tagged w/ Omar khadr
-
A serving US Army officer who told a court he feels that the Guantanamo Bay prison camps should be closed down has been removed from a jury hearing allegations of war crimes against an alleged child soldier. Among the seven jurors remaining on the panel are officers who have lost close friends or colleagues fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.A serving US Army officer who told a court he feels that the Guantanamo Bay prison... more
-
-
An attorney for Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr expressed outrage this week over a ruling by a U.S. military judge allowing Khadr's confessions to interrogators to be used as evidence against him in his murder and terrorism conspiracy trial at Guantanamo.An attorney for Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr expressed outrage this week over a ruling... more
-
-
Bobby is seven years old, but this is not the first time he has been subjected to electroshock. It's his third time. In all, over the next year, Bobby will experience eight electroshock sessions. Placed on the examining table, he is held down by two male attendants while the physician places a solution on his temples. Bobby struggles with the two men holding him down, but his efforts are useless. He cries out and tries to pull away. One of the attendants tries to force a thick wedge of rubber into his mouth. He turns his head sharply away and cries out, "Let me go, please. I don't want to be here. Please, let me go." Bobby's physician looks irritated and she tells him, "Come on now, Bobby, try to act like a big boy and be still and relax." Bobby turns his head away from the woman and opens his mouth for the wedge that will prevent him from biting through his tongue. He begins to cry silently, his small shoulders shaking and he stiffens his body against what he knows is coming.
Mary is only five years old. She sits on a small, straight-backed chair, moving her legs back and forth, humming the same four notes over and over and over. Her head, framed in a tangled mass of golden curls, moves up and down with each note. For the first three years of her life, Mary was thought to be a mostly normal child. Then, after she began behaving oddly, she had been handed off to a foster family. Her father and
About the same time Dr. Bender was conducting her electroshock experiments, she was also widely experimenting on autistic and schizophrenic children with what she termed other "treatment endeavors." These included use of a wide array of psycho-pharmaceutical agents, several provided to her by the Sandoz Chemical Co. in Basel, Switzerland, as well as Metrazol, sub-shock insulin therapy, amphetamines and anticonvulsants. Metrazol was a trade name for pentylenetetrazol, a drug used as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant. High doses cause convulsions, as discovered in 1934 by the Hungarian-American neurologist and psychiatrist Ladislas J. Meduna.
Metrazol had been used in convulsive therapy, but was never considered to be effective, and side effects such as seizures were difficult to avoid. The medical records of several patients who were confined at Vermont State Hospital, a public mental facility, reveal that Metrazol was administered to them by CIA contractor Dr. Robert Hyde on numerous occasions in order "to address overly aggressive behavior." One of these patients, Karen Wetmore, received the drug on a number of occasions for no discernible medical reason. During the same ten-year period in which Metrazol was used by the Vermont State Hospital, patient deaths skyrocketed. In 1982, the FDA revoked its approval of Metrazol.
Here it should be noted that, during the cold war years, CIA and Army Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) interrogators, working as part of projects Bluebird and Artichoke, sometimes injected large amounts of Metrazol into selected enemy or Communist agents for the purposes of severely frightening other suspected agents, by forcing them to observe the procedure. The almost immediate effects of Metrazol are shocking for many to witness: subjects will shake violently, twisting and turning. They typically arch, jerk and contort their bodies and grimace in pain. With Metrazol, as with electroshock, bone fractures - including broken necks and backs - and joint dislocations are not uncommon, unless strong sedatives are administered beforehand.
A November 1936 Time mag. article seriously questioned the benefits of Metrazol, citing "irreversible shock" as a "great danger." The article described a typical Metrazol injection as such: "A patient receives no food for four or five hours. Then about five cubic centimeters of the drug [Metrazol] are injected into his veins. In about half-a-minute he coughs, casts terrified glances around the room, twitches violently, utters a horse wail, freezes into rigidity with his mouth wide open, arms and legs stiff as boards. Then he goes into convulsions. In one or two minutes the convulsions are over and he gradually passes into a coma, which lasts about an hour. After a series of shocks, his mind may be swept clean of delusions.... A patient is seldom given more than 20 injections and if no improvement is noted after ten treatments, he is usually given up as hopeless."
The Army, the CIA and Metrazol | This is just important sections go read whole thing!
Army CIC interrogators working with the CIA at prisoner of war camps and safe house locations in post-war Germany on occasion used Metrazol, morphine, heroin and LSD on incarcerated subjects. According to former CIC officer Miles Hunt, several "safe houses and holding areas outside of Frankfurt near Oberursel" - a former Nazi interrogation center taken over by the US - were operated by a "special unit run by Capt. Malcolm S. Hilty, Maj. Mose Hart and Capt. Herbert Sensenig.
Eventually, CIC interrogators working in Germany would be assisted in their use of interrogation drugs by several "former" Nazi scientists recruited by the CIA and US State Department as part of Project Paperclip. By early 1952, the CIC's Rough Boys would routinely use Metrazol during interrogations, as well as LSD, mescaline and conventional electroshock units.
Metrazol-like drugs are still used in interrogations today. According to reports from several former noncommissioned Army officers, who served on rendition-related security details in Turkey, Pakistan and Romania, drugs that produce effects quite similar to Metrazol are still used in 2010 by the Pentagon and CIA on enemy combatants and rendered subjects held at the many "black sites" maintained across the globe. Observed one former officer recently, "They would twist up like a pretzel, in unbelievable shapes and jerk and shake like crazy, their eyes nearly popping out of their heads."
In 2008, at the behest of US Sens. Carl Levin, Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel and in reaction to a March 2008 article in The Washington Post, the Pentagon initiated an Inspector General Report on the use of "mind-altering substances by DoD [Department of Defense] Personnel during Interrogations of Detainees and/or Prisoners Captured during the War on Terror." It is not known if the investigation has been completed. Among the more famous recent cases of the use of drugs upon prisoners concerns one-time alleged "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla, who had originally been accused of wanting to set off a "dirty bomb."
The government has gone to great efforts to keep the public uninformed as regards use of drugs on prisoners. In an article by Carol Rosenberg for McClatchy News in July 2010, Rosenberg reported that, when covering the Guantanamo military commissions trials, when the question of "what psychotropic drugs were given another accused 9/11 conspirator, Ramzi bin al Shibh, the courtroom censor hits a white noise button so reporters viewing from a glass booth can't hear the names of the drugs. Under current Navy instructions for the use of human subjects in research, the undersecretary of the Navy is described as the authority in charge of research concerning "consciousness-altering drugs or mind-control techniques," while at the same time is also responsible for "inherently controversial topics" that might attract media interest or "challenge by interest groups."Bobby is seven years old, but this is not the first time he has been subjected to... more
-
-
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (CNN) -- Accused terrorist Omar Khadr, who has been linked to al Qaeda, pleaded not guilty Monday to all charges he faces in a military trial at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on Cuba.
During legal maneuvering earlier in the day, lawyers had presented two starkly different images of the defendant, one that portrayed him as a committed al Qaeda fighter and the other that described him as a child forced into war by adults.
Prosecutor Jeff Groharing told the Military Commission that the Canadian-born terrorism suspect was aware of al Qaeda ideology. "He embraced it and used it to justify his own activities," Groharing said of Khadr, the youngest detainee at the facility.
At the same time, Khadr's Pentagon-appointed defense attorney, Lt. Colonel Jon Jackson, has repeatedly called his client a "child soldier" who was forced into fighting in Afghanistan by adults and threatened with violence if he did not provide statements to U.S. interrogators.
The 23-year-old Khadr, who was 15 years old when he was captured in 2002 in Afghanistan, is charged with assisting al Qaeda and with killing a U.S. Special Forces soldier. A closed-circuit television link viewed by journalists showed Khadr slumped in his chair, reading documents and talking with others at the defense table during courtroom arguments. Behind him sat three uniformed guards.
**********************************************************
Watch the video on CNN's site!
Anyone notice how young and inexperienced his lawyer looks compared to the Pentagon's lawyer?
**********************************************************Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (CNN) -- Accused terrorist Omar Khadr, who has been linked to al... more
-
-
A coalition of major news organizations is challenging as unconstitutional Pentagon rules that were used in May to ban four reporters from covering military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.A coalition of major news organizations is challenging as unconstitutional Pentagon... more
-
-
A former interrogator at the US prison in Bagram, Afghanistan said in court testimony that he and other interrogators would terrify detainees into confessing by threatening them with dying from multiple gang rape "by four big black guys" who would catch little Afghan boys in the shower of a U.S. prison.A former interrogator at the US prison in Bagram, Afghanistan said in court testimony... more
-
-
Omar Khadr is accused of killing a US soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15. Now 22, Khadr is the youngest inmate at Guantanamo Bay, and, as a Canadian citizen, the only Westerner left. Khadr is also accused of receiving one-on-one training from al-Qaeda, and planning to roadside bomb US troops. He was due to stand trial last month, but with President Obama's order that Guantanamo be closed, his trial has been postponed. So what's next for Khadr? He could be tried in the US and face up to life in prison. He could be sent to Canada and set free.Omar Khadr is accused of killing a US soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15. Now 22,... more
-
-
"Omar Khadr is one of at least a dozen juveniles captured and brought to Guantanamo in the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 war on terrorism. At just 15 years old, Khadr was questioned and held at Bagram air base near Kabul in July of 2002, and then moved to Guantanamo.
The latest, and possibly last, sessions of the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal have revealed disturbing details about how Khadr was treated during three months at Bagram in the custody of US forces who were convinced he had thrown a grenade that killed an American soldier.
Now 22, Khadr has spent almost a third of his life in US custody. He was raised in a militant Muslim family and was surrounded in his teen years by holy warriors. His lawyers describe him as confused, immature and emotionally damaged.
"Under international law, adults who recruit children for combat are to be prosecuted for that offense. But the children caught up in combat are to be protected, not prosecuted," said Diane Marie Amann, a UC Davis law professor who observed the latest hearing in Khadr's case for the National Institute of Military Justice.
Khadr's trial is set to begin Jan. 26, with pretrial hearings starting on the eve of the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, who has vowed to shut Guantanamo."
So, what do you think? Should Khadr be considered a juvenile acting upon indoctrinated beliefs and considered a victim OR do you consider him a responsible individual who should be held accountable for his alleged actions?"Omar Khadr is one of at least a dozen juveniles captured and brought to... more
-
-
A U.S. military judge has delayed the trial of Omar Khadr, the Canadian detainee held at Guantanamo Bay, until late January.
The new trial date set by Col. Patrick Parrish, the judge overseeing the case, is Jan. 26.
Khadr, 22, has been held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba since his capture in Afghanistan following a bloody firefight near the Pakistani border in 2002. He is accused of tossing a hand grenade that killed a U.S. medic during the battle.
Earlier in the week, Khadr's lawyer asked that the trial be postponed, arguing the young man wouldn't get a fair trial without a proper psychological assessment. The trial had been slated to go before a military commission at the U.S. naval base on Nov. 10.
The assessment is imperative to Khadr's defence as it will determine his ability to comprehend his legal rights, as well as his recollection of the events in questions, his lawyers said this week.
In particular, the assessment could qualify the admissibility of statements Khadr made to his captors while under duress, according to documents that have shown he was sleep-deprived and held in stressful positions. His lawyers have argued the treatment was tantamount to torture.
The delay also means Khadr's case won't be heard until days after the next U.S. president takes office.
Members of Khadr's family said Friday that could play in his favour.
"It's a good thing," Khadr's sister Zaynab, 29, said from Parliament Hill, where she's subsisting on juice and water for three weeks in an attempt to compel Prime Minister Stephen Harper to repatriate her younger sibling. "The Bush administration is not going to be able to use Omar to justify their detention centre."
Both Democratic candidate Barack Obama and Republican John McCain have vowed to shut down Guantanamo.A U.S. military judge has delayed the trial of Omar Khadr, the Canadian detainee held... more
-
-
Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's trial before a U.S. military judge has been rescheduled for Nov. 10, although the Canadian prisoner's lawyer said it could be delayed even further.
Khadr, who was born in Toronto, is only remaining Westerner in the controversial prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. Captured by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002, he was due to start trial before a military tribunal on Oct. 8 on charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and supporting terrorism.
The trial was delayed last week amid defence and prosecution wrangling over access to evidence and other legal issues. On Tuesday, the military judge presiding over the case, Col. Patrick Parrish, set the start date of Nov. 10.
However, Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, a lawyer appointed by the Pentagon to represent Khadr, said the judge would likely be inclined to allow time for an independent assessment of Khadr's mental health, which could push the trial back into the new year.
"The judge has not ruled on our motion to compel the appointment of an independent psychologist and psychiatrist," Kuebler said, according to the Canadian Press.
"If he grants that motion, then it's very likely the November date will move."
Elections won't change Khadr's fate: Lawyer
The Nov. 10 date means the trial will start after both the Canadian and American elections.
Kuebler said the elections will have little impact on Khadr's fate, and whether his trial will go through.
"Omar Khadr's best chance for justice is that the Canadian government does something for him," said Kuebler.
"It really is a question of Canada's basic identity and commitment to its fundamental principles: Is it a country that stands for the rule of law, or is it a country that identifies itself as the U.S.'s little brother to the north?"
Khadr, who turns 22 this week, has been in the facility for six years. He was 15 when he was captured during a firefight in Afghanistan and accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American medic.Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's trial before a U.S. military judge has been... more
-
-
Do you know what the difference is between watching an interrogation video and a torture tape? It’s the difference between watching a video of someone being interviewed after they have been raped, and watching the actual video of the rape.
The following is the CSIS interrogation video from Guantanamo Bay. These are grow men and women, adults, our representatives in government, questioning a 16 year old child who has already been tortured by the US government for a year.
The CIA claims that they have destroyed their torture tapes, but I wouldn’t bet on it. The odds are that there are hours of video showing how Omar Khadr was tortured. I would like to see those videos. I would actually like to see all news stations in the US and Canada broadcast the torture tapes 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the next year. I think we all deserve to hear the screams of a 15-year-old child being tortured by the most powerful military in the world. And than we can watch as two of the richest nations on this planet defend their actions.
What is happening in Guantanamo Bay is a fascist wet dream come true, and we’re not only witness to it, but a part of it.
Do you know what the difference is between watching an interrogation video and a... more
-
