freedetainees.org

I’m speechless.  Simply without words to express the horror I feel as I read this article.  No sight in one eye, the other is going, He grew up in a 6×8 cell alone.  He’d just lost his father before he was taken… what do they expect him to do or say?  His health is terrible and clearly they did not get the medical help he needed to save his one eye that he could actually see out of!

OTTAWA (AFP) — Canadian Omar Khadr, the youngest detainee held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a “good kid” and “salvageable,” according to his captors, cited in Canadian government files published Tuesday.

Khadr was 15 years old when he was arrested by the US army in Afghanistan in 2002 on suspicion of links to Al-Qaeda and of killing a US soldier.

Since then, he has been held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and faces an upcoming US military commission on terrorism charges.

According to two reports written by Canadian Foreign Affairs officials who visited Khadr in March and April, Khadr is a “likeable, funny and intelligent young man.”

The documents published in the daily Globe and Mail also describe his US military guards’ views of Khadr as “’salvageable’, ‘nonradicalized’ and a ‘good kid’ who is well-liked both within the camp and by staff.”

“Staff seem to look out for him by stopping by to chat on occasion, convincing him to meet with his lawyers and encouraging him to ‘keep his nose clean,’” say the files.

Canadian officials however also warn: “Our US military contact repeated what he had said during the welfare visit conducted in March. He said that extended detention in Guantanamo would run the risk of turning (Khadr) into a radical.”

The US government alleges Khadr was the lone survivor of a four-hour US bombardment of an Al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002, who rose from the rubble and killed a US sergeant with a grenade.

Khadr’s US lawyer Lieutenant-Commander Bill Kuebler instead described him to a Canadian Commons committee as a “frightened, wounded, 15-year-old boy, a boy like other children wrongfully involved in armed conflict who had no business being there, who sat slumped against a bush while a battle raged around him.”

Khadr was then shot at least twice in the back by US soldiers and was about to be executed when another soldier intervened, Kuebler said.

According to the consular files, Khadr is said to have no vision in one eye, and sight in the other is deteriorating because of shrapnel embedded in the eye membrane.

He is said to barely talk about his family, and apparently dislikes the prison food at Guantanamo, describing it as heavy and covered in a “red sauce.”

Canadian officials described him as hopeful that he might someday be allowed “to return to Canada, to fix his health, to educate himself, to have a family and to eventually find a job satisfying his personal commitment to help those in need.”

Of course, he is also “hyper-aware of the challenges that he would face, but demonstrated no bitterness or anger, emphasizing instead a desire to move forward in life.”

June 3rd, 2008 | Category: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Abuse, Afghanistan, Canada, Children, Detainee, Detainee Treatment Act, Guantanamo, High Profile, Kangaroo Kourt, Military Tribunal, Minor, Omar Khadr, Politics, Politics of Fear, Torture, Torture flights, URGENT Health Issue, Withholding Medical Treatment, human rights |  Print This Post | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL