Posted on 11/30/2003 10:00:48 PM PST by Destro
Updated Sun. Nov. 30 2003 11:51 PM ET
Terrorist suspect Khadr back in Canada: report
CTV.ca News Staff
A Canadian terror suspect whose whereabouts had been in question following his release by U.S. authorities is back home, according to reports. Abdul Rahman Khadr is believed to have arrived in Canada early Sunday.
Khadr, 20, was reportedly given a special permit to return home after walking into the Canadian Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia last week.
A consular official accompanied Khadr, a Canadian citizen, on his trip to Toronto.
Khadr was held without charges at the American base at Guantanamo Bay as a terrorist suspect and was secretly released last month.
He was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan nearly two years ago on suspicion of being an al Qaeda fighter.
Khadr reportedly said that after he was released by U.S. authorities, they refused to take him to Canada and instead dropped him in Afghanistan. He had no Canadian or money.
He said he borrowed money from friends and went to the Canadian High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan looking for help, but they turned him away because he had no way to identify himself.
Khadr then went to Iran and Turkey before arriving late last week in Bosnia.
His family insisted Khadr had been trying to get back to Canada, but Ottawa said there was no truth to claims he'd been turned away by Canadian officials in Pakistan and Turkey.
The Islamic terror highway into Europe from Afghanistan-Iran-Turkey-Bosnia is illuminating.
If he had no money how was he able to travel the distance? Did his money source dry up upon reaching Bosnia? Why Bosnia and not the UK? Cyprus? - members of the Commonwealth and all....
Mike Blanchfield
The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA -- Abdulrahman Khadr, a Canadian who has been detained by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay as a suspected terrorist, likely asked to go back to Afghanistan and has no interest in returning to Canada -- despite claims to the contrary by his grandmother, says a well-placed source.
And the Pentagon's version of events -- that Khadr was released in July -- is likely true, and consistent with the U.S. government's approach of keeping foreign governments in the dark about what goes on in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said the source.
"It's conceivable that he was released in July when you look at his travel pattern. He's been out for some time, if he's gone from Afghanistan, to Pakistan, to Turkey and now in Serbia. That's a fair bit of travel. In four months you can do that sort of thing," said the source.
The mystery surrounding the circumstances of Khadr's release deepened this week with allegations from his family that the government is trying to block his return to Canada, and new developments in the U.S. that suggest the 20-year-old may have been released months ago.
Earlier this week, a Pentagon official who briefed Canadian reporters in Washington said Khadr was likely among 27 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay on July 18.
The Canadian government was not informed until a few weeks ago that Khadr had been released.
Khadr's grandmother, who lives in Toronto, also complained this week that the Canadian embassies in Turkey and Pakistan have blocked Khadr's attempts to travel back to Canada. Foreign affairs denies the allegation, saying Khadr has not contacted its embassies, and if he had, he would have been given full assistance.
The source suggested the concerns of Khadr's family in Canada might be unfounded.
"I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he asked to go back to Afghanistan," said the source.
Khadr has family members living in the area, the source added, including a sister and brother in Pakistan.
"I think there's a miscommunication in terms of what Abdulrahman is saying to the grandmother."
Khadr was born in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain but is a Canadian citizen.
Though there appears to be no direct evidence linking him to terrorism, Khadr comes from a family with more than its share of alleged ties to terrorist activities.
His father is Ahmed Siad Khadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian citizen whom Canadian and U.S. intelligence believe is an associate of al-Qaida terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden. His younger brother, Omar, 17, is still being held in Guantanamo Bay and has been accused of tossing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan last year. His older brother, Abdullah, ran an extremist training camp in Afghanistan, says Canada's spy agency, CSIS.
"We've always insisted that he has the right to return. If he showed up at any embassy, any mission anywhere in the world, we would provide him with all the documentation to return home," Jim Munson, Prime Minister Jean Chretien's director of communications, said Thursday. "For national security reasons we can't comment."
© Copyright 2003 Vancouver Sun
An associate of Bin Laden so close to our shores-how pleasent.
His release was a mistake.
Maybe they inserted a homing chip in his butt.
Me? I'd do it just to make more work for Chretien's government.
Maybe they were hoping he'd try to attack the Canadian troops there, although I recall Canadian snipers know what
they are doing, and do it quite well.
Or he'd approach Canadian troops with the story he was Canadian, just out of Gitmo, er, Cuba, and the damn Yanks
dropped him there instead of the nearest US/Canada border crossing.
IIRC, Afghanistan gets first crack at them (unless arrangements were made with other governments), since they are usually locked up immediately, pending a review of the threat they
pose to the current Afghan government.
Most are released in about 5 days.
Why this guy back to Afghanistan? Bush wasn't taking Chretien's calls at the time. Favor to the Canadians.
Too much contact with the military's "Islamic" chaplains. Guy was a real clymer at Gitmo.
Or he really wanted to go back.
Then he realized what the West offers that most Islamic countries can't or won't, and he changed his mind, and is
afraid to admit it..
The Islamic terror highway into Europe from Afghanistan-Iran-Turkey-Bosnia is illuminating.
Asked and answered.
His father is Ahmed Siad Khadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian citizen whom Canadian and U.S. intelligence believe is an associate of al-Qaida terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden. His younger brother, Omar, 17, is still being held in Guantanamo Bay and has been accused of tossing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan last year. His older brother, Abdullah, ran an extremist training camp in Afghanistan, says Canada's spy agency, CSIS.
And then there were the two "Canadians" killed by authorities in Pakistan in September(?) in some shootout.
He was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan nearly two years ago on suspicion of being an al Qaeda fighter.
Khadr reportedly said that after he was released by U.S. authorities, they refused to take him to Canada and instead dropped him in Afghanistan. He had no Canadian or money
What the hell kind of deals are we making?! Why was he secretly released. What are we doing about Canada?!
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