Nathan Whitling and Dennis Edney, who are representing Omar Khadr, a 16-year old Canadian being held at Guantánamo Bay, released 10-minutes of snippets from videotaped interrogations by Canadian Security Intelligence Services agents “with hopes that public reaction to the footage will prompt Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to lobby for his repatriation†reports The New York Times. “The video was made public under Canadian court orders … after intelligence reports made public last week showed Khadr was abused in detention at the U.S. naval base.â€Â Â
Abused? Puhleeze! The Stiletto has watched more brutal questioning on “Homicide: Life on the Street.â€Â Â
Meanwhile, Khadr’s fellow detainee former Usama bin Laden bodyguard/driver Salim Ahmed Hamdan testified about the rough treatment he was subjected to by a female interrogator during questioning by his attorney, Charles Swift, during a pretrial hearing before a military court:
Hamdan: [She] came close to me, she came very close, with her whole body towards me.
Swift: Did she touch your thigh?
Hamdan: Yes … I said to her ‘what do you want?’ She said, ‘I want you to answer all of my questions.’ Â
Hamdan gave her what she wanted, and the two of them smoked a cigarette afterward. Just kidding. But doesn’t that “interrogation†sound like an amateur porn video?
In another Gitmo-related development, American lawyers defending terrorists being detained Gitmo have claimed that the harsh conditions are causing their clients to go insane. The insanity must be communicable. The Wall Street Journal’s “Law Blog†reports that at a press conference in Sanaa, Yemen, Covington & Burling partner David Remes, who is representing 15 of the roughly 100 Yemeni detainees at Gitmo, stripped to his skivvies to demonstrate the body searches to which the prisoners are subjected several times daily:
“[T]he men are required to pull their shirts up to their chest, drop their pants, and then the corn-fed U.S. military sticks their thumbs under the prisoner’s underwear band and circles the prisoner’s torsos. [T]his is a society where the rule of morality is so strict – I wanted to drive home the degree of humiliation that these searches cause by illustrating a typical body search. … I wish people paid as much attention to the suffering and torment in Guantanamo as they paid to the way I sought to dramatize it.†Â
The searches are necessary because these battle-hardened terrorists are dangerous killers, who will use anything readily at hand – including bodily waste – to attack the U.S. soldiers guarding them. And Remes’ description of the body search sounds far less humiliating than a typical gynecology or proctology exam. Â
BTW:Â His briefs were blindingly white, but no one would mistake David Remes for Harry Reems.
Note: The Stiletto writes about politics and other stuff at The Stiletto Blog, chosen an Official Honoree in the Political Blogs category by the judges of the 12th Annual Webby Awards (the Oscars of the online universe) along with CNN Political Ticker, Swampland (Time magazine) and The Caucus (The New York Times).
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackHypocrisy of the “Repatriate Omar Khadr to Canada” Movement
As soon as the Gitmo interrogation tape of Omar Khadr hit the Internet, the blogosphere was flooded with demands to repatriate him to Canada. This wave is reminiscent of a Soviet campaign to free Luis Corvalán from the “fascist regime” of Augusto Pinochet thirty five years ago. The scenario is strikingly similar. A “victim” held by “fascist regimes” this time run by Bush and Harper, and a public outcry for justice. Except for the fact that Luis Corvalán didn’t kill anyone and didn’t fight for a terrorist group that wants to impose Sharia.
The “repatriate Khadr” crowd describes him as “a child”, “a kid”, “a boy”, and even “a torture victim”, with no facts to substantiate the torture claims notwithstanding. They complain about Khadr being mistreated, again, without anything to back up their claims. Some of them are outraged about “child abuse.” And they all scream for justice.
They want justice? OK, let’s talk about JUSTICE. What about justice for Sgt. First Class Christopher J. Speer, who was (according to an eyewitness) murdered by this “child”? What about justice for Tabitha Speer, who is a widow because of this “kid”? What about justice for Taryn and Tanner Speer, who are left without a father by this “a boy”? And what about all those Afghani civilians and NATO troops who are a little bit safer because this “torture victim” is behind bars? How many of these “repatriate Khadr” hypocrites concern themselves with justice for real victims? In literally hundreds of posts, we couldn’t find a single one.
One would ask, what is the reason for this idiocy? The answer is simple. Ignorance. Complete and utter ignorance. Let’s forget for a second that Omar Khadr killed Christopher Speer. Let’s forget that Khadr’s father was an al Qaeda financier. Let’s forget that Khadr’s family is known for it being al Qaeda sympathizers. Let’s just remember what this “child” was fighting for in Afghanistan.
This is what Taliban-imposed Sharia looks like in real life: http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2000/07/hypocrisy-of-repatriate-omar-khadr-to.html
Why don’t all of you, bleeding heart demagogues go to Afghanistan and spend a day in a Taliban-controlled territory? And let’s talk about Khadr when you get back. If you get back.