Tornado Alley (PROG)

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You Don't Like the Truth - Four Days In Guantanamo .. insert short video .. more on the documentary below ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZrERVO19Dg

A poorly recorded video starts. The door of the interrogation room opens. Behind the table a young prisoner in chains and dressed in orange sits waiting. And so follows the story of Omar Ahmed Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was detained in Guantanamo Bay prison at the age of 15.

Two men and a woman enter the cell:

Man 1: How’s your English?
Omar Khadr: Good.
Man 1: It is good, eh?
Khadr: Yeah
Man 1: Look the reason we’re down here, we’re wanted to talk to you for a couple of days.
Khadr: OK.
Man 1: Talk to you about a bunch of things.
Khadr: No problem.
Man 1: You’re good with that?
Khadr: Yes.
Man 1: So I guess we’re the first Canadians you’ve seen in a while?
Khad: Canadians?
Man 1: Yeah
Khadr: Finally! (laughs)

These are the first words spoken between Omar Khadr and the team from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) who have come to interrogate him. The atmosphere appears relaxed and Omar clearly seems to hope and believe this visit will yield positive results. He even appears confident - and why not? They treat him like a human being. They call him by his name, they offer him a sandwich. "A Subway or do you like McDonalds? Whichever one you want. A Coke?" they ask. The youngster gladly accepts, almost incredulous at this happy turn of events. Things are off to a good start.

It won't stay that way. Omar, barely 16 years old, had already been subjected to an array of American "enhanced interrogation" techniques. Having spent the last five months in Guantanamo, he would quickly break under psychological pressure from the Canadian agents. Indeed, by the second day he had already fallen into a state of profound psychological regression.

This interrogation lasted four days between February 13 and 16, 2003, at a US maximum security facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The entire encounter was recorded. In May, 2008, the Canadian Supreme Court ordered the Canadian government to turn over to Omar Khadr's lawyers thousands of pages of documents related to the case. This was how seven hours of videotape entered the public domain.

Prior to turning over the video the CSIS invoked claims of "national security" to erase significant portions of the audio track. Nonetheless, the dialogue that remains and the events it reveals are riveting and dramatic.

Taking this unique document as the backbone of the documentary, the interrogation then is examined by a panel of experts including a Toronto psychiatrist who specialises in treating the victims of torture, and the US military defense lawyer representing Omar Khadr. There are also interviews with released Guantanamo prisoners who knew Omar well, and with an ex-torturer from the US detention facility at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.

The government of the United States accuses Omar Khadr of killing a US special forces soldier during an assault in July, 2002, in Afghanistan. Omar was then 15 years old. As of this writing, May, 2010, he remains incarcerated awaiting trial before a military commission. He is to be the first child soldier ever charged with war crimes.

Each of the four days of interrogation possesses its own particular qualities but taken together, the chronology gives the story a structure that unfolds in four chapters: hope, fallout, blackmail and failure.

On the final day when the Canadian agents are just about to leave we hear the last words exchanged.

Kadhr: I want to call my grandparents.
Man 1: Well, I can’t arrrange that.
Kadhr: You ain’t doing anything for me.
Man 1: We can’t do anything for you ?!
Kadhr: You didn’t do anything for me...
Man 1: We can’t do anything to you.
Man 2: We can’t do anything to you, only you can help yourself.

He gets up and puts the A/C on.

In 2010, Khadr pleaded guilty to war crimes and was convicted at a US military trial in Guantanamo Bay. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but under a plea deal he will serve no more than eight. He is due to return to Canada this October to serve the remainder of his sentence.
http://www.sbs.com.au/documentary/program/youdontlikethetruth/about/synopsis

Khadr was made by his father to go to the Taliban camp. Most certainly an innocent forced to plead guilty to get out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkwIlMQ2b-k .. Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsMJWV9APvY&feature=relmfu .. Part 2

See also ..

Chaos In Gitmo .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=49600162 ..
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Broken Promises, Broken Laws, Broken Lives .. Amy Goodman Jun 16, 2010

Federal authorities are investigating whether officials of the government south of the border
participated in a citizen’s kidnapping and torture—Canadian authorities, that is, investigating
the possible role of U.S. officials in the “extraordinary rendition” of Canadian citizen Maher Arar.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=51379265