Tape of detainee’s distress released

TORONTO —  Burying his face in his hands, a 16-year-old captured in Afghanistan sobs and calls out, “Oh, Mommy,” in a hidden-camera video that provides the first look at interrogations in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Lawyers for Toronto-born Omar Khadr released the tapes Tuesday in hopes of generating sympathy for the young prisoner and of persuading Canada to seek custody of him before Khadr is prosecuted on war crimes charges at the U.S. special tribunal at Guantanamo this year.

A Canadian court ordered the tapes’ disclosure to the defense. They were made by the U.S. military.

The son of an alleged Al Qaeda financier, Khadr is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan and blinded another soldier in one eye.

Khadr, 15 at the time, was found in the rubble of a bombed-out compound, badly wounded and near death.

The seven hours of grainy footage, recorded in 2003 over four days of questioning by Canadian agents, show Khadr breaking down in tears. At one point he pleads for help and displays chest and back wounds he says had not healed in six months.

Peeling off his prison shirt, he shows his wounds and complains he cannot move his arms, saying he has not received proper medical attention.

“They look like they’re healing well to me,” an agent says.

In a 10-minute excerpt released by his Canadian lawyers, Khadr’s mood swings from relief to grief.

At first, believing the Canadians have come to help him, Khadr says, “I’ve been requesting the Canadian government for a very long time.”

By the second day, however, he is in a frenzy of despair after realizing they are not there for his release. While left alone in the room, he repeatedly moans, “Ya, Umi” -- “Oh, Mommy” in Arabic.

His lawyers, listening to the same audio, said they believed he was crying, “Help me,” but acknowledged they were unsure. Khadr’s family, which is from Egypt, said he was calling for his mother, and Arabic-speaking reporters for the Associated Press confirmed that.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, said: “Our policy is to treat detainees humanely, and Khadr has been treated humanely.”

Khadr faces up to life in prison if convicted of throwing the grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.

Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, has said he will not seek Khadr’s return.