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U.S. Chained Wounded Canadian Teen to Door: Medic
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Canadian captive Omar Khadr was hooded, crying and chained to a door outside his cell in Afghanistan around the time he turned 16, a former U.S. medic testified on Monday in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal.
Canadian defendant Omar Khadr (C) sits with his defense team as FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller (L) testifies during a War Crimes Commission hearing on the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, in this photo of a sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin, reviewed by U.S. Department of Defense officials, taken and released on April 29, 2010. (REUTERS/Janet Hamlin/Pool) The former Army medic, identified only as M, testified in a hearing to determine whether Khadr was coerced into confessing that he threw a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
Khadr, now 23, was 15 when captured in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002 and would be the first person tried in a U.S. war crimes tribunal for acts allegedly committed as a minor. It would also be the first tribunal under a law President Barack Obama signed in 2009 banning the use of evidence obtained through inhumane treatment.
Medic M treated Khadr's gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries at the detention center at the Bagram U.S. air base in Afghanistan between mid-August and late October 2002, during which time Khadr turned 16.
The medic described once finding Khadr standing in the entryway outside his cell with his hands chained to the metal-mesh door just above eye level.
"We pulled off the hood that was over his head and I asked him what was ailing him, if there was some type of medical issue he might be having," the former medic testified by video link from an undisclosed location. "I then noted that he was crying."
Khadr seemed frustrated and "not very cordial," M said, adding, "I had never seen him like that before."
The medic said such treatment was common punishment for prisoners held at Bagram during the early part of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan but that he did not know why Khadr was being disciplined.
"He did not mention whether he was in any particular pain," M testified. "It appeared to me that he was much more frustrated than anything else."
Khadr was shot twice through the back and shoulder during the battle that led to his capture, and blinded in one eye by shrapnel. The medic said he was "amazed" at how quickly Khadr's wounds healed and that he would have notified his supervisors if he thought chaining him to the door would aggravate his injuries.
Khadr was sent to the detention camp at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in October 2002 and faces trial in July on five charges that could keep him imprisoned for life, including murder, conspiring with al Qaeda and planting roadside bombs targeting U.S. troops.
Khadr claims that during at least 142 interrogations in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, he was beaten, chained in painful positions, forced to urinate on himself, terrorized by barking dogs, subjected to flashing lights and sleep deprivation and threatened with rape.
Like the six military interrogators and FBI agents who have testified during the last week, medic M said he never saw any maltreatment.
The tribunal is expected to hear later from the first military interrogator to question Khadr at Bagram, a soldier later court-martialed for assaulting an Afghan prisoner whose death at Bagram was ruled a homicide.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
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28 Comments so far
Show AllThis is just so sickening -- and that bush and cheney knew these prisoners at Guantanamo were innocent. This poor guy was only 15 freakin' years old at the time they took him. I just shake with rage at such injustice.
The Obama Administration knows it too. That's why Khadr isn't being freed or even tried in a civilian court, but instead subject to military kangaroo justice.
'Khadr seemed frustrated and "not very cordial"'
How very odd! Do you suppose that might have anything at all to do with "142 interrogations [during which] he was beaten, chained in painful positions, forced to urinate on himself, terrorized by barking dogs, subjected to flashing lights and sleep deprivation and threatened with rape."
In the eyes of the world, this is NOT a trial of Omar Khadr for the alleged "murder" of attacking U.S. invaders by a child soldier during a firefight. It is just the latest chapter in the criminal indictment of the United States of America itself, a rogue nation that is utterly beyond contempt -- or at least beyond my verbal ability to express that contempt.
[The medic described once finding Khadr standing in the entryway outside his cell with his hands chained to the metal-mesh door just above eye level.]
And some say he wasn't really tortured, eh? If I was to chain a teenager up on a wall, and do some of the other things that were done to him, I'd be looking at some serious jail time. Granted, if I was to kill a million people because I wanted to get 'revenge' for an attack on daddy I'd also be looking at some serious jail time.
[The former Army medic, identified only as M, testified in a hearing to determine whether Khadr was coerced into confessing that he threw a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.]
Of course he was coerced.
I'm sorry but it's naive to think that the US occupied Iraq just because Bush Jr. wanted "revenge." The empire invades and occupies in order to widen its power. If there was any "revenge" at all, it was to remind other small countries with no serious weaponry to beware of attempts at independence. There will be consequences.
No, not naive. It was one of the statements that bush the lesser openly made about Saddam before the invasion. He argued that Saddam attempted an assassination against his father during Clinton's administration. It was certainly not the only reason, indeed I'd agree it was the most trivial of reasons given. Of course, I do agree with your other points. Those are the major reasons that bush the lesser invaded, and the oil of course...
This is shameful, both Bush and Obama ought to be in jail
for allowing this to happen to this boy.
Hey, we need to get with the program ...
Let bygones be bygones, Obama has a lot on his plate, Give him a break, He inherited a mess, Don't be racist, Don'tcha have any hope? Isn't Sarah Palin worse?
Perhaps we're all in need of another dose of Brand Obama's "Yes! We Can!" video. We can immerse ourselves in the sincerity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
Ha ha ha ha! Oh really?? This:
"Let bygones be bygones, Obama has a lot on his plate, Give him a break, He inherited a mess, Don't be racist, Don'tcha have any hope? Isn't Sarah Palin worse?
Perhaps we're all in need of another dose of Brand Obama's "Yes! We Can!" video. We can immerse ourselves in the sincerity."
is a BIG laugh!
They only decided to be Canadian again to get "free" healthcare for their terrorist son who was wounded in Afghanistan. Until then they lived in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I can't believe the Canadian government actually paid to fly the guy back to Canada.
Please pay no attention to chameleon. The kid is Canadian he has no choice. He was born here. Chameleon fuck off.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
[The Khadr family are traitors to Canada.]
Bwa ha ha! Canada has a party in the house of commons that is devoted to breaking up the country, and you call the Khadr family a bunch of traitors??? Jeez man, I don't think it's possible for anyone to be a traitor to this country. Although if it were possible that there are/can be traitors, may I suggest that the list start with some politicians. Bennett comes to mind, he's the wanker who led the country during the start of the depression, buried in England as he left the country after defeat and never returned. Then there's Mulroony, that lantern jawed damned yankee wannabe who gave the country the FTA (something that the tories had always referred to as the way to union with the usa, at least when the liberals proposed the idea... ).
I could go on...
As for the pow idea, well... No. He was a child soldier - at best - or a terrorist. If he's classified as a child soldier, then he needs serious psychiatric help to get over that crap. If he's a terrorist, then put him in the regular justice system and let him have a fair trial. And if guilty, a fair sentence. The issue of pows is a murky one for Afghanistan, their 'army' wasn't that well organized, the Taliban is no longer in power (although they do still lead a resistance movement...).
Is there any cross examination? I doubt it! My first question.....What foreign languages do you speak?
I am sorry, this is insane....The big bully invades your country because your leaders, The Taliban, gave the OIL PIPELINE CONTRACT to Bridas Oil of Argentina. (No, The FBI, for the longest time, had no link between the Attacks of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden! And having Sheik Khalid Mohammed confess after 5 years of torture would not work unless he could explain how he put the explosives in World Trade Center #7)...So, DOD, indoctrinates its soldiers with, "We are avenging the Attacks of 9/11 and any Arab you see is a legitimate target, if you feel threatened."
"Don't worry, we´ll claim all those killed are either, Al Qaeda, Insurgents, Militants, or Taliban and the rest is just COLLATERAL DAMAGE. Who is going to tell anything else?"
Unless Khadr was in the CIA Database of 2000, he could not have been a member of Al Qaeda. And, was he defending himself and his country against an attack by an Invasion Force?
Can you believe anyone DOD sends to testify? Remember Pat Tillmon, DOD sent somone to read the Eulogy of a man who died a hero fighting against the enemy.....Nobody ever went and found that man who lied for DOD! Tillmon was killed by his own fellow soldiers. DOD made sure that none of his writings were found. Nobody demanded to find out who destroyed Tillmon's personal belongings and who gave the order.
Remember My Lai and the coverups! Remember Agents: Orange, Pink, and Purple and the coverups!
Spot on! 9/11 was the controlled demolition of the last vestiges of truth, hope, and justice in the US. It's all over now.
Francis Boyle is preparing a complaint against Obama to the International Criminal Court. You can look it up, maybe he's already done it. He's a famous expert in international and constitutional law, prof at University of Illinois.
A nation without mercy is a nation without a soul.
By the way Khadr was shot twice in the back, while he was lying wounded on the floor of the hut of the compound he was in.
I see that the Catholic Church is not the only one who mistreats children.
Shame on Canada and the despicable cowardly government of Stephen Harper.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
There never was any evidence against Omar. He was in some sort of compound, and there were some gunshots. so as they always do in such cases the brave soldiers called in an airstrike, which pretty much blew up the place. then another brave soldier went in to see if anyone was left alive. Omar was in a corner with his back turned. naturally the soldier shot him, twice, because...look don't expect me to explain everything. After that it was discovered that a u.s. solder had been hit by a hand grenade. Since Omar was the only Afghan still alive, he was charged with defending his country against an invading army, which in the mad world of bush cheney obomber is called "murder".
there are about 17 big leaky holes in this case and no evidence of any kind against him. Plus
in international law child soldiers are classified as victims, and cannot be perpetrators.
during all those years at gitmo, the prisoners were described by rumsfeld as "the worst of the worst"
Now look at what happens next. pressed to present some of these most awful worst prisoners to the public, the bush administration showed us....Omar! a child soldier, shot twice in the back for nothing, no evidence against him. And another child soldier maybe even younger, also no evidence; and one grown up. Osama's chauffeur. Of all the worst of the worst, these are the most worstest of the worst of the worst.
two kids and a car driver.
Oh say can you see? anything? ever?
I read somewhere that they were offering Omar a "plea bargain" if he's willing to spend another five years under their tender loving care. Maybe this exposure of "American justice" is getting too embarrassing even for them.
Crimes done by fascist amerika continue- obomber and fellow lackeys are all war criminals ! The empire IS imploding NOW... thankfully.
tioche, Mexico