Deleted:OC-1 (witness)

On February 4 2008 an official responsible for preparing the package of background documents for reporters attending a Guantanamo

hearing accidentally released an unredacted copy of a statement from a witness known as OC-1.

Background to the accidental release of OC-1's statement

A heavily redacted version of OC-1's statement was to form part of a package of background documents authorized for distribution to members of the press observing a hearing where Colonel Peter Brownback would be determining whether a Canadian captive named Omar Khadr was an "illegal enemy combatant".

Khadr was one of the first captive held in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, who faced charges before a Guantanamo military commission. Khadr was charged in November 2005, after three years of detention without charge, shortly after his eighteenth birthday. Khadr is the only captive, so far, to have been charged with murder.

Main article: USA v. Omar Khadr

Khadr was one of the ten captives who faced charges before military commissions that were activated under the authority of United States President George W. Bush. The United States Supreme Court ruled that the President lacked the Constitutional Authority to convene military commission, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in July of 2006.

The Supreme Court ruled that only the United States Congress had the authority to authorize military commissions. Subsequently the Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which authorized the trial of "unlawful enemy combatants before commissions very similar to those President Bush had authorized. Khadr was one of just three captive who were re-charged before the new commissions in early 2007.

Australian captive David Hicks pled guilty in a plea bargain deal. On June 4 2007 Brownback and Captian Keith Allred, the judge for Yemeni captive Salem Ahmed Hamdan, dismissed all charges against Khadr and Hamdan, on jurisdictional grounds. They ruled that the captive's Combatant Status Review Tribunal's determinations that they were "enemy combatants" fell short of the wording of the Military Commissions Act, that authorized them to try "illegal enemy combatant".

The Prosecutions appealed. The Appeals court over-ruled Brownback and Allred. The Appeals court ruled that it was unnecessary for a separate Tribunal to make a determination as to whether the captives' had been illegal combatants, that the Judges had the authority to make that determination themselves.

Consequently hearings were scheduled for December 2007 for Brownback and Allred to make the determination as to whether Khadr and Hamdan were illegal combatants.

Allred did determine that Hamdan was an illegal combatant who was eligible to be tried by a military commission.

However, Brownback postponed ruling on the legality of Khadr's status. 36 hours prior to Khadr's hearing, the Prosecution advised Khadr's defense of the existence of possibly exculpatory testimony.

The testimony of this witness was classified. The identity of this witness was classified. Commentators speculated as to whether the witness was a member of the US military, or whether he or she worked for another US Government agency. Khadr's attorneys would not be allowed to discuss the witness with Khadr, or the contents of their testimony.

A hearing was scheduled for February 4 2008, to allow attorneys to present arguments for and against Brownback ruling that Khadr had been an illegal combatant.

Because OC-1's testimony was one of the documents Brownback would be considering a version of it was scheduled to be included in the press package. Because OC-1's testimony was classified

Contents of OC-1's statement

On February 4 2008 a pre-trial hearing was convened for Canadian Omar Khadr. Khadr was captured following a skirmish in Afghanistan on July 27 2002. Khadr was one of the occupants of a compound that had been surrounded by US Special Forces and members of the Afghan Transitional Authority's Afghan Military Forces. Khadr and several other companions had been called on to come out and surrender. They declined. There was an exchange of gunfire. The Americans called for an aerial bombardment of the compound.

Accounts of the skirmish, prior to the accidental release of OC-1's statement quoted GIs who said they couldn't imagine anyone had survived the aerial bombardment, and that Khadr emerging to throw a grenade that mortally wounded Christopher Speer was completely unexpected.

OC-1's statement revealed that another of the compound's occupants survived the aerial bombardment.

OC-1's statement described the Americans who entered the ruins came under directed rifle fire in addition to having a grenade thrown at them.

According to OC-1's statement the rifle fire and grenade came from "an alley". According to his statement, he fired into the alley as he ducked for cover. According to his statement, when some dust cleared, he saw one of the survivors of the aerial bombardment lying on the ground next to an AK-47 rifle. This survivor was still moving, so he shot him in the head, killing him.

According to OC-1's statement, when more dust cleared, he saw a second figure, sitting upright, leaning against a bush, facing away from him. According to his statement he fired two rounds into this figure's back.