Gitmo Captive: I Was Threatened With Rape
By Carol Rosenberg
The Miami Herald

Tuesday 18 March 2008

Washington - In a fresh document from the Guantánamo war court files, Canadian captive Omar Khadr alleges that he was repeatedly threatened with rape as an interrogation technique in Afghanistan and at U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

The partially censored nine-page affidavit, signed by Khadr on Feb. 22, covers old ground already investigated, including allegations of abuse at Guantánamo that emerged in 2005, prompting a Navy criminal investigation.

But the document includes never-before revealed allegations, such as the rape threats and a partially censored description of regaining consciousness after his capture to discover he was being interrogated in an American field hospital in Afghanistan. He was 15.

Once released from medical care to the Bagram detention center, he said, "I was interrogated many, many times. For about the first two weeks to a month that I was there I would be brought into the interrogation room on a stretcher."

Military spokesmen have said for years that Guantánamo captives are treated humanely and that scattered instances of mistreatment across the years have been investigated and dealt with in keeping with military standards.

The details are emerging in the military trial case of Khadr, now 21, accused of the grenade killing of a U.S. Army commando in a July 2002 firefight. The document was admitted to court last week as part of the pretrial arguments over access to potential witnesses for Khadr's upcoming summertime trial before U.S. military officers, called a military commission.

Meantime, the Canadian's Pentagon lawyers have been searching for interrogators and other witnesses to his capture, in which he was shot twice in the back in a U.S. raid on a suspected al Qaeda compound. They also want witnesses to the interrogations in Afghanistan and later in Guantánamo.

The lawyers are seeking to punch holes in the prosecution case alleging that Khadr, as an al Qaeda conspirator since age 10, was the only enemy combatant who could have thrown the grenade that fatally wounded Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28, of Albuquerque, N.M., in a firefight near Khost, Afghanistan.

Speer died of his wounds days later at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. Last week, the defense revealed at a pretrial hearing that the brigade commander at the firefight wrote two accounts, with the same date.

In the first account, a brigade commander identified to the public as "Lt. Col. W" wrote that the grenade thrower was killed on the spot. In the second, according to Navy Cmdr. William Kuebler, written two months later, Lt. Col. W said only that the enemy was "engaged," leaving open the possibility that he had survived.

Khadr was the only survivor.

The documents are under seal at the Office of Military Commission along with the other defense motions from last week's case.

Now, the affidavit, a 63-item statement by the Canadian who grew up between Toronto, South Asia and U.S. detention, offers Khadr's most comprehensive account of his alleged treatment - an English document crafted with his lawyers, which does not name his guards and interrogators, at least in the portion not blacked out by military censors.

For example, after his capture and regaining consciousness, he said, he was guarded by "a young blond soldier who was about 25 and a Mexican or Puerto Rican soldier."

The document is riddled with threats of rape wielded by the United States and its allies.

"On several occasions at Bagram, interrogators threatened to have me raped or sent to other countries like Egypt, Syria, Jordan or Israel to be raped," he alleges in Item 23. By Item 55, he has been transferred to Guantánamo, and he is taken to interrogation with an Afghan man, who "told me that I would be sent to Afghanistan and raped." In Item 56, he says, an interrogator pulled his hair, spit in his face and threatened to bring in an Egyptian "to rape me."

The document also revisits old allegations - such as his description on arriving in Guantánamo, at age 16, and hearing someone in the military say, "Welcome to Israel."

Or his claim, investigated by the military, that in March 2003 guards splashed his prison camp uniform with Pine Sol and dragged him around an interrogation booth, like a human mop, because he had urinated on himself during a bout of shackled isolation.

Pentagon and Guantánamo spokesmen did not reply Tuesday to queries on what that investigation found or whether anyone was disciplined.

The current prison camps spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, in February declined to address allegations emerging at the military commissions, saying, "It is likely best for all of us to hear what the attorneys have to say during the hearings."

-------

I hope that they shut that place down and put all those psychos in prison

damn the U.S. goverment, i'll bet they stole that poor Canadian boy from Canada and air dropped him in Afghanistan just to set him up so they could torture him.
Why else would a 15 year old muslim from canada be in Afganistan. i am sure it was purely for humanatarian reasons, maybe like delivering satchel charges for the U.S gov. and he was mistaken for an al queda terrorist.
If i had caught him killing a G.I. rape would be the least of his worrys.

Why is a person from another country automatically guilty to you ??? I know why

Tell us, Mirror.... is he an alien here to abduct us and give banana probes?

Fear of people who are different

Ahhh... No talk of being a nice guy and not like all the other guys out there... Gotcha.

Thanks, Mirror. Bananas are such a healthy food though. Lots of potassium.

mirror, i am still waiting to hear why a 15 year old from canada was in afghanistan, nice dodge though. can you say terrorist?? or is our goverment ALWAYS wrong??

Why cant a 15 year old from canada be there? Do the Canadians need permission now? Do all foreign peoples need to ask our permission? Some people dont care what we Americans think and that is their right.

So people cannot travel across the world and not be a terrorist if our military so thinks that they are suspicious?

I do not understand this willingness in our country to become gutteral animals because there are terrorist in the world Terrorists have been doing what they do for a long long time and will continue to do what they do long after we are gone. We are not changing anything by our psuedo war on terror. We are not changing anything by becoming like them.

sorry i forgot that afghanistan is the NEW hip vacation place for kids, it narrowly beat out Panama Beach, florida for spring break. or maybe he is an exchange student??? i wonder what he was exchanging?? I wont reply to such stupidity about a 15 year old traveling to that country. the vacation spot of mecca, even during war. if you 2 lean any further you will fall over, hopefully some one has a shovel.

Well - will likely stir up the hornet's nest here..but what the 'ell....

First - does a person from Canada need U.S. permission to travel to a known terrorist area? of course not.
Does a person from Canada need permission from U.S. to *be* in a known terrorist area? Of course not.

However - if such person - Canadian or otherwise - find themselves in the middle of a group of people who toss grenades at U.S. soldiers (or any other soldiers)you ought to expect to be treated harshly. It matters not if you threw the grenade or not - you were 'with' the people who did. Call it unjust if you like, but you should be thankful they didn't fill the area with flying lead first and ask questions later.

Second - and this is the part I love - *IF* you think you have 'the way' to reason and talk with wonderful folks such as Al Qaeda - please come forth. Enlighten us. Please. I would be happy to even pay your travel.
Because if you can ever remove yourself from your own Camelot, you will find there are some people who ONLY understand talk, AFTER they understand the fact you will kill them, and all whom they know.
I am sorry that this sounds harsh and cold-blooded or 'war-mongering' but there are those in the world that equate 'pacifist' with "easy target"

Now - do I condone out and out medieval style torture. No, I do not. Beating or hurting someone will only produce mediocre information at best. The best information comes from letting someone torture themselves with fear, doubt, uncertainty. And I can do *wonderful* things with your mind, once I have control of you.

Now - to all those that are squeamish to play dirty - hey, you do have that right, and I don't expect you to. But kindly use some of that 'higher understanding' you claim to have, and understand this:


There are people there who will kill you just because you are white, or American, or just not one of them, take your pick. Don't believe it? Take a look at the New York sky line.
There are also people who form that line between you and the really evil people - who give the bad guys a reason to pause. A reason to stop. And provide the strength of arms and resolve of will to force them to stop, if needed.

So use your "higher wisdom' to understand this, and stop bashing them continuously as if you are some pious being.

Personally - I would like to send most of the 'give peace a chance-niks' send them by plane load to wonderful spots like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the like. See how you fare for a year on your own, devoid of any American military assistance that you constantly bash. Keep in mind you were opposed to any sort of force or torture, and that you feel you can 'reason' with them.

The ones you meet won't have any problem with torture, rape, defiling your religion or you. Enjoy.

And, perhaps OP changed the above paragraph so that it would not properly tie in with the VERY NEXT paragraph which the OP omitted:

THE VERY NEXT PARAGRAPH THAT OP HAS OMITTED:

"In this case, we have no evidence to substantiate these claims," he wrote in an e-mail. He also noted that all approved interrogation techniques are published in the Army Field Manual on Interrogations and that an al Qaeda training manual "teaches its operatives to make false claims of abuse."



The documents are under seal at the Office of Military Commission along with the other defense motions from last week's case.

THE ABOVE PARAGAPH IS VERY ROUTINE IN HIGH PROFILE LAW CASES.



Pentagon and Guantánamo spokesmen did not reply Tuesday to queries on what that investigation found or whether anyone was disciplined.

THIS IS SO OBVIOSLY EXPECTED AND ROUTINE IN COURT PROCEEDINGS. THE CASE IS JUST STARTING FOR GOD'S SAKE!!



The current prison camps spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, in February declined to address allegations emerging at the military commissions, saying, "It is likely best for all of us to hear what the attorneys have to say during the hearings."

ONCE AGAIN, THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH IS VERY ROUTINE COURT PROCEDURE. IT WOULD BE PURE STUPIDITY FOR ANYONE TO GIVE OUT ANY INFORMATION BEFORE COURT PROCEEDINGS ARE IN PROCESS OR COMPLETED.



Lindyy

Oh My GOD!! You mean...a terrorist might actually LIE?!?!?! How unthinkable ?!?! The horrid thought that they may actually take advantage of the nature of some ignorant people to spread divisiveness??!!?

Okay - the sarcastic moment is over, my apologies Lindyy. I just get a touch frustrated with the blatant stupidity of some people who cannot get it through their very thick skulls that there are really evil people out there.

Disaronno, some of the posters here are just that, posters and imposters, i agree i would love to see some of the commie lovers and peaceniks in allah land, they didnt care for the russians either. if these people care so little as their posts proclaim i for one sure wish they would leave america, they only see want they want to so they can inflame the public with their outragious garbage,
AMERICA LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT..........
please leave!!!!!

All of that talk is great and all and to an uncivilized, uncouth person that would make perfect sense, do unto them as they do, but we are not uncivilized and we are not uncouth and we have ways of treating the GUILTY that is appropriate and if they are not guilty then our laws say they are innocent until proven guilty, not guilty by association.

So it is still wrong and inhumane and none of what you said makes it right.

NU
I don't expect everyone to *love* America. Some times I wonder myself.

HOWEVER:
1)I vote - and stay involved in my local government. So I can keep tabs on 'em!

2)I served.

And personally - if you haven't done #1 - you lose any and all b*tching credibility. And if you haven't done #2 - you shouldn't knock that which you don't understand.

The documents are under seal at the Office of Military Commission along with the other defense motions from last week's case.

THE ABOVE PARAGAPH IS VERY ROUTINE IN HIGH PROFILE LAW CASES.



Pentagon and Guantánamo spokesmen did not reply Tuesday to queries on what that investigation found or whether anyone was disciplined.

THIS IS SO OBVIOSLY EXPECTED AND ROUTINE IN COURT PROCEEDINGS. THE CASE IS JUST STARTING FOR GOD'S SAKE!!



The current prison camps spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, in February declined to address allegations emerging at the military commissions, saying, "It is likely best for all of us to hear what the attorneys have to say during the hearings."

ONCE AGAIN, THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH IS VERY ROUTINE COURT PROCEDURE. IT WOULD BE PURE STUPIDITY FOR ANYONE TO GIVE OUT ANY INFORMATION BEFORE COURT PROCEEDINGS ARE IN PROCESS OR COMPLETED.



Lindyy



If you read the changed paragraph the only words changed were the spokeperson's name, so what the hell are you talking about, negatively changed information. Please, try harder next time.

I speak out because I do love my country so much. We are better than animals. We should hold ourselves above the lessor thought processes in the world.

So hell no I will not leave and I will continue to fight for America to be the best it can be.