Canada ignores calls for Guantánamo youth to come home
Footage of Khadr's Guantánamo interrogation was released this week by his lawyers, in the hope it would spur the government into bringing him into the Canadian justice system.
However, a spokesman for Harper said scenes of Khadr sobbing for his mother as he was interrogated by Canadian officials in 2003, would not sway the government's position.
"These videos were in possession of the previous government when they decided to pursue the judicial process for Mr Khadr to have his day in court in Guantánamo," Harper's chief spokesman, Kory Teneycke, said.
"The information is not new. We can't ignore the serious charges Mr Khadr is facing. The proper forum for determining his guilt or innocence is a judicial process not a political process. We're not affected by what's on the cover of newspapers."
The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr U.S. interrogator gets immunity for possible prisoner abuse"The interrogator, who has been identified as Army Sgt. Joshua R. Claus, initially refused to discuss his sessions with Khadr at Bagram air base in Afghanistan.
He was later ordered to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for immunity from prosecution for any abuse of Khadr, according to the documents.
Jumana Musa, advocacy director for Amnesty International USA, said the arrangement raises doubts about the reliability of statements taken by the interrogator.
"
If you're talking about getting immunity for actions you have taken against the person you're testifying against, there's no way to look at that and not wonder if that implicates how you got the statements," she said.
Claus who was sentenced to five months in prison in 2005 for assaulting an Afghan detainee at Bagram who later died."
Khadr's military interrogation faces scrutiny"Joshua Claus was a 21-year-old rookie American soldier in 2002 when he was sent to interrogate terror suspects at Bagram prison in Afghanistan.
One of his prisoners was an Afghan
taxi driver named Dilawar who had been picked up on suspicion of launching a rocket attack. The soldiers kicked Dilawar repeatedly on his thighs, chained him to the top of his cell by his wrists and left him hanging for hours. Five days later he died and a military investigation ruled his death a homicide.
Investigators also determined Dilawar, 22, was innocent – he was a taxi driver, not a terrorist.
Claus was among a group of soldiers charged in his death and was sentenced to five months in jail."
Dilawar - In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths "
Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him.
Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators, Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully into Mr. Dilawar's face.
"Come on, drink!" the interpreter said Specialist Claus had shouted, as the prisoner gagged on the spray. "Drink!"
At the interrogators' behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees.
But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling."
But I digress - afterall - Harper is "not affected by what's on the cover of newspapers"
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