Burying his face in his hands, a 16-year-old captured in Afghanistan sobs and calls out “Oh Mommy!” in a hidden-camera video released on Tuesday that provides the first look at interrogations inside the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
Lawyers for Toronto-born Omar Khadr released the tapes in hopes of generating sympathy for the young prisoner and to try to persuade the Canadian government to seek custody before he is prosecuted for war crimes at the US special tribunal in Guantanamo later this year.
Khadr, the son of an alleged al-Qaeda financier, is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US Special Forces soldier in a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan that left another soldier blinded in one eye.
Khadr, who was 15 at the time, was found in the rubble of a bombed-out compound — badly wounded and near death.
The seven hours of grainy footage, recorded over four days of questioning by Canadian intelligence agents in 2003, shows Khadr breaking down in tears. At one point he pleads for help and displays chest and back wounds that he says had not healed six months after his capture.
Peeling off his orange prisoner shirt, he shows the wounds and complains he cannot move his arms, saying he has not received proper medical attention, despite requests.
“They look like they’re healing well to me,” the agent said of the injuries.
“No, I’m not. You’re not here [at Guantanamo],” Khadr said.
The agent later accuses Khadr of using his injuries and emotional state to avoid the interrogation.
“No, you don’t care about me,” Khadr said.
In a 10-minute excerpt released by his Canadian lawyers, Khadr’s mood swings between calm and relief to rage and grief.
At first, believing that the Canadians were there to help him, Khadr smiles and repeats several times, “I’m very happy to see you.”
“I’ve been requesting the Canadian government for a very long time,” he said.
By the second day, however, Khadr is seen in a frenzy of despair after realizing the Canadian agents are not there for his release, repeatedly moaning, “Ya Umi,” — “Oh Mommy” in Arabic — while left alone in the room.
On the final day, the agent tells Khadr that he was “very disappointed” in Khadr’s behavior, and tries to impress upon him that he should cooperate.
Khadr says he wants to go back to Canada.
“There’s not anything I can do about that,” the agent said.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Commander J.D. Gordon, denied Khadr was mistreated.
“Our policy is to treat detainees humanely and Khadr has been treated humanely,” Gordon said.
The video was made by US authorities and turned over to Khadr’s defense team, Gordon said. The tapes are US property.
A Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs report said a Canadian official, Jim Gould, visited Khadr in 2004 and was told by the US military that the detainee was moved every three hours to different cells.
That technique, dubbed, “frequent flyer,” was one of at least two sleep deprivation programs the US military used against Guantanamo prisoners.
Canada’s Supreme Court ordered the Canadian government in May to hand over key evidence against Khadr to his legal team to allow a full defense of the US charges, which include accusations that he spied for and provided material support to terrorists.
Last month, a Canadian Federal Court judge ordered the Canadian government to release the video to the defense after the court ruled the US military’s treatment of Khadr broke human rights laws, including the Geneva Conventions.
Khadr faces up to life in prison on US charges that include murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US special forces soldier.
During his last interrogation, according to the Canadian government report, Khadr was shown a picture of his family and denied knowing anyone in it.
While being watched by guards, he then urinated on the photograph. However, two-and-a-half hours later, apparently believing he was no longer being watched, he quietly lay his head next to the picture.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has maintained he will not seek Khadr’s return to Canada and his position was unchanged after the release of the video. Anne Howland, a spokeswoman for Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson, said the government believes Khadr is in “a legal process that must continue.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of