Burying his face in his hands, a 16-year-old captured in Afghanistan sobs and calls out “Oh Mommy!” in a hidden-camera video released on Tuesday that provides the first look at interrogations inside the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
Lawyers for Toronto-born Omar Khadr released the tapes in hopes of generating sympathy for the young prisoner and to try to persuade the Canadian government to seek custody before he is prosecuted for war crimes at the US special tribunal in Guantanamo later this year.
Khadr, the son of an alleged al-Qaeda financier, is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US Special Forces soldier in a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan that left another soldier blinded in one eye.
Khadr, who was 15 at the time, was found in the rubble of a bombed-out compound — badly wounded and near death.
The seven hours of grainy footage, recorded over four days of questioning by Canadian intelligence agents in 2003, shows Khadr breaking down in tears. At one point he pleads for help and displays chest and back wounds that he says had not healed six months after his capture.
Peeling off his orange prisoner shirt, he shows the wounds and complains he cannot move his arms, saying he has not received proper medical attention, despite requests.
“They look like they’re healing well to me,” the agent said of the injuries.
“No, I’m not. You’re not here [at Guantanamo],” Khadr said.
The agent later accuses Khadr of using his injuries and emotional state to avoid the interrogation.
“No, you don’t care about me,” Khadr said.
In a 10-minute excerpt released by his Canadian lawyers, Khadr’s mood swings between calm and relief to rage and grief.
At first, believing that the Canadians were there to help him, Khadr smiles and repeats several times, “I’m very happy to see you.”
“I’ve been requesting the Canadian government for a very long time,” he said.
By the second day, however, Khadr is seen in a frenzy of despair after realizing the Canadian agents are not there for his release, repeatedly moaning, “Ya Umi,” — “Oh Mommy” in Arabic — while left alone in the room.
On the final day, the agent tells Khadr that he was “very disappointed” in Khadr’s behavior, and tries to impress upon him that he should cooperate.
Khadr says he wants to go back to Canada.
“There’s not anything I can do about that,” the agent said.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Commander J.D. Gordon, denied Khadr was mistreated.
“Our policy is to treat detainees humanely and Khadr has been treated humanely,” Gordon said.
The video was made by US authorities and turned over to Khadr’s defense team, Gordon said. The tapes are US property.
A Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs report said a Canadian official, Jim Gould, visited Khadr in 2004 and was told by the US military that the detainee was moved every three hours to different cells.
That technique, dubbed, “frequent flyer,” was one of at least two sleep deprivation programs the US military used against Guantanamo prisoners.
Canada’s Supreme Court ordered the Canadian government in May to hand over key evidence against Khadr to his legal team to allow a full defense of the US charges, which include accusations that he spied for and provided material support to terrorists.
Last month, a Canadian Federal Court judge ordered the Canadian government to release the video to the defense after the court ruled the US military’s treatment of Khadr broke human rights laws, including the Geneva Conventions.
Khadr faces up to life in prison on US charges that include murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US special forces soldier.
During his last interrogation, according to the Canadian government report, Khadr was shown a picture of his family and denied knowing anyone in it.
While being watched by guards, he then urinated on the photograph. However, two-and-a-half hours later, apparently believing he was no longer being watched, he quietly lay his head next to the picture.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has maintained he will not seek Khadr’s return to Canada and his position was unchanged after the release of the video. Anne Howland, a spokeswoman for Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson, said the government believes Khadr is in “a legal process that must continue.”
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