Friday, September 12, 2008

Canadian officials frustrated in efforts to ensure care for Omar Khadr.

This is from the CanadianPress.

This shows that at least Canadian officials are trying to do something. Some Canadian officials earlier were content to let the U.S. soften up Khadr before interrogating him. Probably Harper's shameful inaction on Khadr will not be brought up much during the campaign because it is not likely a vote getter.

Canadian officials frustrated in efforts to ensure care for Omar Khadr
14 hours ago
TORONTO — A Canadian government representative complained as recently as a few months ago that her efforts to ensure proper medical and other care for Omar Khadr in Guantanamo Bay were being stymied by his American captors, newly released documents reveal.
The classified accounts of welfare visits by an official from Foreign Affairs show even simple requests to provide Khadr with a pillow, blanket or sunglasses to protect his shrapnel-damaged eyes and body foundering on apparent security concerns.
"A number of requests made both by Omar and Canadian government officials either fall through the cracks, go ignored or are not processed in a timely manner," Suneeta Millington wrote after visiting Khadr this spring.
The documents obtained by The Canadian Press were filed this week as part of the government's response to a lawsuit by Khadr's lawyers aimed at forcing Prime Minister Stephen Harper to demand the repatriation of the young Canadian.
Toronto-born Khadr, 21, held for six years at Guantanamo Bay, was slated to stand trial Oct. 8 for war crimes allegedly committed when he was 15 - but a judge on Thursday delayed its start.
The Americans accuse him of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. medic following a four-hour bombardment and firefight of a compound in Afghanistan in July 2002.
Khadr was horribly wounded during the battle and the after-effects continue to plague him.
"Shrapnel is slowly working its way out of Omar's body," Millington reported after visiting him in June.
"The week prior to my arrival, another piece of shrapnel had pushed itself out of the skin in Omar's left ear."
The documents also show the Americans ignored Canadian entreaties as far back as 2003 to house Khadr in a juvenile detention facility.
Nate Whitling, one of Khadr's Canadian lawyers, said Thursday the documents are more evidence the Harper government has "repeatedly lied" to the Canadian public.
"As the Federal Court has held, Omar is not being treated humanely," Whitling said from Edmonton.
"He was tortured by the Americans when he was still a child and the Harper government did all it could to conceal this fact in an attempt to avoid embarrassing the Bush administration."
Although Khadr is the only western captive still held at Guantanamo Bay, Harper has steadfastly refused to get involved, arguing the military commission process underway must first run its course.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion accused Harper at the outset of the federal election campaign of being a "proxy" for U.S. President George W. Bush.
New Democrat Leader Jack Layton said Thursday that Harper's inaction was "a stain on this country's stand on human rights."
The Foreign Affairs' accounts provide some insight into Khadr's fragile emotional state and anxiety over his pending trial.
"Six years I've been here. I've lost my childhood. What more do they want from me?" Khadr blurted out during one welfare visit.
Despite being held now as a "highly compliant detainee" in a less restrictive part of the prison, Canadian officials appeared nonplussed by some of the security concerns.
For example, efforts to supply Khadr with sunglasses to protect his highly light-sensitive eyes went nowhere.
"Both of these sunglasses have been rejected on the grounds that they might constitute a security risk," wrote Millington, who was unavailable to comment Thursday.
Jailers also cut open Khadr's new shoes even though the Canadian officials specifically bought them to meet security requirements.
Still, Khadr, who gets shackled to the floor at various times, appears to enjoy cordial relations with his jailers.
One described him as "non-radicalized" and a "good kid," while another suggested his captivity was taking a serious toll on his mental health, indicating, "We are close to losing him," the documents show.
A "voracious reader" who preferred "The Swiss Family Robinson" to "Life of Pi," Khadr has taken to learning French in efforts at filling in some of the huge gaps left in his formal education.

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