27/06/2006
Military lawyers sought the first-ever outside psychiatric examination of a Guantánamo captive, the youngest known detainee there, and have found a retired Army general to conduct the mental health assessment.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- In what would be a first, attorneys are asking the Pentagon to let a retired Army psychiatrist carry out an independent, civilian mental health examination of a teenage Canadian captive held for four years inside the razor-wire prison compound. Attorneys for Omar Khadr, 19, filed the request June 13, citing a new ''urgency'' in light of the suicides by three Arab detainees three days earlier at Camp Delta. At issue is whether the military would permit the first-ever outside health assessment of any kind, of any of the 450 captives held on suspected links to al Qaeda or the Taliban. Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Altenburg, who oversees the military commission process from the Pentagon, has yet to rule on the request. Khadr, the only Canadian at Guantánamo, is also the only known captive at the camp who is allegedly linked directly to a U.S. soldier's death in the invasion of Afghanistan. He was captured at age 15. The Toronto-born teen is charged with murder as a war crime and with being an al Qaeda co-conspirator from a July 2002 firefight in Khost, Afghanistan. U.S. Special Forces had attacked a suspected al Qaeda compound, and Khadr allegedly tossed a grenade that fatally wounded U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Speer, 28, of Albuquerque, N.M. A U.S. soldier and Khadr were each left blind in one eye. Khadr's lawyers argue that Khadr shouldn't be held, and that he should have been provided special protected status as a juvenile in the conflict zone. `IMMENSE IMPACTS' ''The deprivation of his liberty during these formative years has had immense psychiatric and psychological impacts,'' wrote Army Capt. John Merriam, one of the teen's two military lawyers, in the request to the Pentagon, obtained by The Miami Herald. Merriam sought an assessment for the defense ''in a confidential manner'' both for trial preparation and to see whether Khadr needs ''immediate treatment or intervention'' for any urgent mental health issues. Khadr's trial is scheduled for September. But first the U.S. Supreme Court will rule this week on the legitimacy of the military commissions, the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II. Khadr's civilian defense attorneys -- a pair of American University law professors -- had earlier asked to bring an outside mental health expert to examine their client. The military replied that its own medical staff was sufficient. So, last year, the professors brought a psychologist's questionnaire to a client meeting -- and asked Khadr a series of ''yes'' and ''no'' questions, while he was shackled to a cell floor. From the responses, they said, experts concluded the youth suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, the Khadr team has enlisted Dr. Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist who retired from a 28-year Army career in 1998 with the rank of brigadier general. He is currently director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, D.C. FAMILY KNEW BIN LADEN In an interview, Xenakis estimated he would need ''the better part of a week'' with Khadr to conduct a ''standard, bread-and-butter'' examination at Guantánamo. From it, he said, he would compile the life story of the youth whose family knew Osama bin Laden, ''the events that led up to the incident where he was captured'' and his experiences as a captive. ''There's a big hurdle of rapport-building,'' he added, noting that the teenager has been held for four years at the detention and interrogation center. Separately, the doctor said, he would seek to review ''any records of what's happened or not happened to him,'' and consult a neuropsychologist to assess his mental capacity, level of maturity, and whether he's socially adjusted. While the Pentagon has permitted civilian physicians to tour some prison facilities, none has treated captives. Miami defense attorney Neal Sonnett described the request as nuts-and-bolts U.S. trial preparation. ''If our government is serious about providing a full and fair trial, then they cannot deny the lawyers the opportunity to mount whatever defense they want regarding his mental or emotional state,'' he said. Sonnett has no role in the Khadr case but has served as a Pentagon-approved observer for the American Bar Association at some Guantánamo hearings. But he predicted mental competency could be crucial to a Khadr defense. ''Fifteen-year-olds have not reached maturity,'' he said. ``The emotional toll on this young man both before and after he was captured could be significant.'' Defense lawyers claim that a Khadr trial would be the first modern war-crime prosecution of a juvenile.
SOURCE: Miami Herald |
