Sources close to the case who spoke to the Star on the condition of anonymity said the offer was turned down, clearing the way for pre-trial hearings Wednesday morning.
Khadr’s defence team would not talk about negotiations Tuesday but confirmed that they have spoken with prosecutors and were “open to any possibilities that would resolve this case.”
“Communication is ongoing, but as of right now there is no resolution,” Washington lawyer Barry Coburn told reporters.
On wednesday evening the government did approve and release the Manual for Military Commissions, laying out the rules that are to govern the conduct of Omar Khadr’s and all military commission proceedings. But his legal team did not receive a copy of the new rules until shortly before proceedings were set to get underway this morning. It came as no surprise, therefore, that they were given a few extra hours to digest the contents. So the hearing, before it even began, was adjourned to the afternoon.
Things certainly began to move quickly once the hearing was underway in the afternoon however. There was considerable legal jousting back and forth between defence and prosecuting lawyers over a number of outstanding issues.
Prosecutors are demanding that they be able to carry out their own psychiatric examination of Omar Khadr – but without either his lawyers or his own psychologist or psychiatrist present. They are also demanding access to all of the notes, studies, test results and other documents that his psychologist and psychiatrist have used in preparing their expert reports. They also argued that Omar Khadr’s affidavit detailing the many instances of torture and ill-treatment that he says he has suffered both in Afghanistan and at Guantánamo, should not be entered into evidence. Instead they demand that he should personally testify about everything that is in the affidavit. That was the one issue the judge did rule on – he decided that the affidavit can be entered into evidence for the purposes of this pre-trial hearing into the question of excluding Omar Khadr’s statements made to interrogators. He has not ruled on whether it can be used as evidence at the actual trial scheduled to take place this summer.
For their part, the defence team is seeking access to all individuals who have interrogated him. They want to be able to interview each of them, to determine whether any should be called as witnesses for the defence. They estimate that at least 30 individuals (military, FBI and private contractors) interrogated Omar on more than 100 occasions. To date, they have only been allowed to interview three of them – one of whom allegedly provided information corroborating Omar’s allegation that in one interrogation session he was threatened with rape. His team also wants an order requiring that Omar’s expert psychologist and psychiatrist, who are serving both as witnesses and expert consultants to the legal team, be paid for their efforts.
After these opening skirmishes, which went on for several hours, suddenly the first witness was called to begin testifying – Special Agent Robert Fuller with the FBI. He had only provided some of his evidence before the hearing ended for the day. Special Agent Fuller indicated that he interviewed Omar Khadr six times in October 2002 at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. He testified that the interviews were cordial, involved no abuse or threats, that Omar Khadr was entirely cooperative, and that he saw no signs of pain, fearfulness or disorientation in him. “He said he was proud — and mentioned he was proud to be a soldier,” said FBI agent Robert Fuller, recalling an interrogation in which Khadr claimed that before his capture he had slept with an unloaded AK-47. Fuller added that Mr. Khadr gave him detailed accounts of meetings with senior al-Qaeda leaders and how his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was a major financier of training camps safe houses in Afghanistan and close confidant of Osama bin Laden.
The showdown started at 5:15 a.m., according to a prison camps lawyer, Marine Cpt. Laura Bruzzese, when Khadr complained of pain in his shrapnel-blinded eye. He was taken to the detention center hospital for a drop to ease it.
Soon after, guards took him to a windowless security van for the short trip to Camp Justice. But Khadr refused to don what troops call “his eyes and ears” — the black-out mask and sound-deafening earmuffs.
“You’re trying to humiliate me,” she quoted him as saying.
Lawyers said the young man was suffering conjunctivitis, and high blood pressure, which aggravated what his attorney described as eye pain from shrapnel still in his eyes from his 2002 capture. A prison camps spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Bradley Fagan, said Khadr has always been taken to court in those ski-mask like blinders, which don’t touch his eyes.
For the second day in a row, Omar Khadr refused to appear Friday for pre-trial hearing on murder and terrorism charges, claiming he was being subjected to unnecessary and humiliating searches by military guards.
Today’s refusal came after Mr. Khadr was seen by doctors who apparently treated recurring eye problems which, he claimed
“I want to come to court but I want to come respectfully,” Mr. Khadr said, according to U.S. Marine Capt Laura Bruzzese, who testified at the opening of today’s session.
Military Judge Col Patrick Parrish said the hearing would proceed without Mr. Khadr.
“He objects to having his waistband searched” but that is a reasonable security measure, the judge said, adding that Mr. Khadr’s objections – unlike those of a day earlier — were unrelated to his eye problems.
A day earlier, Col. Parrish refused to order medical treatment for the accused Canadian, saying he didn’t intend to “second guess” the care and security arrangements provided by military guards at Guantanamo Bay’s prison camps.
Mr. Khadr kept his face covered and his head down as a 27-minute video was played, allegedly showing him as a grinning, 15-year-old building detonators in a carpeted room while al-Qaeda trainers exulted: “God willing we will get a good number of Americans.’’
The defence team is fighting to have the video – and Mr. Khadr’s confessions – ruled inadmissible, claiming U.S. interrogators tortured and abused the gravely wounded teenager in the weeks after his capture.
In the video, apparently made in the early summer of 2002, al-Qaeda operatives are shown digging holes in a roadway, planting old Soviet anti-tank mines, running detonator wires and using a hand-held radio to trigger the explosions. In stark contrast to his current burly, bearded physic, the then 15-year-old Mr. Khadr, is a thin teenager with wispy sideburns clowning for the camera and helping to assemble detonators.

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