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GitMo Interrogation Video Released: "Help Me!"



  1. crob80227
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A 16-year-old captured in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay sobs during his questioning, holding up his wounded arms and begging for help in a video released Tuesday that provided the first glimpse of interrogations at the U.S. military prison.

"Help me," he cries repeatedly in despair.

The 10 minutes of video _ selected by Omar Khadr's Canadian lawyers from more than seven hours of footage recorded by a camera hidden in a vent _ shows Khadr weeping, his face buried in his hands, as he is questioned by Canadian intelligence agents over four days in 2003.

The video, created by U.S. government agents at the prison in Cuba and originally marked as secret, provides insight into the effects of prolonged interrogation and detention on the Guantanamo prisoner.

A Canadian Security Intelligence Services agent in the video grills Khadr about events leading up to his capture as an enemy combatant when he was 15. Khadr, a Canadian citizen, is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. He was arrested after he was found in the rubble of a bombed-out compound _ badly wounded and near death.

At one point in the interrogation, Khadr pulls off his orange prisoner shirt and shows the wounds he sustained in the firefight. He complains he cannot move his arms and says he had not received proper medical attention, despite requests.

"They look like they're healing well to me," the agent says of the injuries.

"No, I'm not. You're not here (at Guantanamo)," says Khadr, the son of an alleged al-Qaida financier.

The agent later accuses Khadr of using his injuries and emotional state to avoid the interrogation.

"No, you don't care about me," Khadr says.

Khadr also tells his interrogator that he was tortured while at the U.S. military detention center at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan, where he was first detained after his arrest in 2002.

Later on in the tape, a distraught Khadr is seen rocking, his face in his hands.

On the final day, the agent tells Khadr that he was "very disappointed" in how Khadr had behaved, 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 says.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, denied that Khadr was mistreated while in U.S. custody. "Our policy is to treat detainees humanely and Khadr has been treated humanely," Gordon said.

The video is believed to be the first footage shown of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in action during its 24-year history, offering an unprecedented glimpse into its interrogation strategies. The video was made by U.S. authorities and turned over to Khadr's defense team, Gordon said. The tapes are U.S. property.

The Supreme Court of Canada in May ordered the Canadian government to hand over key evidence against Khadr to his legal team to allow a full defense of the charges against him, which include accusations by the U.S. that he spied for and provided material support to terrorists.

In June, a Canadian Federal Court judge ordered the Canadian government to release the video to the defense team after the court ruled the U.S. military's treatment of Khadr broke human rights laws, including the Geneva Conventions.
crob80227

5 responses // GitMo Interrogation Video Released: "Help Me!"

  • The immediate question that came into my mind was this: What exactly did this 15 year old kid "know" that was so critical to our national security that we were still interrogating him a year later?

    He was captured in 2002 and question for four days in 2003.

    He was a 15 year old living in Afghanistan.

    Um, not exactly a Dr. Evil-style mastermind with a vast criminal empire and billions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts.

    "Torture is necessary!" cry the supporters of, uh, torture.

    Okay....but in this particular situation I think we can all admit that keeping this kid is a waste of taxpayer money. So we smacked him around a little bit, put some panties on his head, maybe pulled his shoulder out of joint for giggles and then....what? What is it so hyper-critical to our national security that it required us to do this?

    Is he really (at 15) one of the highest ranking insurgent leaders in Afghanistan? Is he worth billions of dollars and buying arms for the insurgents? Is he a military genius on par with Hannibal and Alexander the Great?

    Seems like we're wasting alot of time, money and international goodwill stacking the wrong people in naked pyramids.
    recommended by  Marilynn_Murray
    crob80227
  • My God, the things we allowed them to do. How can we not impeach? Our lack of action makes us complicit and guilty too.
  • To wade through a hotel "ad", with some slob drinking milk from a gallon jug, to see this was worth it. Yet, something tells me that this short footage is from the only "lighter" moments to be shown to the world.
    No matter. It's still abominable.
    huntre
  • I posted comments similar to Crob80277 on another site. This boy was captured in 2002 when he reportedly threw a hand grenade at US soldiers during a firefight. If true that makes him a POW not a terrorist. Second what information could a 15 year old boy have access to that would necessitate his being held prisoner for six years??? This boys case is likely representative of most of the people being held at Gitmo and secret US prisons around the world. Namely, they were tortured and confessed nothing of value because they knew nothing of value, and they are being held as prisoners to keep the facts of how they were treated, secret. We were supposed to be above this nonsense, better than the other guys; this was America after all. All it took was Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld to soil forever 250 years of American pride. May they rot in hell.
    Mark701

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