[toeslist] Guantanamo Bay: Ottawa played down Khadr concerns Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:25:54 -0500 (CDT) Ottawa played down Khadr concerns TheStar.com - World - Ottawa played down Khadr concerns American assurances about 'humane' custody were readily accepted, documents reveal August 20, 2007 Michelle Shephard Staff Reporter A growing number of groups are calling for Omar Khadr's release from Guantanamo Bay, but a Toronto Star examination of more than 1,000 pages of court documents, government reports and emails reveals that since Khadr arrived at the offshore prison in 2002, the Canadian government has publicly supported his detention and trial despite concerns about his health, his age and widespread condemnation of the American prison. The documents show officials downplayed comparisons between Khadr's case and that of child soldiers and, at times, blindly accepted assurances detention conditions at Guantanamo were humane. "The United States continues to acknowledge its willingness to treat all detainees humanely and in a manner consistent with the principles of the Geneva Conventions. Given these statements, and our own observations, the Canadian government is satisfied," reads a Foreign Affairs document drafted in February 2003, released under access-to-information legislation. But at that time the first Canadian officials to visit Guantanamo had not yet returned with their findings. "Have we in any way formalized `our own observations' or is that just a throwaway line?" Gar Pardy, former director general of consular affairs, asked in response to the email to the intelligence division. A division official replied: "The `our own observations' line was mistakenly included. It will only be included if warranted after (censored) debriefs us on his visit." The Toronto-born Khadr was 15 when captured July 27, 2002, in Afghanistan after a battle with U.S. special forces soldiers. The only survivor in a suspected Al Qaeda compound, he allegedly threw a grenade that killed Marine Delta Forces Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. Shot twice in the chest, Khadr was held at the U.S. Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan until his October 2002 transfer to Guantanamo. In September 2002, while Khadr was at Bagram, lines that Foreign Affairs prepared for the press stated Ottawa was satisfied detainees were treated "humanely" because of U.S. assurances and Canada's independent observations. Three months later, the bodies of two Afghan detainees at Bagram were found hanging by their wrists. A military investigation concluded they had been deprived of sleep and struck so often their legs looked as if they had been run over by a bus. Canada's response to Guantanamo has been contrary to that of most governments, most notably Britain, which recently asked for the return of five detainees who had been British residents but didn't have citizenship. Tony Blair's government secured the release of all British citizens by January 2005. The Pentagon has stated it will not release Khadr and is determined his case will be the first before a new war crimes tribunal. White House officials signalled recently President George W. Bush would not change his country's stance even if Stephen Harper raises the topic today in Montebello, Que. Three Canadian officials involved in the Khadr case told the Star they believed even if Canada protested publicly it would do little good. British lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who represents more Guantanamo detainees than any other lawyer, scoffs at the notion Canada is powerless to stand up for Khadr. "You can act like a little, pathetic third-rate country if you'd like to but actually some of these other countries haven't. Kuwait, from the very beginning, even though Kuwait is a much smaller country than Canada, they've stood up for their citizens. They hired lawyers and there are a lot of other countries who have too," said Stafford Smith, author of Bad Men: Guantanamo Bay and The Secret Prisons. Charged under the Military Commissions Act, which became law last October, Khadr was set for trial in June but a military judge dismissed the charges, saying he lacked jurisdiction. An appeal of that ruling is set for Friday before a Court of Military Commission Review in Washington. Canadian officials continue "welfare visits" with Khadr, but the first visits in February 2003 were to collect intelligence. For three days, Jim Gould, who worked with Foreign Affairs' intelligence division, and a Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent sat with Khadr. At the time, the U.S. refused to allow consular visits. On the first day, Khadr co-operated but on the second, he refused to talk. "In a fit of anger, he tore off his shirt revealing extensive scarring on the upper torso and a cluster of smaller ones on the upper left side of his body and on the back of his left shoulder," says a Foreign Affairs report dated Nov. 14, 2003. Days after that visit, a communications adviser to then-foreign affairs minister Bill Graham made no mention of Khadr's state, telling the Associated Press, "officials met Mr. Khadr and he seems well." When news of Khadr's arrest broke in the fall of 2002, Graham made special note of his youth. "It is an unfortunate reality that juveniles are too often the victims in military actions and that many groups and countries actively recruit and use them in armed conflicts and in terrorist activities," said a press release from his office. "Canada is working hard to eliminate these practices, but child soldiers still exist, in Afghanistan, and in other parts of the world." A week later, Foreign Affairs media director Lillian Thomsen, on instructions from Colleen Swords, now head of the intelligence division, wrote in an email a new press message must "claw back on the fact that he is a minor." Under both the Liberal and Conservative governments, officials have refused requests for interviews on the Khadr case. Most recently, Foreign Affairs has refused comment, so as "not to interfere" with the U.S. legal process. Australia was the only other Western country that supported a citizen's detention at Guantanamo. Earlier this year, after public outcry, Australian Prime Minister John Howard intervened to secure the release of David Hicks, who left home in search of adventure and ended up training with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Pleading guilty in return for a nine-month sentence in Australia, Hicks will be free by January but his deal stipulates he can't claim he was tortured or give media interviews for a year. Public support for Hicks followed a campaign led by his father Terry and military lawyer Maj. Michael Mori that made the case an election issue. Public response to Khadr's case has been slow in Canada, largely due to disdain for his family. After the 9/11 attacks, Khadr's father Ahmed Said Khadr had his assets frozen and was designated by the U.S. as a suspected Al Qaeda financier. He was killed in 2003 by Pakistani forces in a battle that left his youngest son, Karim, paralyzed. Then in March 2004, Khadr's older brother Abdurahman told the CBC he grew up in an "Al Qaeda family" and briefly lived on Osama bin Laden's compound. Comments by his sister and mother in the documentary that the U.S. "got what they deserved" in the Sept. 11 attacks enraged Canadians. But sympathy for Khadr's case appears to be growing. A poll this spring stated slightly more than half of Canadians believe the government should ask for his repatriation. Former Canadian foreign affairs ministers urged Harper to speak out and a letter, signed by a coalition of human rights groups and prominent Canadians, was sent. Twenty Muslim organizations have urged immediate action. In an effort to duplicate the Hicks campaign in Australia, Khadr's military-appointed lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, spoke to the Canadian Bar Association at their annual conference in Calgary. He received a standing ovation and a letter from the bar association to Harper that argues the procedures used to jail Guantanamo detainees are "an affront to the rule of law." Edmonton lawyer Dennis Edney, who has been fighting for Khadr since he was jailed, said he's heartened by the attention the case is now getting. "I guess I just wonder where everybody's been for five years."