Interrogator says Khadr exposed to ‘fear’ techniques

U.S. NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO, Cuba – Omar Khadr faced interrogations techniques known as "fear down" and "fear of incarceration" as he lay on a stretcher with fresh battlefield wounds, one of the interrogators who attended testified Tuesday.

Identified only as Interrogator No. 2, the army master sergeant said he was an observer at an interrogation conducted by a soldier whom Canwest News Service can identify as Sgt. Joshua Claus, who was later court-martialled for abusing prisoners and was involved in an interrogation of a detainee who died.

Claus, whom the court is identifying as Interrogator No. 1, will appear later this week as a witness for the defence at Khadr’s war crimes hearing at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Interrogator 2 said "fear down" aimed to mitigate the fear level of the person being questioned. The goal of fear of incarceration was to let the detainee know that he could face extended custody if he was not honest.

Interrogator 2 denied any knowledge of Khadr being subjected to a series of harsher interrogation techniques that were approved for use by interrogators at the detention centre in Bagram, Afghanistan, where Khadr was first held after being captured by U.S. forces.

Another interrogator testified Tuesday that he was unaware the Canadian-born terror suspect had been hooded and chained to a door as punishment – but added that knowing about the incident would have made no difference to his line of questioning.

Khadr told the FBI agent in great detail that he tossed the hand grenade that fatally injured a U.S. soldier during the July 2002 firefight in Afghanistan that led to his capture, Tim Fehnel said via video link.

"If there (had been) any information he’d been tortured, (statements) would have to be reviewed," the agent said from Savannah, Ga.

Now 23, Khadr was 15 when he was first detained.

Without a plea deal, his scheduled July trial for murder among five terrorism charges will mark the first U.S. war crimes case in decades that tries an accused his lawyers say was a child soldier in need of protection, not prosecution.

Khadr’s defence argues that all self-incriminating statements Khadr gave during more than 100 hours of interrogations in Bagram, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay should be thrown out, saying he faced coercion and torture during some of his detention.

On Monday, a medic testified that he’d seen Khadr chained with his hands raised to just above eye level in the "sally port" of his cell in Bagram, Barry Coburn, Khadr’s lead U.S. lawyer, told reporters the incident constituted "torture."

Fehnel testified that he would have reported the incident "up the chain of command" had he learned about it when he and a military interrogator questioned Khadr in Guantanamo Bay in November and December 2002, shortly after Khadr’s transfer from Bagram. He denied it would have affected his interviewing approach.

"If I had known, it would have probably been in my mind during the interviews," Fehnel said, but he would have asked the same questions.

Kobie Flowers, another of Khadr’s U.S. attorneys pressed Fehnel on why he didn’t "follow up" on two notations he and his partner, Greg Finley, had made: one said "torture;" the other said "paranoid about guards."

Fehnel said Khadr produced no "specifics" about either matter.

"There was nothing to follow up on," he said, saying he was unable to even recall the "torture" reference.

"If he mentioned it, it was . . . ambiguous. If he did, we would have expanded on it."

By contrast, Fehnel said he had spoken openly and at length about his activities in Afghanistan, including stating that he helped make and plant mines, attended terrorist training camps, and participated in the firefight that led to the death Special Forces Sgt. First Class Chris Speer.

The Bagram medic testified Monday he was confident Khadr, who suffered severe battlefield wounds during the firefight, was not in pain when chained up as part of a standard general punishment at the detention centre for an unknown infraction.

The medic, who was in daily contact with the detainees, testified to seeing Khadr chained up only once. Prosecutors are expected to argue he was not subjected to a "stress" position.

But Coburn said the incident corroborates a claim Khadr made in a February 2008 affidavit that soldiers tied his hands to the door frame "several times."