{"id":4138,"date":"2008-07-16T14:53:37","date_gmt":"2008-07-16T13:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=4138"},"modified":"2008-07-16T14:53:37","modified_gmt":"2008-07-16T13:53:37","slug":"video-of-interrogation-of-gitmo-teen-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/video-of-interrogation-of-gitmo-teen-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Video of Interrogation of Gitmo Teen Released"},"content":{"rendered":"

By IAN AUSTEN<\/span><\/a>\u00a0| OTTAWA \u2013 The video is blurry and the soundtrack muffled, but the technical shortcomings of the video recordings released Tuesday did not obscure the emotions of Omar Khadr as he was interrogated at the Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay<\/span><\/a> detention center in Cuba.<\/p>\n

Mr. Khadr, just 16 years old at the time of the taping, in February 2003, swung from calm and indifference to rage and grief during four days of interrogations in the recordings, which his Canadian lawyers released.<\/p>\n

The recordings, turned over to the defense under a Canadian court order, provide the most extensive videotaped images from inside Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay yet seen. In them, Mr. Khadr, now the last Western citizen held there, is seen pleading with a Canadian intelligence agent for help. At one point, the recording shows him displaying chest and back wounds that had still not completely healed months after his capture in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The seven hours of recordings were made by the United States military and given to Mr. Khadr\u2019s Canadian lawyers by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service under the terms of an order by Canada\u2019s Supreme Court<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

They show Mr. Khadr, who is accused of killing a United States soldier in Afghanistan in battle in July 2002, being questioned by an unidentified member of the Canadian intelligence agency. A Canadian diplomat and a third person, apparently an American official, were also present.<\/p>\n

For national security reasons, the audio was removed from several parts of the recordings, and the officials\u2019 faces were electronically obscured by black blobs.<\/p>\n

Mr. Khadr, a Canadian, maintains he was abused by American interrogators in Afghanistan and at Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay. It appears from the recordings, as well as from written documents of the interrogations that were released last week, that Mr. Khadr initially believed that the Canadian agent had come to help him. But he eventually seemed to realize that the agent was present only to extract information.<\/p>\n

Much of the material released shows Mr. Khadr, in an orange uniform, sobbing and repeatedly saying, in a moan, either \u201cHelp me, help me\u201d or \u201cKill me, kill me.\u201d His Canadian lawyers said they were not sure which, and the poor audio quality makes it hard to determine with certainty.<\/p>\n

In the interrogation, Mr. Khadr said he wanted to return to Canada, but the agent suggested that the situation was so good in Cuba he might want to stay there himself. \u201cThe weather\u2019s nice,\u201d the interrogator said. \u201cNo snow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Khadr, who had been shot and was near death at the time of his capture in Afghanistan, repeatedly complained about his medical treatment and physical condition. At one point, he lifted his shirt to show the agent the wounds on his back and stomach.<\/p>\n

The agent, however, was unmoved. \u201cI\u2019m not a doctor, but I think you\u2019re getting good medical care,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

Later, a sobbing Mr. Khadr said, \u201cYou don\u2019t care about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slats, apparently from a ventilation panel in the detention center, obscure parts of the images.<\/p>\n

In a statement regarding the tapes, a Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, offered only a blanket defense of the detainees\u2019 treatment. \u201cGuant\u00c3\u00a1namo provides an environment for detainees that is stable, secure, safe and humane,\u201d it said. \u201cThis environment sets the conditions to successfully gain valuable information from detainees built on a relationship of trust, not fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement called it \u201ccommonplace\u201d for interrogators seeking to establish rapport with detainees to share \u201ca meal from Subway or McDonald\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amnesty International<\/span><\/a> and several Canadian groups and politicians have unsuccessfully pressed the Canadian government to ask the United States to return Mr. Khadr to Canada. Kory Teneycke, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said the videos had not altered the government\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis videotape is several years old, and the Canadian government is not changing course in terms of the process that will determine Mr. Khadr\u2019s fate,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s obviously facing very serious charges. We believe his fate should be decided through a judicial process rather than a political process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathan Whitling, one of Mr. Khadr\u2019s Canadian lawyers, said he hoped the airing of the videos, which were featured Tuesday on Canadian television networks, would increase public pressure on the government. \u201cThe only way to get him released is through a political process,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we are pleading in the court of public opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

William Glaberson contributed reporting from Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By IAN AUSTEN\u00a0| OTTAWA \u2013 The video is blurry and the soundtrack muffled, but the technical shortcomings of the video recordings released Tuesday did not obscure the emotions of Omar Khadr as he was interrogated at the Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay detention center in Cuba. Mr. Khadr, just 16 years old at the time of the taping, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[33,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-4138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-war-terrorism","7":"tag-guantanamo","8":"tag-torture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}