Omar Khadr - Time at Guantanamo

Time At Guantanamo

Khadr arrived at Guantanamo Bay on October 29 or 30, 2002, to face charges of terrorism and war crimes for his actions. He was recorded as standing 170 cm (5' 7") and weighing 70 kilos (155 lbs), and recalled being greeted by guards with the phrase "Welcome to Israel".

Despite being a minor under 18, he was now treated as an adult prisoner at Guantanamo. Officials considered him an "intelligence treasure trove" not only because his father was Ahmed Khadr, but because he had personally met Osama bin Laden and might be able to offer answers about the al-Qaeda hierarchy despite having been only ten years old at the time.

At first, he still spent much of his time in the prison hospital where he spoke with Muslim chaplain James Yee, although he didn't seek any religious counselling. In February 2003, he wrote to his grandparents in Scarborough, Ontario, saying "I pray for you very much and don't forgat me from your pray'rs and don't forget to writ me and if ther any problem writ me".

On January 21, 2003, a new standard operating procedure was put in place for American military interrogators who were told they would have to "radically create new methods and methodologies that are needed to complete this mission in defence of our nation".

In February 2003, Canadian Foreign Affairs intelligence officer Jim Gould and an official from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) were allowed to interrogate Khadr themselves. For three weeks prior to the Canadian visit, Khadr was deprived of sleep and moved to a new cell every three hours for 21 days in order to "make him more amenable and willing to talk".

The presence of Gould, who brought Khadr a Big Mac value meal, allowed the government to claim that the purpose of the visit was to "to ascertain Khadr's well-being", while his attorney Nate Whitling argued that "(Foreign Affairs) is suggesting that the visit was actually for (Khadr's) benefit, but this is not the case". His attorneys applied for and obtained an injunction from Mr. Justice Konrad von Finckenstein of the Federal Court of Canada to prevent CSIS from interrogating their client in the future. The following month, a briefing from the Foreign Affairs department summarised Gould's findings stating that Khadr was a "thoroughly 'screwed up' young man". All those persons who have been in positions of authority over him have abused him and his trust, for their own purposes." In protest of the fact that DFAIT and CSIS had been allowed to interrogate Khadr, but not the RCMP, Supt. Mike Cabana resigned his post in Project O Canada.

Assistant Director of CSIS William Hooper assured the Canadian public this interrogation was not intended to secure intelligence for an American prosecution, but admitted that the information was all freely shared with his American captors – without securing any guarantees, such as foregoing potential death penalty charges.

For most of 2003, Khadr had a cell next to British detainee Ruhal Ahmed and the two often discussed their favourite Hollywood films, including Braveheart, Die Hard and Harry Potter. Ahmed later recalled that while some interrogations would see Khadr return to his cell smiling and discussing what movies he had been shown, other times he would return crying and huddle in the corner with his blanket over his head.

In the early spring of 2003, Khadr was told "Your life is in my hands" by a military interrogator, who spat on him, tore out some of his hair and threatened to send him to a country that would torture him more thoroughly, making specific reference to an Egyptian Askri raqm tisa ("Soldier Number Nine") who enjoyed raping prisoners. The interrogation ended with Khadr being told he would spend the rest of his life in Guantanamo. A few weeks later, an interrogator giving his name as Izmarai spoke to Khadr in Pashto, threatening to send him to a "new prison" at Bagram Airbase where "they like small boys".

In all, Khadr has been reported to have been kept in solitary confinement for long periods of time; to have been denied adequate medical treatment; to have been subjected to short shackling, and left bound, in uncomfortable stress positions until he soiled himself. Khadr's lawyers allege that his interrogators "dragged back and forth in a mixture of his urine and pine oil" and did not provide a change of clothes for two days in March.

At the end of March 2003, Omar was upgraded to "Level Four" security, and transferred to solitary confinement in a windowless and empty cell for the month of April.

In 2003, Khadr began leading prayer groups among the detainees. At one point, a year after he confided in Moazzam Begg that his brother Abdurahman Khadr was working for the Americans, he was able to have a brief discussion with his brother who was also now being held at Guantanamo, and was just 50 feet (15 m) away in a separate enclosure. The two shouted to each other in Arabic, and Omar told his older brother not to admit their family's dealings with al-Qaeda, and mentioned that he was losing his left eye. During his stay, he also memorised the Quran.

Canadian intelligence officer Jim Gould returned to Guantanamo in March 2004, but was met by an uncooperative Khadr. The Foreign Affairs office claimed that Khadr was trying to be a "tough guy" and impress his cellmates, while his attorney Muneer Ahmad said that Khadr had originally believed Gould "had finally come to help him" in 2003, but by 2004 had realised that he was being interrogated, not aided, by the Canadian government.

In all, Khadr was interrogated by Canadians six times between 2003–2004, and ordered to identify photos of Canadians believed to have ties to terrorism. When he told Canadians that he had been tortured into giving false confessions by the Americans, the Canadian authorities called him a liar, causing him to cry. He later recalled that he had "tried to cooperate so that they would take me back to Canada".

In January 2004, Lieutenant-Commander Barbara Burfeind stated that the United States had decided not to hold juveniles at Guantanamo any longer, leading Clive Stafford Smith to question why Khadr was not only being held, but facing a military tribunal.

On June 18, 2004, Khadr wrote a letter home to his mother who had moved back to Canada to seek medical attention for his younger brother Abdulkareem. Four months later he wrote another, as well as one to his brother Abdurahman Khadr.

In August, attorneys Rick Wilson and Muneer Ahmad submit an "emergency motion" asking for the release of Khadr's medical records. Rebuffed, they were instead granted a declaration from the Guantanamo naval hospital commander Dr. John S. Edmondson stating that Khadr was "in good health", and given a two-page document entitled "Healthcare Services Evaluation".

In November 2004, following a meeting with Ahmad and Wilson, Khadr was interrogated for four days about what he had discussed with his defence lawyers; during this time he alleges that interrogators used "extreme physical force" and refused to allow him to say his daily prayers. During this visit, the lawyers had administered a psychological questionnaire known as the "Mini–mental state examination", which they later turned over to Dr. Eric W. Trupin, an expert in the developmental psychology of juveniles in confinement. Trupin ruled that Khadr was suffering from "delusions and hallucinations, suicidal behaviour and intense paranoia", and that his abuse had left him "particularly susceptible to mental coercion", and at moderate to high risk of committing suicide. Efforts to secure an independent medical examination have not met with any success.

On March 19, 2005 Canada began a series of regular "welfare visits" to monitor Khadr's behaviour, as he was being held in Camp V, the maximum security isolation camp – and there had been reports he had thrown urine at guards and was refusing to eat. That year, his older sister Zaynab moved back to Canada from Pakistan to demand better treatment for Omar and his brother Abdullah. At some point before May 2005, Khadr requested his attorney Rick Wilson bring him back Canadian magazines with "new model cars" for reading material, and later spoke enthusiastically to Canadian officials about his like of Mercedes-Benz and Bentley models.

Khadr participated in a hunger strike, lasting 15 days before he was force fed by prison guards. He reported collapsing as he left the hospital, and that prison guards assaulted him violently. On July 20, 2005, Guantánamo detainee Omar Deghayes wrote "Omar Khadr is very sick in our block. He is throwing blood. They gave him cyrum when they found him on the floor in his cell", and his extract was subsequently published in The Independent.

In April 2005, Khadr was again given another written psychiatric test by lawyers Ahmad and Wilson, which was turned over to Dr. Daryl Matthews, a forensic psychologist who had previously been invited to Guantanamo two years earlier by The Pentagon. Matthews concluded that Khadr met the "full criteria for a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder".

Khadr also participated in the July 2005 200-detainee hunger strike, and went fifteen days without eating. He was twice taken to the on-site hospital and force-fed – on July 9 he was kicked and assaulted repeatedly by military police after collapsing from weakness.

In May 2005, Khadr announced that he would no longer cooperate with any of the American attorneys on his case, including Colby Vokey, Rick Wilson and Kristine A. Huskey. His Canadian lawyers convinced him that he had to retain Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler due to the tribunal regulations. Three months later, Canada upheld the injunction banning any further interrogations by CSIS.

In September 2005, he was transferred out of the Camp V facility into Camp IV.

In 2006, the Army began an investigation into alleged abuse against Khadr while he had been held in Bagram. In July he was transferred back to the isolation cells in Camp V after he expressed distrust of his military lawyers and called the guards "idiots".

On March 6, 2006, he met Clive Stafford Smith in the visitation area of Camp V, and stated that he had been knocked unconscious by an American grenade blast and didn't recall ever throwing any grenades while the battle raged around him.

Khadr was permitted to speak with his mother by phone for the first time in March 2007, nearly five years after his capture. He was allowed one other phone call to his family, but has had no contact since June 2007 when he was put into the harshest section of Guantanamo, Camp VI, for "disciplinary reasons" which Canada argued was unfair as Khadr's behaviour largely depended on which camp he was held within, and the United States transferred him back to Camp IV.

On April 9, 2008, a box of Khadr's documents was seized, ostensibly because items like a Lord of the Rings screenplay were prohibited, and the legal documents taken were returned a few days later. He was also ordered to cease playing dominoes or chess with his attorneys.

Kuebler was able to arrange for a psychological evaluation from Kate Porterfield, who was able to visit Khadr three times in November 2008. Porterfield reported that she was finding it hard to establish trust with Khadr, which was cited as "to be expected in cases like Khadr's where young people had been abused".