Sunday, May 16, 2010
Omar Khadr, then and now
Defense attorneys for Omar Khadr, the so-called “child soldier” of Guantánamo, have argued at their client’s military tribunal that some of the testimony being used against him by the U.S. was coerced. The tainted testimony was obtained soon after Khadr’s confinement to a military hospital, where he was recovering from serious wounds inflicted during a July 2002 firefight in which Khadr allegedly threw a grenade that killed an American soldier.
While in the hospital, Khadr, then 15, was interrogated by at least two U.S. Army personnel, one of whom came to be known as “The Monster” for his alleged mistreatment of detainees. Another interrogator identified in the Canadian press as former Army Sergeant Joshua Claus, who was court-martialed for abusing prisoners in Afghanistan, fed Khadr lies about how another Afghan youth was gang-raped in an American prison and died, in order to get him to talk.
Khadr’s attorneys also have cited other mistreatment their client endured, such as being forced to perform manual labor before his wounds had healed.
Even if it is true that Khadr threw the fatal grenade, some human rights observers contend that, because he was only 15 years old at the time, he should be treated as a victim of indoctrination by his father and others. Article 37 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits capital punishment or life imprisonment without possibility of release for offenses committed by persons under the age of eighteen. Only two nations have refused to ratify the Convention: Somalia and the United States.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
The Torture of Omar Khadr, a Child in Bagram and Guantánamo (by Andy Worthington)
Former Khadr Interrogators Had Been Charged for Detainee Abuse (by Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service)
Interrogator Says Khadr Was Told He'd Likely Be Raped in U.S. (by Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald)
First Military Tribunal of the Obama Era Reviews Torture of Canadian Citizen (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Obama Administration to Try Canadian Child Soldier Before Military Commission (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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