[Dion]

The secret Omar Khadr file

Child soldier. Convicted terrorist. Khadr is about to return to Canada, but no one has been able to see his full seven-hour interview at Guantánamo Bay. Until now.

Maclean’s has viewed a complete transcript of Welner’s seven-hour interview—the most candid glimpse yet of the “real” Omar Khadr. For a man whose story has been told so many times by so many other people (journalists, authors, documentary filmmakers, lawyers from all sides), the Welner interview is a public rarity: Khadr in his own words.

At times, he sounds like the victim he claims to be: a “child” thrust into war, exploited by “everybody” and haunted by nightmares. A “very peaceful person,” he longs to return to Canada—“a place that I could call home”—and move on with his life. (At one point, he reminisced about the girl he hoped to marry, a young friend he met shortly before his capture). Khadr insists, repeatedly, that he did not actually kill anyone that day, and provides fresh details about the torture he has allegedly endured during his decade in U.S. custody. The conversation also suggests that Khadr has endured some form of sexual abuse, either at the hands of adult jihadists in Afghanistan or fellow detainees at Gitmo.

Yet during other moments of the interview, Khadr sounds exactly like the man Welner described on the witness stand: unrepentant and unconvincing. He vehemently denies his father’s al-Qaeda connections—“I know my father, and I don’t accept anybody saying that he’s a bad person”—and compares bin Laden’s training camps to mere martial arts clubs. He skirts around certain questions (about 9/11, his siblings, his father’s death) and when shown a home video of himself expertly wiring and planting improvised explosive devices, he can barely watch the footage. “What’s the point?” he asked.

Not once does Khadr accept even a shred of responsibility for his lot, consistently shifting the blame to everyone else. Except, of course, the man who dispatched him into battle. “I think he was just a normal dad,” Khadr said. “He was just trying to raise his children the right way.”

THREE WEEKS AFTER meeting Omar Khadr, Michael Welner submitted a 63-page report to military prosecutors. His findings were unequivocal: Khadr is conniving, unrepentant, as radicalized as ever—and a “spoiled celebrity.” Although charming and confident, his answers were often so elusive and so self-serving that they bordered on the ridiculous. “His responses,” Welner wrote in his report, “are such departures from the available record that his ability to carry it off as much as he does is impressive as well.”

As for the torture allegations, Welner wrote: “It is my professional opinion that the affidavit he submitted demonstrates his determination to do and say whatever he believes he must in order to help his case.”

When Khadr pleaded guilty—in exchange for that chance to come to a Canadian jail—Welner was just as blunt on the witness stand: “He has great support from certain sectors of the news media who lend legitimacy to him,” and his star power will have an “instant impact on the scalability of what al-Qaeda and the radical jihadist movement is capable of in Canada.” (Under cross-examination, Welner was attacked for relying, in part, on the research of Nicolai Sennels, a Danish psychologist who has said the Koran is “a criminal book that forces people to do criminal things.” Welner told the court he was unaware of Sennels’ “political” remarks.)

When it was finally his turn to address the court, Khadr portrayed a much different version of himself. He personally apologized to Sgt. Speer’s widow “for the pain I caused you and your family,” and said he reached “a conclusion” in jail. “You’re not going to gain anything with hate,” he said, dressed in a suit and tie instead of his orange prison jumpsuit. “Love and forgiveness are more constructive and will bring people together.” (They didn’t testify, but Khadr has also spent hundreds of hours with two mental health experts retained by his defence team: Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist and retired U.S. army brigadier-general; and child psychologist Katherine Porterfield. Both have written glowing letters to Minister Toews, praising Khadr’s “remarkably positive outlook” and his wish to “contribute to the world in a way that brings about religious understanding.”)

By now, federal officials have no doubt watched the secret Welner tape. Technically, Toews still has every authority to deny Khadr’s transfer request, despite the diplomatic note that said Ottawa would be “inclined to favourably consider” it. The law that governs the minister’s decision (the International Transfer of Offenders Act) specifically states that an application can be refused on the grounds that the offender is likely to “endanger public safety” or “commit a terrorism offence.” A person who “left or remained outside Canada with the intention of abandoning Canada as their place of permanent residence” can also be refused. In Khadr’s case, there’s an argument to be made for all three.

But it’s not that simple, of course. When it comes to the Khadrs, nothing ever is. The real question facing Toews actually has nothing to do with whether Omar should be allowed to return to the country of his birth. He will come home, at some point, like all Canadians can. The real question is this: which Khadr do we want to welcome back? The one who serves the rest of his sentence in Cuba, only to fly home a completely free man in six more years? Or the one who can be eased into our prison system, and accountable to the parole laws that go with it?

If Omar Khadr is truly a remorseless threat—a jihadist rock star bent on revenge—which option best protects his fellow citizens?

For many of those citizens, another question must also be answered: when is enough enough? Despite everything he has done—and everything his family stands for—Khadr has spent more than 10 years inside a place that is almost as abhorrent. Willing terrorist or exploited child, he was still a 15-year-old kid thrown into a literal black hole. He was locked up for more than two years before he even talked to a lawyer.

A few days ago, Khadr turned 26—his 11th birthday behind U.S. bars. During that 2010 interview with Welner, he said all he wants is “a chance of life, of true life.” A chance to prove people wrong. A chance to go to school and become a doctor. A chance to marry. “I don’t know if I’m going to find somebody who’s going to understand what I’ve been through,” he conceded. “But it’s always a dream that somebody will understand.”

Canadians are still struggling to understand, too. After so many years, and so many contradictory descriptions, the truth about Omar Khadr remains a moving target. Toews demanded to see the Welner tape, hoping it would offer some fresh insights into the man nobody really knows. If anything, though, it will only add more fuel to the endless debate.

Who is the real Omar Khadr? Helpless child soldier? Unrepentant killer? As always, it depends on which snippets of the evidence you’re willing to ignore.

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/t...et-khadr-file/