GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — A U.S. military commander altered a report on a firefight in Afghanistan to cast blame for the death of a Delta Force commando on a Canadian youth who was captured after the shooting stopped, a defence lawyer said Thursday.
The lawyer, Navy Lieutenant-Commander William Kuebler, made the allegation at a pretrial hearing as he argued for access to the officer, identified only as “Col. W,” as well as details about interrogations that he said might help clear his client of war-crimes charges.
The U.S. military has charged Omar Khadr with murder for throwing a grenade that killed Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer during a U.S. military raid on July 27, 2002, on an al-Qaeda compound in eastern Afghanistan. Mr. Khadr's case is on track to be the first to go to trial under a military tribunal system at this U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.
The military commander's official report the day after the raid originally said the assailant who threw the grenade was killed, which would rule out Mr. Khadr as the suspect. But the report was revised months later, under the same date, to say a U.S. fighter had only “engaged” the assailant, according to Cdr. Kuebler, who said the later version was presented to him by prosecutors as an “updated” document.
Omar Khadr (Family photo)
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Cmdr. Kuebler told reporters after the hearing that it appears “the government manufactured evidence to make it look like Omar was guilty.”
Prosecutors did not contest Cmdr. Kuebler's account in court and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Khadr, who was captured when he was 15, is among roughly 80 detainees the Pentagon plans to prosecute at Guantanamo. So far, roughly a dozen of the 275 men held at Guantanamo have been charged with war crimes.
Cmdr. Kuebler said the trial will likely hinge on statements that Mr. Khadr made to interrogators when he was held at a military prison at Bagram air base in Afghanistan. The lawyer asked to be provided with the names of the interrogators as well as what techniques they used.
His interrogators included members of a unit implicated in the December 2002 beating deaths of two Afghan detainees, named Dilawar and Habibullah, Cmdr. Kuebler said.
Mr. Kuebler showed the judge a photograph of Mr. Khadr after his capture, with two gaping exit wounds in his chest from gunshots to his back, and said he would have been particularly vulnerable to coercion when he arrived at Bagram.
“We're not talking about an adult of able physical and mental condition,” he said.
The lead prosecutor, Marine Corps Maj. Jeffrey Groharing, said defence lawyers have not demonstrated that speaking with individual interrogators would benefit their case. He said the government already has provided typewritten summaries of the Bagram interrogations.
Cmdr. Kuebler bristled at the prosecutor's decision to withhold information it does not consider relevant to the case.
“What does he know about our case … and what might help us prepare for trial?” he asked.
The judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, scolded both sides for not co-operating more closely on evidence-related issues that could delay the trial, currently scheduled for May. He said he would rule on most of the defence motions by late Friday.
Judge Brownback also ordered prosecutors to provide the defence with official correspondence regarding the case between the U.S. and Canadian governments.
Also Thursday, a separate military tribunal arraigned a Saudi detainee, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi, who is accused of plotting in 2001-2002 to attack a ship in the Strait of Hormuz or off the coast of Yemen as a member of al-Qaida. He did not enter a plea to charges that include supporting terrorism.
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