He had been made to wear blackout goggles while suffering from severe conjunctivitis and a pre-existing eye wound, but the US military did not bring in an opthamologist. The side of his face was beet red, his lawyer said, but he was still made to come to court. He sounded like he was crying while he was being told his rights, but the judge seemed unconcerned.
All of this was yesterday.
Where was this?
Guantanamo Bay
Who was this?
Omar Khadr, the young Canadian man who was 15 years when he was imprisoned by the United States on July 27th, 2002. He has been at Guantanamo since just after his 16th birthday in 2002, because that way he could be, and was, treated as an adult, including being tortured.
Think about what they did. Think about The Marathon Man, where Laurence Olivier tortures Dustin Hoffman using dental tools in one of his cavities to cause pain. In Omar's case yesterday, it seems they just didn't and don't care about the pain what they did was causing, although maybe they are just getting tired of the fact that Omar won't back down. He won't become a piece of furniture like Jose Padilla has become.
Omar needs YOUR help.
Please, I beg you, write to the President, write to your senators, write to your congressional representatives, and tell them: NOT IN MY NAME !
Here are two block quotes are from a diary yesterday by Daphne Eviatar Human Rights 1st, who is in the court room covering the hearings and trial: Please go and read the entire diary
http://www.dailykos.com/...
When observers arrived at the hearing this morning, we learned that Omar Khadr would not be attending. Based on the testimony of a military captain who'd attempted to bring him to court this morning, he'd had severe pain in his left eye. Khadr is blind in that eye due to shrapnel wounds arising out of in a firefight with U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2002. This morning it was causing him severe pain, he said. His lawyer said the entire left side of his face was beet red.
Khadr was taken to a medical clinic where he received eyedrops. He then confirmed that he still wanted to attend his hearing. But he was forced to put on what the military calls "eyes and ears" - tight-fitting blacked-out goggles and ear muffs that completely block out sight and sound. Although that's standard operating procedure when a detainee is transferred outside "the wire," the captain testified this morning, yesterday evening was the first time that Khadr had been required to keep the goggles in while sitting inside the military vehicle - which has no windows. Khadr first complained of eye pain yesterday afternoon.
...
Ultimately, Omar Khadr chose to appear in court rather than be forcibly dragged there. But it was clear he was in serious pain. From where I was sitting behind him, I could see him hunched over, his head in his hands, and a wad of tissues in one hand. When the judge read him his rights, he quietly said he understood, but he sounded like he was crying.
The judge seemed unconcerned, and proceeded with the hearing. It was not one of the military commission's finer moments.
After the hearing, I spoke to General Stephen Xenakis, who's been retained as a medical expert by Khadr's defense counsel. A retired military general and practicing physician, he'd examined Khadr during the break and concluded that he was suffering from extreme conjunctivitis, exacerbated by his shrapnel wounds, or worse. And he was suffering from high blood pressure which was adding pressure to his eye and worsening the pain. The eye drops he'd been given, Xenakis said, dulled the pain for only an hour. They hardly solved the problem.
"If I were the general in command of this base I would make sure he sees an ophthalmologist," said Xenakis, who added that the goggles Khadr was forced to wear were surely aggravating his condition.
Too bad there is no ophthalmologist available on the Guantanamo Bay military base.
At a press conference late this afternoon, a spokesman for JTF-GTMO said that Khadr had not actually seen a doctor at the clinic this morning. He would, however, be taken to see some sort of doctor this evening, and an optometrist - a non-medical health care provider who measures vision and fits eye glasses - would see him sometime tomorrow.
Background on Omar:
Omar was born in Toronto on September 19, 1986. His parents and family were, very regretably, militant in their version of being Muslims. They took Omar back and forth between Canada and Pakistan during his childhood and to Afghnistan, where he ended up in the area of a firefight with the US military. During the firefight, Omar was badly wounded, an American service member, Sergeant Christopher Speer, was killed and another American service member, Sergeant Layne Morris, was blinded.
Following his incarceration at Guantanamo, Omar was tortured using sleep deprivation: Blockquote from the finding on the Supreme Court of Canada
http://csc.lexum.umontreal.ca/...
[5] In February and September 2003, agents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service ("CSIS") and the Foreign Intelligence Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade ("DFAIT") questioned Mr. Khadr on matters connected to the charges pending against him and shared the product of these interviews with U.S. authorities. In March 2004, a DFAIT official interviewed Mr. Khadr again, with the knowledge that he had been subjected by U.S. authorities to a sleep deprivation technique, known as the "frequent flyer program", in an effort to make him less resistant to interrogation. During this interview, Mr. Khadr refused to answer questions. In 2005, von Finckenstein J. of the Federal Court issued an interim injunction preventing CSIS and DFAIT agents from further interviewing Mr. Khadr in order "to prevent a potential grave injustice" from occurring: Khadr v. Canada, 2005 FC 1076, [2006] 2 F.C.R. 505, at para. 46. In 2008, this Court ordered the Canadian government to disclose to Mr. Khadr the transcripts of the interviews he had given to CSIS and DFAIT in Guantanamo Bay, under s. 7 of the Charter: Khadr v. Canada, 2008 SCC 28, [2008] 2 S.C.R. 125 ("Khadr 2008").
He has been threated with sexual violence: Quotation from Guantanamo's Child by Michelle Shephard, pg 106
"Omar was told if he did not cooperate, he would be sent to Afghanistan, where 'they like small boys.'"
Omar was tortured using stress positions: Quotation from Guantanamo's Child by Michelle Shephard pg 106
"One evening in March 2003, Omar was taken from his cell and was in no mood to cooperate. The guards left him in the interrogation booth for hours, short-shackled with his ankles and wrists bound together and secured to a bolt on the floor. Unable to move, he eventually urinated and was left in a pool of urine on the floor.
When the MPS returned and found the soiled teenager, they poured pine oil on Omar's chest and the floor. Keeping him short-shackled, the guards used Omar as a human mop to clean up the mess. Omar was returned to his cell and for two days the guards refused to give him fresh clothes."
After all of this, almost eight years of horrific treatment, the worst part is that Omar may be, very likely is, innocent of the primary crime which he been accused of: throwing the grenade that killed Sergeant Speer and blinded Sergeant Morris.
Omar's defense team has submitted evidence that the US military has covered up the first report filled out by the eyewitness to the immediate time of the grenade throwing: Quotation from a Toronto Star story by Michelle Shephard
http://www.thestar.com/...
But the evidence contained in the defence document raises doubts as to whether Obama's multi-agency task force would proceed with murder charges against Khadr.
"Omar is actually innocent of the allegation," write Khadr's military-appointed lawyers, Cmdr. Walter Ruiz and Michel Paradis, along with his Canadian lawyers, Nathan Whitling and Dennis Edney.
"Omar suffered blinding shrapnel wounds and severe injuries to the legs during the course of a U.S. bombardment that crippled him before the attack."
The documents note that a soldier stood on top of Khadr's body before realizing someone was buried.
Here is a photo of Omar and the unnamed other person who might have thrown the grenade: Photo from Toronto Star
Here is a photo of Omar while being captured/treated: Photo from the Toronto Star
Here is the report by the eyewitness:
http://en.wikisource.org/...
So there was clearly another person who could have been the one to throw the grenade, which means reasonable doubt.
He believed it was from a rifle because of the volume of dust blown, though he could not rule out that it was a pistol. He characterized the shooting as "directed fire" that was aimed and was not wild or random. He believed the shooting originated from one rifle, but could not be certain there was not more. As the fire continued, he saw a hand grenade "lobbed" over the corner wall that lead into the alley. He estimated the wall was about eight feet tall. The grenade went over his head in an arching pattern. The grenade traveled approximately 30 to 80 feet with the distance depending on how deep from in the alley the grenade was thrown. The grenade landed and estimated 30 to 50 feet from the opening of the alley. - ran toward the gunfire to avoid the grenade (Attachment 5). He decided to run across the opening of the alley to get further away from the grenade. As he ran past the opening of the alley he fired 12 rounds from his M-4 rifle into the alley. At that time the alley was filled with dust from the gunfire and he could not see who was there (see Attachment 6). - never heard the grenade explode but later learned that SPEER was wounded in the head by the grenade. SPEER was behind him when the grenade was in the air and he did not see SPEER when he was hit.
- took a low position at the southeast corner of the alley. This was the first time - stopped moving since the initiating (sic) the approach to the compound. He saw a man lying underneath some rubble and debris (he presumed resulting from the air strikes) that he believed was clearly dead. He heard moaning coming from the back of the compound. The dust rose up from the ground and began to clear, he then saw a man facing him lying on his right side. - identified this man as the man photographed in Attachment 7). The man had an AK 47 on the ground beside him and the man was moving. - fired one round striking the man in the head and the movement ceased. Dust was again stirred by this rifle shot. When the dust rose, he saw a second man sitting up facing away from him leaning against brush. This man later identified as KHADR, was moving. (- identified this man as the man photographed in Attachment 8.) ] - fired two rounds both of which struck KHADR in the back. - estimated that from the initiation of the approach to the compound to shooting KHADR took no more than 90 seconds, with all of the events inside the compound happening in less than a minute.
- moved into the alley and noted that the man under the rubble was in fact dead and there was a second man dead under the rubble next to him (see Attachment 9 for details of the alley. Attachments 10 and 11 are photos identified as the two bodies under the rubble). A damaged AK 47 (appeared to be damaged by air strikes) was on the ground next to them - said that the nature of the injuries, which included burns, the dust and debris on top of the bodies, and the general state of these two bodies caused him to believe they were dead prior to his entry into the compound. moved to the back of the compound and checked the first man he shot. The man was deceased and in addition to the wound to his head, he had two gunshot wound two his chest. believed that these chest wounds were inflicted by the 12 rounds he fired down the alley when he crossed the alley's entranceway. - noted this man was armed with a pistol in a holster in addition to the AK 47 by his side. - observed a small weapon (a pistol or grenade, - could not recall which) on the ground near KHADR. - then tapped KHADR's eye to see if he was alive. KHADR reacted and was placed on his back. - then turned him over to be secured by other personnel who had now entered the alley. - noted an additional AK 47 in the alley and several grenades. (The location of the grenades are marked "G", the pistol is marked "P" and AK 47s are marked "AK" by - on Attachment 9). - then heard other US personnel yelling for a medic. - went to find SPEER who was a medic. - then discovered that SPEER was wounded in the head by the grenade. SPEER was treated by a physician's assistant and a medic from the SFG, and a platoon medic from the 82nd Airborne. SPEER was transported to Bagram Airfield by a UH-60 medevac helicopter. KHADR was pulled out of the alley into the center are (sic) of the compound and was treated by the same 19 SFG physician's assistant and medic and was later transported by a CH-47 to Bagram. - observed that KHADR was able to move his arms and was repeating "kill me" in English. In addition to the two bullet wounds from - rounds, KHADR also had shrapnel wounds to his chest. - also recalled KHADR had an eye injury of some type and he later learned an ophthalmologist (sic) was brought to Bagram to treat KHADR.
Please, stand up for this young man who has grown from a child to a young man in the most horrible of circumstances.
He needs YOU.
He needs YOU to stand up and say: NOT IN MY NAME !
With gratitude,
Standing for justice and accountability,
For Dan,
Heather