‘You Don’t Care About Me,’ Sobbed Teen Gitmo Detainee
Here’s a story of one Guantanamo interrogation. Here’s the video. I really couldn’t watch much of it — I admit it. It’s gut-wrenching. I’m just warning you.
Cernig summarizes it better than I could do.
Well now. A tape of a Canadian 16 year old sobbing as he’s interrogated at Gitmo has surfaced after the Canadian Supreme Court ordered it released. The teen was captured in Afghanistan and accused of being a terrorist, alleges torture at Bagram, was held in solitary and subjected to disorientation techniques at Gitmo – - and is still held there. He may well be a teen terrorist, may well be guilty as sin. But torture and "hearsay" evidence in kangaroo courts fails entirely to uphold the notion of the rule of law for all, a hallmark of free and just society. (Newshoggers; emphasis added)
Digby says:
Apparently the authorities think that this kid’s family is heavily involved in radical Islam. The prisoner himself sounds very confused and at 15, far too young to know any kind of operational plans his family might be involved in, if indeed, any existed….
If there was ever a case where the modern professional interrogation techniques of trust and dependence would have likely worked far better than this stupid Jack Bauer crap, it would be with a frightened and wounded 15 year old. But according to the article they also put this prisoner through extreme sleep deprivation and disorientation in addition to the torture he is alleged to have suffered at Bagram (which would be par for the course.) It sounds as though he didn’t know which end was up by the time they were through with him.
By the way, it turns out the kid didn’t have any useful information. (emphasis added)
According to Jeralyn,Khadr faces life in prison if convicted at his military tribunal trial.
Here’s a bit of background from the CBC story.
The footage is from five formerly classified DVDs consisting of 7½ hours of questioning that took place six months after Khadr was captured, following a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. Khadr, who is a Canadian citizen, has been held at Guantanamo Bay for six years on charges that he killed a U.S. medic during a firefight in Afghanistan….
When the agent accuses Khadr of crying to avoid interrogation, Khadr tells the agent between gasping sobs, "You don’t care about me."
(CBC)
One Talk Left commenter wrote:
I can’t even begin to say how shattered my heart is hearing and watching that child moaning for someone to help him. God Bless the Canadian court system for being the only official channels that have actually done something to help him.
Here’s a piece about ‘Guantanamo’s child.’ (Warning: Graphic photos of injuries).
Sadly, as Cernig says, there are certain commentators who don’t understand the concept of ‘rule of law.’ A brave and free people don’t place punishment, revenge, and a craven desire for ‘safety’ before the principles on which their own freedom is founded.
I do realize that there are bad people who need to be caught and prevented from further wrongdoing. But the procedures of a free and just society must preserve and foster the dignity of the individual. The young in particular aren’t to be tried as if they had the judgment or free will of adults.
Talk Left has a lot of background on the case.
13 Responses to “‘You Don’t Care About Me,’ Sobbed Teen Gitmo Detainee”
“The young in particular aren’t to be tried as if they had the judgment or free will of adults”
Actually, you're wrong, though of course it doesn't justify brutality or torture. The young (juveniles) are in transition from childhood to adulthood. Yes, their judgment has not developed (it doesn't fully until early twenties; replacing age 21 with age 18 for many privileges in society was the wrong thing to do), but they are fully aware of what is right and wrong and can be punished for crimes they commit. Anyone over age six knows the difference between right and wrong and anyone over age twelve can be held accountable in some manner for wrongdoing.
They do have free will and know right from wrong, but their judgment is not fully developed. “Graduated penalties” are in order just as are graduated driver's licenses, one of the best things devised in contemporary society.
“The young (juveniles) are in transition from childhood to adulthood. Yes, their judgment has not developed (it doesn't fully until early twenties; replacing age 21 with age 18 for many privileges in society was the wrong thing to do)”
(Agree on the graduated drivers license- keeps those kids off the streets at late hours- but like anything try telling a teenager what to do….)
Not Neccesarily- the juvenile brain doesn't fully develop until the early twenties, and yet we continue to send young, hormonally hopped up underdeveloped teens into battle. Sure they know right and wrong,but to willfully exercise that decision in a mature manner is suspect. A sis year old may know it cognitavely, but does not fully appreciate the ramifications of doing right vs. wrong.
The issue here is that this 16 yr old Canadian kid has been sitting in Gitmo without charges, without a trial on the docket and without due process. People who automatically assume all the prisoners in Gitmo are terr'ists should make public their names to the legal system so they never ever serve on a jury, imho. Whatever happened until “innocent until proven guilty?” Should we not apply the same statute to war criminals? Or is this all just about revenge/payback. if it's the later then we truly have become an organized crime nation.
“The issue here is that this 16 yr old Canadian kid has been sitting in Gitmo without charges …”
I'm not questioning that this is a bad thing, or that mistreatment of him is wrong.
TalkLeft has little background on the case.
FYI: This kid is the child of Ahmed Khadr. Kadhr was a close associate of Osama bin Laden's.
The Canadian govt. has not intervened as there is considerable animosity toward the Khadr family in Canada.
The father was arrested in Pakistan in the 1990s. He pleaded that he was an innocent charity worker…his sob stories played well in the liberal Canadian media…and the Can. Prime Minister Chretien personally intervened with Pakistan's government to get Khadr released.
Khadr then packed up his family and went to Afghanistan to openly live in AQ compounds. It is absolutely uncontested by all parties that the Khadrs are — as Omar Khadrs own mother proudly declared in the Canadian media — an “al Queda family”.
The father was killed with the fall of the Taliban. Immediately following this…the Kadr family fled to Pakistan…announced that they had lost all of their Canadian passports…and demanded the Canadian government fly them home and give them medical care.
At this time, the mother … while demanding Canadian government intervention … denounced Canada as a filthy immoral society that tolerated homosexuals and persversion, and God-willing should be destroyed.
If you follow this story in the Canadian media online, you can see these two themes worked out: (1) Gitmo is unjust; but (2) this teenager is al Queda, his family is al Queda, and all of them have a long history of manipulating liberal opinion . . . and then spitting in Canadian faces (quite literally, upon returning to Canada, in one case I recall seeing on the news online at the time).
TalkLeft — not surprisingly — give very little background on the case…other than Bush is evil and Gitmo should be close.
You need this background to understand why the Canadian govt. has no interest…and is under no real political pressure (the opposition would not force an election to protect a Khadr) on this issue.
I should add, while the precise facts in the alleged killing of a US medic are unclear…there is video of this “child” training with explosives…and planting mines on roads in Afghanistan during the American invasion.
The Khadrs are notoriously proud of their AQ connection…something Khadrs own lawyers do not contest, only to ask that people not consider the family in judging the son…and made numerous videos celebrating their allegiance and work for bin Laden.
So then we should throw all the children of KKK members into Gitmo, ….because their mammy and pappys are cross-burning terrorists and they have rebel flags over their beds- and we should have waterboarded the Hitler youth. My point is not that Khadr is/isn't guilty- its that he is imprisoned without charge, without habeas corpus regardless of his guilt or innocence. His upbringing may have had impact on his choice of actions as well. We are creating more terrorists by our own actions than quelling. Maybe we should just put all Muslims in internment camps because of what they MIGHT do…and if he is a Canadian citizen still- send him back there for them to deal with- why is he our baggage now? Why are there Chinese expats in G'mo that we let the Chinies police “interrogate”- seems funny considering Cuba is still Communist- that's like letting the KGB or NKVD come in and question Boris and Natasha….
RememberNovember said: “and we should have waterboarded the Hitler youth. My point is not that Khadr is/isn't guilty- its that he is imprisoned without charge, without habeas corpus regardless of his guilt or innocence.”
Your point is totally true. I agree completely.
I sought only to give further background info…to explain the full context of Khadr.
While the idea of a temporary camp X-Ray . . . to gather intelligence on prisoners temporarily made sense . . . Gitmo has long sense moved beyond that into pointlessness.
Whatever intel Khadr may have had is long out of date. He should be tried and judged guilty/innocent or whatever.
It seems to me that Bush has screwed the pooch on the Gitmo file. Perhaps there are reasons for its continuation I am not aware of. Anyhow, people should be tried, and the guilty never see the light of day. The likely inoffensive . . .as Khadr probably is . . . should be released. He and his family will likely be monitored by Canadian intelligence for the rest of their lives.
If the Littlest Jihadi was arrested at a Toronto Starbucks, everything the left is complaining about is valid.
If this kid was picked up on the battlefield, his status (according to the Geneva Convention and international law) is: To Be Executed – Temporarily Postponed.
It would be unconscionable for the U.S. to violate the purpose and provisions of the Geneva Convention by doing anything other than killing this enemy combatant. I shudder to think of the carnage that would take place in future battlefields if the concept of uniformed forces is subverted by allowing this particular participant to live.
As with most things, the left needs to think past the immediate situation to arrive at a correct decision.
jwest, do you know (real question) if the Geneva Conventions have anything special to say about child soldiers as opposed to adult ones?
On the contrary, TALK LEFT does have a lot of background. Go to the bottom of the page and follow the links. They've been following the case for ages.
And they didn't make the comment attributed to them above. They simple gave the facts and the probable outcome.
“t seems to me that Bush has screwed the pooch on the Gitmo file.”
And Iraq … and while McCain says we have the will to win in Iraq and in Afghanistan, we're left without the means, largely because we have our hands full in Iraq and we were undermanned and underequipped in Iraq to succeed at the pacification part of the occupation, and … oh, that poor pooch.
Marlowecan, you were right to put this into context. Note that several people who have been released from custody have been subsequently caught at terrorism again. (If in Iraq or Afghanistan, we should just shoot these people promptly.)
“Note that several people who have been released from custody have been subsequently caught at terrorism again. “
I'm sure that's true. We certainly give them good reason, while in US custody, to seek revenge upon release.
The WOT is a self perpetuating business.