It was the video footage the Canadian government and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) didn't want the public to see. Lawyers for Canadian-born terror suspect Omar Khadr have released portions of a video of his interrogation by Canadian agents at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay. It's the first time a tape of a prisoner held at Guantanamo has ever been made public.
The videotape was made public by order of Canada's Supreme Court and is proving an embarrassment to Ottawa. It raises questions about Khadr's treatment - and just how much Canada knew about what was going on in the US detention facility.
|
|
Sobbing
The segments released by his lawyers, shows Canadian agents interrogating Khadr. He is seen sobbing with his head in his hands, chanting "kill me, kill me" and showing the agents the bullet wounds he received when captured in Afghanistan.
Khadr's US lawyer, Lieutenant Commander William Keebler, hopes the video will put pressure on the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to push for Khadr's transfer to Canadian custody. He said:
"Well we've been told, or the Canadian public has been told for a number of years that Omar Khadr is a dangerous terrorist. And what these tapes show is not a dangerous terrorist but a frightened boy. And so the justification for Omar's ongoing detention and treatment as an adult in Guantánamo Bay is really without foundation."
Refusing to comment
Canada is the only western country that has not demanded the return of its detainees from the controversial US detention centre. So far, government officials are refusing to comment on the video footage. But opposition critics were quick to pounce.
Bob Rae, foreign affairs spokesperson for the opposition Liberal party, said he couldn't understand why Canada had not repatriated its Guantánamo prisoners to face charges at home, when it was clear Khadr would not get a fair trial in front of a US military tribunal. Wayne Marston, human rights spokesperson for the New Democratic Party, shares this view, and raised a number of other questions:
|
|
Not treated humanely
The tapes draw back the curtain on the work of the secretive CSIS and offer a glimpse of the interrogations conducted at Guantánamo Bay. The US defence department granted special permission for Canadian agents to question Khadr.
And last week documents were released by his defence team to show he was tortured. US and Canadian officials have always maintained that Khadr was treated humanely.
"Not true," says one of his Canadian lawyers, Dennis Edney:
"Canadian officials, both department of Foreign Affairs officials and CSIS agents, well-knew that Mr Khadr had been softened up prior to their arrival. He had been put into the "frequent flier" programme in Guantánamo Bay, which was sleep deprivation. That is Mr Khadr - every 3 hours - was moved from cell to cell, on a 24-hour basis, 7 days a week, for 3 weeks. And then a further 3 weeks of solitary confinement, all in preparation for the Canadian interviews."
Prime Minster Stephen Harper and his government are insisting that Khadr's case is a judicial one, not a political one. But that could change depending on the Canadian public's reaction to what many will find shocking and disstressing images of the young man's experience in Guantanamo Bay. Khadr is scheduled to appear before a US military tribunal in October.
Click to watch the video
Tags: Canada, Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, US military
