Doubt cast on guilt of Canada's Guantanamo child prisoner

U.S. soldier's report claims teen was buried under rubble when
grenade was thrown

Doubt cast on guilt of Canada's Guantanamo child prisoner
by Michelle Shephard
The Toronto Star
Dec. 22, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/5nhvns

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - A report provided by a U.S. soldier casts doubt once more on the Pentagon's assertion that Canadian captive Omar Khadr threw a grenade that killed an American soldier.

A military court was told for the first time yesterday that Khadr,
then 15, was buried under rubble from a collapsed roof before he was
captured, which would suggest he could not have thrown the grenade.

A witness identified as Soldier No. 2 was said to have accidentally
stepped on Khadr because he did not see him under the rubble.

The soldier ¡°thought he was standing on a `trap door¡¯ because the
ground did not seem solid,¡± stated a motion submitted by Khadr¡¯s
defence lawyers.

He then "bent down to move the brush away to see what was beneath him
and discovered that he was standing on a person; and that Mr. Khadr
appeared to be `acting dead," the motion continued.

That new version of what happened in Afghanistan on July 27, 2002,
conflicts with reports from other soldiers who said Khadr was sitting
up and conscious when he was shot twice in the back.

The prosecution maintains they can convict Khadr of "murder in
violation of the laws of war" for the death of U.S. Sgt. Christopher
Speer, as well as four other war crimes laid under the Bush
administration's Military Commission Act.

"We present our case in the courtroom," prosecutor John Murphy told
reporters after the hearing. "We don't want to try this case in the
press."

However, Khadr, now 22, may not face trial ¨C at least not here at the
U.S. naval base.

His trial will be the first Guantanamo challenge for the Obama
administration. The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 26 - six days
after President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated.

While Obama's transition team has not stated what will happen to the
cases now underway, most expect he will halt any proceedings. As a
senator, Obama was a staunch opponent of the Bush administration's
war crimes trials being conducted at Guantanamo.

Khadr's hearing yesterday capped off what can only be described as a
surreal week.

On Thursday, naval Cmdr. Jeff Hayhurst gave journalists a tour of the
prison camp. The first stop, past the signs stating the "value of the
week" (this week it was "respect") was Camp 4, the prison for "highly
compliant" detainees.

Toronto-born Khadr is imprisoned here and could be seen along with
other prisoners outside his cell borrowing books from the prison
librarian. He laughed with the guards and detainees, before sitting
at a steel picnic bench to read his new books and then walked back
inside Unit 1 cell of what's known as the Uniform Block.

Tours of the prison are always tightly controlled, which is why some
journalists who have been coming here for years dub them the ¡°Gitmo
dog and pony show.¡± No journalist has been able to see the secretive
Camp 7, home to the so-called "high value" prisoners who were brought
here from CIA facilities around the world.

Five of them charged with orchestrating the 9/11 attacks were brought
into court Monday. It was the first time family members of victims
from the Sept. 11 attacks were allowed to attend the hearings.

Over the years, attention has been focused largely on the
victimization of prisoners who were wrongly detained at Guantanamo,
or who endured treatment most would classify as torture.

Civil-rights advocates argue the Bush administration's heavy-handed
tactics, outside the norms of traditional law, were counterintuitive
since the threat of terrorism for the West is greater today than it
was on Sept. 10, 2001.

After watching the hearing, seven of the relatives told reporters
they wanted Obama to reconsider his decision to close this prison
facility. A day later, the American Civil Liberties Union issued a
press release from 24 other relatives saying they "do not believe
these military commissions to be fair, in accordance with American
values, or capable of achieving the justice that 9/11 family members
and all Americans deserve."

Despite anything that took place this week, there's little chance
Obama would back down on his pledge. If nothing else, Guantanamo has
become synonymous with the abuse of power and a new administration
will be eager to erase the symbol.

But how that will happen is not for those here to consider, says Rear
Admiral Dave Thomas, the head of the prison operation.

"Those are really important decisions and they will be made by the
folks back in Washington and back in Congress; back in the United
States. They'll take their time and they'll make them right," Thomas
told reporters.

If the prison closes, he added, "we'll put the detainees on an
airplane and they'll go somewhere. That's the easy part."

===


Khadr under rubble during attack, lawyer says
But judge won¡¯t allow defence to show court photos of accused buried
under debris of collapsed roof during 2002 firefight
OMAR EL AKKAD
http://tinyurl.com/6¡Á6wf4

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA ¡ª Omar Khadr could not have possibly thrown the
grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a 2002 firefight because he
was buried under the rubble of a collapsed roof, his lawyer argued in
court yesterday, pointing to photos from the firefight that show Mr.
Khadr under so much debris that a U.S. soldier inadvertently stepped
on him.

But Colonel Patrick Parrish, the judge in Mr. Khadr's Guantanamo Bay
military commissions hearing, banned Lieutenant-Commander Bill
Kuebler from showing the photos in court, meaning the public did not
get to see them.

"I don't want things shown that may not be admitted [as evidence],"
Col. Parrish told a clearly exasperated Cdr. Kuebler, who tried for
several minutes to change the judge's mind.

Asked afterward why the judge didn't allow him to show the photos,
Cdr. Kuebler told reporters: "Because they show he's innocent."

In a rare occurrence, the chief and deputy chief of the defence staff
at Guantanamo joined Cdr. Kuebler at a press conference after the
court session to blast the judge's decision.

Mr. Khadr, the only Canadian citizen and Westerner detained in
Guantanamo Bay, is facing several charges before a military
commissions court here. The most serious is that he killed a U.S.
soldier during a 2002 Afghanistan firefight. Mr. Khadr was 15 at the
time, and is 22 now.

The U.S. government alleges Mr. Khadr threw a grenade during the
fight that killed the soldier. A U.S. soldier present during the
firefight previously testified that he saw Mr. Khadr sitting upright,
facing away from him in such a position that he could have thrown the
grenade over his shoulder. The soldier then shot Mr. Khadr twice in
the back.

Asked how a soldier could shoot Mr. Khadr in the back if the Canadian
was buried under rubble, Cdr. Kuebler could not say with certainty.
He offered a number of possible explanations: that some of the
bullets fired at other militants in the compound could ricochet
through the rubble or that the soldier uncovered Mr. Khadr and then
shot him twice while he lay there. Cdr. Kuebler was careful not to
commit to either scenario.

Cdr. Kuebler argued in court yesterday afternoon for the production
of a witness - "Soldier No. 2" - who the lawyer said will present a
different account of events than the one given so far, in which Mr.
Khadr is found not sitting up, but buried under the rubble of a
recently collapsed roof . (The U.S. military bombed the compound Mr.
Khadr was staying in before the soldiers moved in.)

"Soldier No. 2 will establish the [other version of events] is
false," Cdr. Kuebler told the court.

The defence lawyer had planned to show to the entire court, which
included myriad reporters and other observers, photos that he
believes support this account, including one where Mr. Khadr is
clearly buried beneath the rubble.

Captain Keith Petty, one of the prosecution lawyers, told reporters
that the defence has had access to the photos for more than a year.
"These pictures are no surprise to anyone," he said.

Prosecution lawyers argued against most of the half-dozen or so
defence requests to compel various witnesses, saying that in many
cases, as with Soldier No. 2, the defence had not even previously
interviewed the witnesses, but were predicting what the witnesses
would say based on the content of previous law-enforcement interviews
with them.

The defence is also asking for the introduction of other witnesses,
including a soldier who the defence believes will testify that he
heard rapid bursts of gunfire after the "all clear" was called in the
compound.

Another is expected to testify that U.S. soldiers were throwing
grenades at the same time, raising the possibility of friendly fire.
If convicted of the most serious charge against him, Mr. Khadr faces
a maximum sentence of life in prison.