogation.

A summary of the videotaped interrogations indicates Khadr at times cried uncontrollably. At one point, he took off his shirt to show bullet wounds, one of them still seeping blood.

“I lost my eyes,” Khadr is cited as telling his interrogator, an indication that his vision was affected when he was shot.

A ten minute “highlight” portion of the film is scheduled to be released at 5:00 AM Tuesday, with the entire 7 1/2 hours of video to be released later in the day. Khadr’s attorneys have stated that by releasing the tapes, they are seeking to stir public outcry and pressure on the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to demand the US release Omar back to Canada. So far, Harper has refused to intervene on Khadr’s behalf.

Omar Khadr, at the time of his capture, aged 15:

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UPDATE:  THE FULL 7.5 HOURS OF KHADR’S INTERROGATION VIDEOS HAVE BEEN RELEASED.



THEY ARE ONLINE HERE.

31 comments

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  1. demand GITMO be closed down? The IRC has estimated that at least 35 detainees have died during or as a result of their interrogations at GITMO and other US rendition prisons.  

    • Edger on July 15, 2008 at 03:23
    • #

    Stephen Harper should be ashamed of himself.

    CTV, June 03, 2007

       Khadr, who was only 15 years old when he was taken into custody, presents a special challenge as the first juvenile to face war crimes charges in decades.

       …

       For activists, Khadr’s as much of a victim as Speer and Sgt. Layne Morris, who was nearly blinded during the firefight.

       “We have a kid who was dragged to meet al Qaeda leaders from the age of 10, sent to military training camps at age 15 and then out to the battlefield to be shot at,” said Jennifer Daskal at Human Rights Watch.

       …

       Authorities insist international law permits them to prosecute Khadr as an enemy combatant without the rights afforded prisoners of war while others argue the United States has an obligation to rehabiliate child soldiers under a United Nations treaty it has ratified.

       Meantime, some find it strange that Khadr is among only three prisoners to be formally charged since the military commission system was revamped last year [in 2006] after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was illegal.

       “You have to wonder why it’s Omar Khadr who may be the first to go on trial,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the national security project at the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.

       To give others with links to the Sept. 11 attacks a hearing may expose some uncomfortable information about interrogation techniques employed by the CIA, he said.

       “They don’t want that information on the front of the New York Times.”

    Omar Khadr “…was dragged to meet al Qaeda leaders from the age of 10, sent to military training camps at age 15 and then out to the battlefield to be shot at,” said Jennifer Daskal at Human Rights Watch.

    When a young kid is exposed to and indoctrinated in, for example, a dogmatic religion such as Roman Catholicism (or any other doctrine), from a young age the mindset created is nearly impossible to break out of, and the entire world is seen through the lens of what s/he has been taught. Anything that questions it is seen as threat.

    Khadr’s entire experience with Americans took place after he had already been indoctrinated, and consisted of being shot at and bombed by Americans.

    The US troops entered the flattened compound and the kid jumped out from behind a wall and killed one US troop and maimed another with a grenade.

    Should anything different have been expected?

     

  3. … a while back at the orange.

    How can there be justice for Omar Khadr?  There is no way to make up to him what has been done to him.

    Thanks for this essay, Lisa.

  4. Valtin, who usually cross posts here has another one of his amazing essays over at GOS. I wish he would post it here also, but for those who know Valtin`s work, it`s another “must read” even if it`s where some won`t tread.

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