Edney, Dennis - short clip - ConnectingWithOmar
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | So that was Omar Khadr. | 0:00 |
And how did I communicate with him? | 0:02 | |
I spoke at him. | 0:06 | |
As a Scot, I'm not shy in talking. | 0:08 | |
And he wouldn't answer me. | 0:12 | |
He just sat there and looked at me. | 0:13 | |
And I talked to him, and we had two days. | 0:17 | |
I talked at him, | 0:20 | |
and I wasn't getting anywhere. | 0:23 | |
And the story I tell was at some point, I thought, | 0:26 | |
"I'm gonna be leaving here, | 0:31 | |
"having failed to reach this young boy." | 0:33 | |
And I remember pulling out my wallet, | 0:36 | |
and you know, it was fascinating | 0:39 | |
that I was allowed to come in with my wallet. | 0:42 | |
And my wallet then was attractive to him, | 0:45 | |
because he had never, he had nothing. | 0:49 | |
He had no materials before him, | 0:50 | |
his life was in a vacuum in that cell. | 0:52 | |
And so I pulled out some hockey pictures | 0:57 | |
of my youngest boy, Duncan. | 1:00 | |
And I passed it to him. | 1:02 | |
And he took it, and he started feeling the paper. | 1:04 | |
Just liked the feel of the paper. | 1:07 | |
And it was at that point in time, | 1:10 | |
that Omar Khadr decided to speak to me. | 1:13 | |
Now, I've told that story a number of times, | 1:17 | |
at least not for a long time, | 1:19 | |
but I've told that a number of times in the past. | 1:21 | |
And I'm sure the audience thinks, | 1:28 | |
"What a wonderful man. | 1:29 | |
"He was able to reach this young boy." | 1:31 | |
I don't see it that way. | 1:35 | |
I don't see that I brought him, gave him anything good. | 1:38 | |
He may have been better | 1:41 | |
to remain in the recesses of his mind | 1:43 | |
than to face the reality, the everyday reality, | 1:46 | |
of what Guantanamo Bay consists of. | 1:49 | |
He's now 25 years of age. | 1:53 | |
So when we talk about Rasul and Bush, | 1:57 | |
and I pontificate about my landmark legal challenges. | 1:59 | |
What have I done? | 2:03 | |
It's that French expression. | 2:05 | |
The more things change, the more things stay the same. | 2:07 | |
We're still at the same spot we were in 2004. | 2:10 | |
And he's still in Guantanamo. | 2:13 | |
And there are about 170 detainees still there. | 2:15 |
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