Omar Khadr's Interrogation Videos

[Asher]

So, besides him saying so (which Al Queda trains them to say regardless), why are we assuming he was tortured. Certainly nobody is seriously going to maintain this video proves anything one way or the other.

Gee, I don't know.

Perhaps it's because it's already widely known it happens.
Perhaps it's because he had physical injuries on him sustained after he was captured (and he demonstrates these to the CSIS officers in the interrogation).

Why are you assuming he wasn't tortured?

There is absolutely nothing to cooroborate this, it basically comes from this kids testimony any that alone. In other words, it is baseless rumors. I prisoner claiming abuse, SHOCK!!!

Irony of ironies -- isn't this the same kind of evidence that says he killed the medic with the grenade? It's funny how it's acceptable in one case but not another.

[Felch]

Originally posted by Asher
If he is released to his mother's custody in Toronto he's not going to be fighting in Afghanistan...

How much do you trust her to keep him under control? It's not like these hajis are all that respectful of female authority.

As both the US and Canadian interrogators have said, they don't believe he is a threat to them. Why he's still being held hostage like they believe he is is a mystery.

As long as he can walk and carry a gun or bomb, he's a threat. People don't need to be big and tough to hurt you; they only need to be motivated.

There will never be an end to the hostilities in Afghanistan. That doesn't make it okay to hold a child in custody for years and torture him because he was doing what his father told him to do.

Torturing is wrong, but holding him isn't. Calling a fifteen year old who's been in combat a child is rather misleading - he's probably more mature than most of us. As far as the hostilities never ending, we can't be sure of that. We do know that releasing captured enemies back into the wild is not a way of ending wars though. That'll just come back to bite you in the ass.

Additionally, all other citizens of Western countries have been repatriated except for Khadr. The Canadian government hasn't applied the same pressure as the others, but it should.

No it shouldn't. The US should not have released those other citizens of Western countries either, unless they were detained in error. While some people were snitched out wrongly, nobody denies that this guy was an enemy fighter.

There's a lot of hysteria about Gitmo, but the fact remains that six and a half years ago Americans were murdered by a bunch of retrograde troglodytes. I have no sympathy for their cause and I wish them only misery, heartbreak, despair and death.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Felch
How much do you trust her to keep him under control? It's not like these hajis are all that respectful of female authority.

I would imagine he'd have a hard time leaving the country with his name in the database.

Torturing is wrong, but holding him isn't.

Holding him indefinitely is wrong. He's been in captivity 6 years without a trial. That's wrong.

There's a lot of hysteria about Gitmo, but the fact remains that six and a half years ago Americans were murdered by a bunch of retrograde troglodytes. I have no sympathy for their cause and I wish them only misery, heartbreak, despair and death.

I'm not sure you comprehend that when a 15 year old boy is dragged from the comfort of his Toronto home and is told to fight for something his father believes in, he has no choice. It was not his wish to go to Afghanistan, nor to fight. He also makes it clear they were supposed to be fighting the Northern Alliance and he was surprised to see the US there and didn't want to fight them.

There's a lot of signs here pointing to a boy whose father -- who was undeniably evil -- was forcing his eldest son to do things against his wishes. This is being combined with the evilness of the current US administration, which HAS tortured him and is now holding him for over 6 years without a simple trial.

This has wrong written all over it, regardless of your bloodthirst for revenge -- this kid didn't crash into the Twin Towers.

[Patroklos]

Perhaps it's because it's already widely known it happens.

No.

Perhaps it's because he had physical injuries on him sustained after he was captured (and he demonstrates these to the CSIS officers in the interrogation).

Which proves torture how? Wow, an inmate with scratches, UNBELIEVABLE! Do Canadians not have fingernails?

Let’s see, I have been specifically trained to claim torture regardless of the conditions of my capture, what is the easiest way to make bleeding hearts cry?

Incidently, the Red Cross has not given any indication that his medical or physical condition shows torture, why is that?

Why are you assuming he wasn't tortured?

Because there is no proof he was. It is also the reason I don't believe in aliens, am not a truther, and generally stay away from purple Koolaid.

Irony of ironies -- isn't this the same kind of evidence that says he killed the medic with the grenade? It's funny how it's acceptable in one case but not another.

Really? I am pretty sure we have an actual dead body, he was actually there, and we have other EYE WITNESSES, not uncorroborated personal testimony (wow, imagine that, he claims he is innocent!)

In any case, even if he didn't kill the medic, he still has many years of cell life ahead of him.

Holding him indefinitely is wrong. He's been in captivity 6 years without a trial. That's wrong.

Which is nothing extraordinary compared to POWs from other wars.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Asher
If he is released to his mother's custody in Toronto...

His mother is the one that willingly enrolled her sons in AQ training camps and didn't even want her children raised in your country because they would have got involved in 'drugs and homosexual relationships.' Even if the little angel is released, do you really think she'd be the best one to have custody?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Patroklos
No.

Yes, waterboarding for instance...

Which proves torture how? Wow, an inmate with scratches, UNBELIEVABLE! Do Canadians not have fingernails?

Do your research, it was not just scratches and they weren't in places or of the nature to have the Red Cross to suspect they were self-inflicted.

Let’s see, I have been specifically trained to claim torture regardless of the conditions of my capture, what is the easiest way to make bleeding hearts cry?

Since when did this kid attend a training camp? Since when was this 15 year old kid, just recently whisked away from the terrorist hotbed of Toronto to rural Afghanistan, a highly trained operative? Where are you pulling this **** from.

Incidently, the Red Cross has not given any indication that his medical or physical condition shows torture, why is that?

In what way does, and I quote, "tantamount to torture" say that the Red Cross is saying there's no torture?

Because there is no proof he was.

What kind of proof do you need aside from the physical evidence of non-self inflicted injuries on a person contained in isolation?

Really? I am pretty sure we have an actual dead body, he was actually there, and we have other EYE WITNESSES, not uncorroborated personal testimony (wow, imagine that, he claims he is innocent!)

You had conflicting eyewitnesses, one of which said he couldn't be sure who threw the grenade. What you've got is a bunch of patriotic Americans killing "towel heads". A grenade ended up at somebody's feet, this kid was in the area and alive, and he was obviously guilty.

Sorry, this "evidence" is no more compelling then that which you easily dismiss. If the evidence was as clear as you think it is, why has it been over six years without a trial?

[Asher]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
His mother is the one that willingly enrolled her sons in AQ training camps and didn't even want her children raised in your country because they would have got involved in 'drugs and homosexual relationships.' Even if the little angel is released, do you really think she'd be the best one to have custody?

Source?

[DinoDoc]

Maha Khadr

Ahmed Said Khadr's wife
Born in Palestine, moved to Canada
Married Ahmed Said Khadr in Canada
Moved with husband and children to Afghanistan in the 1980s
Said she did not want to raise her children in Canada because they would have got involved in 'drugs and homosexual relationships.' Enrolled her sons in al Qaeda training camps

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060110/omar_khadr_background_061001/20060110

[BeBMan]

Looks like he didn't get into 'drugs and homosexual relationships.' in those camps.... *hides*

[Asher]

OTTAWA — The U.S. soldiers holding Omar Khadr believe the detained Canadian is a “good kid” who is not only “salvageable” but actually runs the risk of becoming a radical if he stays in Guantanamo Bay, according to Foreign Affairs reports.

The documents - likely the most significant ever made public in the case - will almost certainly put pressure on Ottawa to finally attempt to bring Mr. Khadr home.

Two reports written by Department of Foreign Affairs officials who visited Mr. Khadr in Guantanamo Bay in March and April of this year describe a “likeable, funny and intelligent young man.” Those aren’t just the sentiments of the Canadian officials, but also the U.S. soldiers charged with guarding Mr. Khadr, and whose fellow soldier the Canadian is alleged to have killed.

“Omar is ’salvageable,’ ‘non-radicalized’ and ‘a good kid’ who is well-liked both within the Camp and by [Joint Task Force] staff,” a Foreign Affairs official notes in March. “JTF staff seems to look out for him by stopping by to chat on occasion, convincing him to meet with his lawyers and encouraging him to ‘keep his nose clean.’ “

But perhaps the most significant observation comes a report dated a month later.

“… our U.S. military contact repeated what he had said during the welfare visit conducted in March,” a Foreign Affairs official writes. “He said that extended detention in Guantanamo would however run the risk of turning [Mr. Khadr] into a radical.”

The reports have not yet been made public, but were obtained by The Globe and Mail. At least one of the reports is expected to be presented to members of a House of Commons subcommittee studying the Khadr case in Ottawa as early as today.

Virtually every prevailing opinion about Mr. Khadr over the years is contradicted by the reports. Canadian officials describe a hopeful young man who is nonetheless aware of how serious his situation is.

“The overarching theme of much of our discussions focused on his desire to get out of Guantanamo, to return to Canada, to fix his health, to educate himself, to have a family and to eventually find a job satisfying his personal commitment to help those in need,” a Foreign Affairs official writes. “By contrast, he also expressed a hyper-awareness of the challenges that he would face, but demonstrated no bitterness or anger, emphasizing instead a desire to move forward in life.”

In another report, an official says Mr. Khadr tells him he is in Guantanamo Bay because of his family, and wants another chance.

“He wonders however why Canada is so quiet on his case and commented that, while Canada was the best country in the world to live in, it was not as strong as the UK to defend its citizens abroad, although both countries have the same Queen.

“He hopes that Canada will intervene to get him out of Guantanamo [he said he hoped PM Harper will do something].”

Mr. Khadr’s relationship with his much-loathed family - widely believed to be one of the reasons the government has refused to try to bring him home - is also described in one of the reports. An official notes that Mr. Khadr barely talks about his family and doesn’t seem overly keen to call them.

“The [U.S. official] told me later that one of his last phone calls had initially been cancelled by his mother, because she couldn’t make herself available.”

Officials also list Mr. Khadr’s myriad health problems: He has no vision in his left eye and his right eye is deteriorating because of shrapnel embedded in the eye’s membrane. He still has shrapnel in his right shoulder, and it causes the metal detectors at the prison camp to go off.

Mr. Khadr says he doesn’t like the 14-day rotation of meals, which he describes as heavy and covered in “red sauce.” However, he makes sure to keep within a specific weight range so he isn’t force-fed.

Some of the items Mr. Khadr requests from the Canadian officials are surprising. He asks for, among other things, a book on French for beginners, a first-aid book and a stress ball.

The U.S. military’s responsiveness to those requests is mixed: Mr. Khadr is allowed an origami book brought for him by a Canadian official, but not the paper accompanying the book.

When a Canadian representative asks why Mr. Khadr did not get a pillow brought for him, a U.S. official notes that “pillows were only handed out as incentives for detainees being interrogated and that since Mr. Khadr had lawyers and was no longer subject to interrogation, he was not eligible for one.”

Mr. Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002, is due back in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom later this month. He faces multiple charges - including the murder of a U.S. soldier during an Afghan firefight - before a military commission. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

[Patroklos]

Your own article...

At another point during one of the interviews, Khadr raises his orange prison-issued shirt to show wounds that he says he sustained during the firefight.

No, those wounds were not from torture. Even Omar himself says so.

[Asher]

Originally posted by DinoDoc

Maha Khadr

Ahmed Said Khadr's wife
Born in Palestine, moved to Canada
Married Ahmed Said Khadr in Canada
Moved with husband and children to Afghanistan in the 1980s
Said she did not want to raise her children in Canada because they would have got involved in 'drugs and homosexual relationships.' Enrolled her sons in al Qaeda training camps

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...61001/20060110

From the article I posted, it's clear the son doesn't want anything to do with the mother and if he's repatriated to Canada, clearly won't be living with her.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Patroklos
Your own article...



No, those wounds were not from torture. Even Omar himself says so.

http://alterwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/omar-khadrs-torture/

Omar Khadr alleges serious mistreatment by his U.S. captors — including that he was threatened with rape and was used as a mop to clean up urine on his cell floor — in his first public comments since he was detained on an Afghanistan battlefield in 2002.

The Toronto-born accused terrorist, who was 15 when the U.S. government claims he lobbed a hand grenade that fatally injured a U.S. special forces soldier, also says he told a Canadian delegation in 2003 that the Americans “would torture” him — so he told them “whatever they wanted” to hear.

The first-person allegations are contained in eight typed pages of an affidavit Mr. Khadr, now 21, swore for submission to a war-crimes commission the United States established to try terror suspects following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In preparation for public release, U.S. censors have blacked out certain portions, citing concern terrorists could discover — and presumably prepare to resist — specific interrogation techniques.

In one untouched passage, Mr. Khadr recalls how, at age 16, he was used as a mop after he had been cuffed in various contorted positions for at least an hour, and urinated on himself and the floor.

“Military police poured pine oil on the floor and on me,” Mr. Khadr says. “And then, with me lying on my stomach with my hands and feet cuffed together behind me, the military police dragged me back and forth through the mixture of urine and pine oil on the floor.”

He says he was refused a shower before being returned to his cell, and denied a change of clothing for two days. The same thing happened again “a few weeks later,” he adds.

Other Western countries have concluded deals with the United States leading to the repatriation of their nationals from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but both the current Conservative administration and the Liberals before them have resisted doing the same for Mr. Khadr, making him the only Western detainee in Guantanamo.

This is all pretty damning stuff. The fact that the US government censors some of the stuff (presumably the worst of it) shows you they know it looks bad, too. The US has also notably, and famously, not refuted any of his allegations that were not censored.

[Asher]

Some more stuff for Patty to chew on...

Khadr is the only Guantanamo detainee who has faced a judge and who is not boycotting the military tribunals. (Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/422777)

In February 2008, the Pentagon accidentally released documents that revealed that although Khadr was present during the firefight, there was no other evidence that he had thrown the grenade. In fact, military officials had originally reported that another of the surviving militants had thrown the grenade just before being killed.
(Source: http://www.thestar.com/article/345838)

This certainly explains why Khadr's two military tribunals that were started were prematurely halted. There's no ****ing evidence at all.

This is all wrong, wrong, wrong.

[Felch]

Originally posted by Asher
If he is released to his mother's custody in Toronto he's not going to be fighting in Afghanistan...

From the article I posted, it's clear the son doesn't want anything to do with the mother and if he's repatriated to Canada, clearly won't be living with her.

I believe the term soccer fans use is "Own goal."