Gitmo Abuse ‘Contaminated’ Government’s Case, Attorneys Say

[babylonsister]

Gitmo Abuse ‘Contaminated’ Government’s Case, Attorneys Say
First Military Commission Under Obama Begins with Forceful Defense of Terrorism Suspect
By Spencer Ackerman 4/29/10 7:00 AM


GUANTANAMO BAY — Making the most of their first court appearance since President Obama halted and then resumed the military commissions, attorneys for Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen held here since he was 15 years old and charged with murder and support for terrorism, launched a forceful case Wednesday afternoon that a military judge should bar from court all statements Khadr made to his interrogators for the last eight years.

“We will show this case was tainted by these statements from the very beginning,” Kobie Flowers, one of Khadr’s lawyers, told a packed courtroom, with Khadr himself seated just a few feet away. The physical and mental abuse that Khadr claims in an affidavit to have suffered at the hands of U.S. law enforcement, intelligence and detention personnel “contaminated” the heart of the government’s case against Khadr, he said: “The well, as it were, was poisoned.”

A team of four prosecutors led by Jeffrey Groharing, a retired Marine major, responded that Khadr’s lawyers hadn’t met their burden for demonstrating that Khadr was abused, as Khadr — looking healthy in a white shirt and thick beard — looked on stoically. Dismissing a central aspect of the defense, Groharing bluntly stated that “no secret evidence” would be used in the government’s case against Khadr, and called to the stand an FBI special agent who testified to “non-confrontation{ally}” interrogating Khadr in October 2002 in Afghanistan. The prosecution additionally contended that Khadr’s own affidavit about his abuse should be excluded from court, since prosecutors couldn’t cross-examine the defendant — a motion that the judge in the proceeding, Army Col. Patrick Parrish, quickly rejected in the only question settled during the three-hour hearing.

But in the hearing’s most dramatic moment, Flowers said at least one interrogator would testify to having personally taken part in Khadr’s abuse. As detailed in a motion filed by the defense in 2008, Khadr claims in his affidavit that his interrogators threatened him with rape, denied him medical treatment for gunshot and shrapnel wounds he suffered in his July 2002 capture in Afghanistan, and used him as a “human mop” to clean up his own excrement. The interrogator, referred to in the hearing only as “Interrogator #1,” will testify on behalf of the defense that he personally threatened Khadr “with rape” by threatening to render Khadr to an undisclosed Arab country where he would face the abuse.

more...

http://washingtonindependent.com/83458/gitmo-abuse-contaminated-governments-case-attorneys-say

[Solly Mack]

1. k/r

[Soylent Brice]

2. i feel ill.

K&R

[WhiteTara]

3. especially when you think he was only 15

at the time of his capture. I hope he is freed soon.

[Soylent Brice]

4. soon indeed. n/t