Video of Canadian Gitmo detainee post-torture released

From the New York Times, that evil bastion of the liberal media.

OTTAWA — Video recordings released Tuesday showing interrogations of the only Canadian held at the Guantánamo Bay detention center in Cuba provided an unprecedented glimpse inside the compound.

The mood of the detainee, Omar Khadr, just 16 years old at the time of the interrogations, in February 2003, swings between calm and indifference to rage and grief in the recordings, which were released by his lawyers.

The video footage, which provides the most extensive videotaped images yet seen from inside Guantánamo Bay, shows Mr. Khadr pleading with a Canadian intelligence agent for help and, at one point, shows him displaying chest and back wounds that had still not healed months after his capture in Afghanistan.

The poor quality recordings were made by the United States military, and were given to Mr. Khadr’s Canadian lawyers by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service under the terms of a court order.

They show Mr. Khadr, who is accused of killing a United States soldier in Afghanistan during a battle in July 2002, being questioned by an unidentified member of the Canadian intelligence agency.

In all, about seven hours of recordings were given to Mr. Khadr’s lawyers, but the lawyers released a selection of only about 10 minutes of video recording on Tuesday.

Mr. Khadr maintains that he was abused by American interrogators both at Guantánamo Bay and in Afghanistan. It appears from the recordings, as well as from written documents of the interrogations that were released last week, that Mr. Khadr initially believed that the Canadian agent had come to help him.

But Mr. Khadr eventually seems to realize that the agent is only there to extract information.

Much of the material released shows Mr. Khadr — who is wearing an orange uniform — sobbing and repeatedly saying, in a moan, “Help me, help me.”

In the interrogation, Mr. Khadr says he wants to return to Canada, but the agent suggests that the situation is so good in Cuba he might want to stay there himself.

“The weather’s nice," the interrogator, whose face was electronically obscured, said. "No snow.”

In the film, Mr. Khadr, who had been shot and was near death at the time of his capture in Afghanistan, repeatedly complains about his medical treatment and his physical condition. At one point, he lifts his shirt to show the agent the wounds on his back and stomach that were still not healed.

The agent, however, is unmoved. “I’m not a doctor, but I think you’re getting good medical care," he responded.

Later, a sobbing Mr. Khadr said: “You don’t care about me.”

Slats, apparently from a ventilation grill in the detention center, obscure most of the images. The documents released last week under the same court order suggest that the sound on much of the rest of the unreleased video is inaudible.

Amnesty International and several Canadian groups have been pressuring the Canadian government to ask the United States to return Mr. Khadr to Canada from Guantánamo Bay. Last week, however, Prime Minister Stephen Harper again rejected those calls.

Nathan Whitling, one of Mr. Khadr’s Canadian lawyers, said that he hoped the airing of the videos, which were prominently featured on the morning new programs of Canadian television networks, would change the government’s mind.

“The only way to get him released is through a political process,” Mr. Whitling said from his office in Edmonton, Alberta. “So we are pleading in the court of public opinion.”