New Video of Omar Khadr Interrogation

This is my first uploaded video clip! And it's a blockbuster. According to the Guardian:

At the time the video was produced, February 2003, Khadr was 16. He had been subjected to what guards called the "frequent flyer" programme, in which detainees are deprived of sleep.
In Khadr's case, he was prevented from sleeping for more than three hours at a time for 21 days.
In the footage broadcast yesterday, Khadr's despair at his indefinite confinement is palpable. He strips his orange prison uniform over his head, rocks and holds his face in his hands, weeping and begging for help. "You don't care about me," he tells interrogators.
Commentators described his indistinct moans as Khadr saying: "help me", "kill me", or even calling for his mother in Arabic.
The video, which the Canadian government handed over to Khadr's lawyers on the orders of Canada's supreme court, was the first sight of some seven hours of footage of his interrogation by Canadian agents. The images were recorded by a camera hidden in an air shaft as Khadr was questioned over four days.

Of course, many right-wingers will look for "clues" to "lack of abuse." Followed by doubletalk. But see for yourself.

Omar Khadr Lawyer: Gitmo Interrogators told to Trash Notes

San Juan, Puerto Rico - The Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially harsh treatment of detainees, a military defense lawyer said Sunday.
The lawyer for Toronto-born Omar Khadr, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the instructions were included in an operations manual shown to him by prosecutors and suggest the U.S. deliberately thwarted evidence that could help terror suspects defend themselves at trial.
Kuebler said the apparent destruction of evidence prevents him from challenging the reliability of any alleged confessions. He said he will use the document to seek a dismissal of charges against Khadr.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said he was reviewing the matter Sunday evening.

Omar Khadr Update: Evidence of Innocence

Guantanamo's "child terrorist" may have a strong legal defense, according to recent reports: the U.S. soldier Omar Khadr is accused of killing may have been killed not by Omar Khadr, but by friendly fire. Imagine, after Khadr was tortured and imprisoned at the infamous and cruel Guantanamo prison for alleged terrorists as an "enemy combatant", it may turn out that he was innocent completely of the alleged crime. Bear in mind, he was forcibly detained at age 15 to allegedly protect Americans from "terror".

Lt. Cmdr William Kuebler told CTV Newsnet that during the discovery process
of Khadr's legal proceedings, the U.S. government released interviews from
American soldiers who said they were lobbing grenades into the compound where
army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer was killed in July 2002. ...

"As the process unfolds, we are learning the government's case against
Khadr gets weaker and weaker," Kuebler said. "It departs from the mythical
account that was originally sold to the Canadian government and public that Omar
Khadr must have been guilty of throwing a hand grenade because he was found
alive in the compound . . . (as) today we learned that U.S. soldiers were
throwing hand grenades into that compound."
"Given the fact there were no
eyewitnesses to Khadr throwing a hand grenade (friendly-fire) is yet another
possibility."

Of course, the government will do everything in its power to railroad Khadr into a conviction, but we hope an international outcry, and perhaps a domestic outcry as well, could make those whose hands are bloody in this quagmire think twice and give this defendant the same rights accorded to other human beings: the presumption of innocence.

Or are all principles to be trashed in the interest of fear?

New Book on Omar Khadr Gets Reviewed

Check out this review of Guantanamo's Child, by Michelle Shephard (John Wiley & Sons Canada), a great read on Omar Khadr's life.

Omar Khadr Update

This from the ACLU:

"ACLU attorney Jamil Dakwar is in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba serving as a human rights observer at the hearing of a Canadian citizen named Omar Ahmed Khadr. Khadr was only 15 years old when he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. This is his third hearing; the first two resulted in the charges against him being thrown out.
After nearly six years of disarray and uncertainty about how to prosecute the 320 remaining prisoners being held at Guantánamo Bay, the U.S. government has failed to complete a single trial. As the prisoners continue to languish without being charged or tried, one thing remains crystal clear: We cannot arbitrarily detain prisoners, deny them access to lawyers, and hold them indefinitely.
It is also clear that Congress cannot continue to put off taking action, they need to close Guantánamo Bay, restore habeas corpus and repudiate torture once and for all. In the meantime, you and I cannot wait for a change in Congress or the White House to demand that our leaders fix the damage done to the Constitution, our freedoms and our most fundamental American values over the last seven years.
That’s why we’re asking ACLU members to bring the discussion about these vital issues to their friends and family by hosting a screening of the powerful documentary, "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib," on or before December 10, International Human Rights Day. Sign up to host a screening. "

P.S. You don't have to be an ACLU member to do this (I don't believe).

And this blockbuster from CTV:

Khadr legal team says eyewitness was 'buried'

"The defence team for Canadian Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr said they have just recently been told about an eyewitness who could provide "exculpatory information."
The surprise announcement came after a U.S. military judge postponed making a decision on whether Khadr is subject to a war-crimes tribunal.
Upon arriving at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, defence lawyers for Khadr told reporters that there was an eyewitness to the 2002 firefight that led to Khadr being charged in the death of U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Speer.
CTV's Lisa LaFlamme reported from Guantanamo Bay that the witness was a U.S. government employee, possibly a soldier.
Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, Khadr's U.S. trial lawyer, told reporters Thursday that the government had known about the witness but had tried to bury him.
"It's an eyewitness that the government has always known about," said Kuebler.
"They weren't going to tell us who he was or how to get in touch with him or where he was. Their theory is that they've done their investigation and they've disclosed everything they have to disclose. And we don't necessarily have an entitlement to talk to people who were actually at the scene of the crime."
Khadr's defence team said they learned of the eyewitness only two days ago when they received disclosure prior to the appearance before a military tribunal.
"He's been in custody for how long? Coming up on six years?" asked Deputy Chief of Defence Mike Berringer. "How we can be on the eve of a hearing to determine his status, how we can have newly discovered evidence, is beyond me."
Meanwhile, Khadr's tribunal in Guantanamo Bay ended without a clear determination of his status.
The court is pondering the question of whether Khadr is an "alien unlawful enemy combatant."
"The judge decided to withhold that pending a Federal Court appeal," LaFlamme said Thursday.
In the end, Khadr was not arraigned. Instead, dates for December and January have been set to hear new pre-trial motions.
Khadr appeared relaxed during his hearing, telling the judge he was satisfied with his defence team.
Khadr was before the military judge for a pre-trial hearing as lawyers argued whether the U.S. Defence Department has the right to try him on charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and spying.
Asked if he wanted to keep his current legal team -- a Pentagon-appointed lawyer and two civilian defence lawyers -- Khadr told the judge: "Yes, sir."
The 21-year-old entered the room dressed in a white uniform reserved for the most compliant prisoners.
He then sat unshackled with his legs crossed at the defence table, alongside his legal team.
Khadr is accused of killing Speer with a grenade during a firefight in Afghanistan on July 27, 2002 -- when he was 15.
In 2004, a military panel classified him as an "enemy combatant."
But because he wasn't classified as an "alien unlawful enemy combatant" -- required under rules written by Congress -- Col. Peter Brownback said last June that he had no choice but to throw the case out.
In September, a special military appeals court ruled that Brownback has the authority to determine whether Khadr was "unlawfully" fighting with the Taliban when Speer was killed.
Born in Canada, Khadr returned with his family to Pakistan and then travelled to Afghanistan as a child. He was captured at 15 at a suspected al Qaeda compound, badly wounded and blinded in one eye.

Despite Khadr's admission that he was satisfied with his legal team, Khadr's Canadian lawyer Dennis Edney said earlier Thursday that the trial was being manipulated.
He said Khadr is only able to choose between the prospect of representing himself or accepting a U.S. military system that's stacked against him.
Edney criticized his client's U.S. lawyer, Kuebler, saying his team was unprepared.
"The military defence team has not interviewed any of the prosecution's witnesses and only recently has looked at the disclosure -- notwithstanding that the prosecution team has been preparing for these days for the last two years," Edney told CTV's Canada AM on Thursday.
Edney also said Khadr's U.S. lawyer has no trial experience and only has a background in taxation law.
"The least you could provide him (Khadr) with is a competent lawyer familiar with the areas in which Mr. Khadr is charged," he said.

Edney has been barred from Thursday's arraignment because of his complaints about Kuebler.
"I think there's a concern that I would delay the process by advising the judge that first of all Mr. Khadr needs a psychiatric assessment to determine his fitness to stand trial," said Edney.
"You have to understand that Mr. Khadr has spent a quarter of his life in solitary confinement in that hellhole called Guantanamo Bay."
Edney's partner, lawyer Nate Whitling, did manage to meet with Khadr on Wednesday to explain that Edney would not be present today.

Meanwhile, Canada does have a representative at the base for the proceedings but officials are remaining very secretive, said LaFlamme.
"The Canadian government is the only Western nation that has done nothing to try to extradite their national from this prison," she said. "Every other country -- the U.K., Australia, New Zealand -- they've all reclaimed their detainees here at Guantanamo."
University of Toronto political scientist David Welsh criticized the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay saying that the detainees were not being treated with due process.
The U.S. have been "making it up as they go along," he said.
But Sgt. (Ret'd) Layne Morris, a former U.S. soldier injured in the 2002 firefight, said Thursday that he believes the evidence will be compelling.
"I think that's probably why those who would argue on behalf of Omar Khadr are so anxious to always go back and try and challenge the legal system and the circumstances of the trial because, to a certain extent, they think the outcome of this is probably inevitable," Morris told Canada AM.
Morris was left partially blind following the 2002 firefight. "

We hope that justice will prevail, but knowing the U.S. system on this, it's doubtful.

CHARGES DISMISSED! Now the Downplaying Begins

Finally, some semblance of justice in the long, slow tragedy known as the Torture of Omar Khadr, by the Bush/Cheney-led Anti-Terror Army of God. The long-suffering, young Omar Khadr who was driven to near-if-not-dead-on insanity by the "inept" psycho-torture of American "keepers". On a mere technicality. He's classified an "enemy combatant." But not an "illegal alien enemy combatant." And how, pray tell - or prey tell, as the case may be - do you classify the war in which he "combated" at the age of 15? The War Against Islamism Whatever That Is? So children are fair game for torture, right?


Next step - when? - Goodbye, Gitmo. Goodbye, American Torturers. Goodbye, Child-tormenters. But no goodbyes to Guilt by Association. That's too precious to the still-monolithic neocon "movement". A movement from the bowels of human nature, no doubt. How long will it be before he, an innocent accused of atrocity, victimized by the atrocities of his accusers, be REALLY free? Not now, at least.



He is the icon, the symbol of everything wrong with the so-called War on Terror. That war is not against terror at all. It just wants to be the Chief Terrorizer. If Khadr survives intact psychologically, it will be a true miracle. If not, which is likely the case, who do you think he will combat next? Does he pose a threat worth losing our Constitution for?

Update on Sad Gitmo Story

Bridgethought of the Day: Who in the right-wing universe decided it was in our best interests to eliminate the idea of "children"?

One of those children, Omar Khadr, has been caught up in the non-entity "enemy combatant" definition of subhuman, an alien life-form commonly found subsisting in a life-free, soulless, sense-numbing world that would make Big Brother cringe - called Gitmo - a child who has begun to grow up to the ripe old age of 20 - after unspeakable torture and abuse at the hands of Americans just obeying orders from the President and his cronies, now has finally, years later, been formally charged - with murder, spying, and other terrorism-related offenses.

He'll be tried in a military tribunal. No questions about "adult" or "child", since he is now an adult, and who cares how old he was when he was "taken" at the age of 15. Enemy combatants are not arrested. They are "taken". No one reads them their rights. They have no rights. Not even the right to a family. Not even the right to communicate with others. Not even the right to hear, see, or feel. Not even the right to talk. Let alone have friends. Let alone due process. Let alone the right to just be a human being. Let alone the right to be, God forbid, a child.

No, the war on terror does not recognize children. If the child is from a "terrorist group", even if he is an infant, he cannot be defined as a "child" and therefore there is no limit on what atrocities can be committed on him. He is not even an adult. He has no nation, no people, no home, no family, no rights. He is not even a slave. Slaves have owners, who may (or may not) protect them. They can speak, at least. Even have children. But Gitmo residents have none of the above. Who gave the anyone the right to dehumanize another without even due process? How can we give up the very principles we learned from the horrible message of the Holocaust? How dare we descent into the police-state policies that created Hitler's Germany? And who is held to account for this?

No one.

And when will the guilty be tried? Or where? Or by whom?

In the next life. With a Judge they cannot escape.
In the meantime, we need more justice here on earth. Show us the power of your conscience.