Toews should review all the evidence including testimony obtained through torture and the threat of torture. I find this
treatment of a 15 year old Canadian disturbing:
Over the years, and in an affidavit submitted in February 2008 (PDF), Khadr has described his mistreatment in detail, explaining how he was unconscious for a week after his capture, when he was severely wounded, and how, in Bagram, where he was taken after just two weeks in a hospital, his interrogations began immediately, at the hands of an interrogator who manipulated his injuries (the exact details were redacted from his affidavit). Crucially, he also explained how, as soon as he regained consciousness, "the first soldier told me that I had killed an American with a grenade," and how, during his first interrogation at Bagram, "I figured out right away that I would simply tell them whatever I thought they wanted to hear in order to keep them from causing me [redacted]."
There is much more in the affidavit - casual cruelty, whereby guards made Khadr do hard manual labor when his wounds were not healed, and, significantly, threats "to have me raped, or sent to other countries like Egypt, Syria, Jordan or Israel to be raped." He also noted, "I would always hear people screaming, both day and night," and explained that other prisoners were scared of his interrogator. "Most people would not talk about what had been done to them," he declared. "This made me afraid."
Khadr also described what happened to him in Guantánamo, where, as I explained last week, he "arrived around the time that a regime of humiliation, isolation and abuse, including extreme temperature manipulation, forced nudity and sexual humiliation, had just been introduced, by reverse-engineering torture techniques, used in a military program designed to train US personnel to resist interrogation if captured, in an attempt to increase the meager flow of ‘actionable intelligence' from the prison."
At various points in 2003, while the use of these techniques was still widespread, Khadr stated that he was short-shackled in painful positions and left for up to ten hours in a freezing cold cell, threatened with rape and with being transferred to another country where he could be raped, and, on one particular occasion, when he had been left short-shackled in a painful position until he urinated on himself:
Military police poured pine oil on the floor and on me, and then, with me lying on my stomach and 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. Later, I was put back in my cell, without being allowed a shower or a change of clothes. I was not given a change of clothes for two days. They did this to me again a few weeks later.
Crucially, when describing the interrogations that punctuated these experiences at Guantánamo, Khadr explained, "I did not want to expose myself to any more harm, so I always just told interrogators what I thought they wanted to hear. Having been asked the same questions so many times, I knew what answers made interrogators happy and would always tailor my answers based on what I thought would keep me from being harmed."
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/13-8
I recommend the entire article.
Evidence obtained through torture is inherently unreliable.
IMO, Omar Khadr has been abused by every authority, including his father, the US military and the Canadian government.. I have no doubts Khadr is one screwed up person and probably a danger to society. But when he was first captured, he probably could have been rehabilitated. I do not support releasing Khadr. He should remain locked up until he is deemed "no longer a threat" to public safety. IMO, his family has grounds to sue the Canadian government for negligence and the American government for torturing and abusing a child.
The charges against Khadr are a farce given the context of a war. Khadr should have been classified as a child soldier and a POW. Instead the US abused and tortured Khadr in violation of international laws and treaties governing the treatment of POWs and child soldiers.
15 year old Khadr was captured after the US military forces bombed a compound where al Qaeda operatives were hiding. Ground forces went in to mop up and encountered stiff resistance. In the ensuing fire fight, Khadr was severely wounded and an American medic Sgt. Christopher Speer was killed by a grenade. Khadr may or may not have thrown the grenade. I believe Khadr confessed to every allegation including Speer's death. But evidence obtained under duress is unreliable.
I feel sorry for the Sgt. Speer's family... But he was a casualty of war. A risk faced by everyone who joins the military.
Canada should have condemned the US for its violations of international laws and treaties regarding the treatment of POWs and child soldiers including 15 year old Canadian citizen Omar Khadr (born in Toronto). The Canadian government has an duty to ensure foreign governments treat all Canadians as per international laws and treaties. Instead our government abandoned 15 year old Khadr and was complicit in his abusive treatment.
If Canada does not respect and uphold international laws and treaties, then we also aren't protected by them. You can't have it both ways...
Last edited by earth_as_one; Sep 10th, 2012 at 06:46 AM..
