TORONTO -- A Canadian whose family has strong ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network pleaded with the federal government Friday to help his paralysed 14-year-old brother return to Canada from Pakistan.
Abdurahman Khadr, 21, described his brother Karim, who was badly injured in a clash with security forces that killed their father, as an innocent victim.
"As a child, forget what his father or his mother thinks," Khadr said at a news conference.
"As just a child, a Canadian child, I think he needs help."
Karim has been in a hospital in Pakistan since the shootout last October.
Khadr, who lives in Toronto, also pleaded with the Canadian government to ensure his mother and sister, who have expressed sympathy for al-Qaida, are able to return from Pakistan.
He said he worries they are under the spell of Muslim extremists and need to be away from them.
The Canadian government has denied them passports because they have repeatedly lost previous ones.
"My mother and my sister, they haven't done anything and I'm trying to save them before they do something," he said, noting they may try to travel illegally. [Mama Khadr helped raise a family of terrorists. The daughter, mother of children whom she would be happy to see become sahids or jihadists is a vocal spokesman for the right thinking of her family. She was quite happy to see Americans killed. Why would we want them here to help raise and create more little terrorists? NJC]
"That's why I want them to come back to Canada - to be away from that influence of al-Qaida."
[. . . .] Some facts:
Abdullah Khadr: Age 23. Whereabouts unknown but believed to be somewhere in Afghanistan.
Omar Khadr: Age 17. Held almost two years by the Americans in Guantanamo Bay.
Karim Khadr: Age 14. In hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Paralysed from the waist down in shootout with security forces last October.
Abdurahman Khadr: Age 21. Lives in Toronto. Returned to Canada last fall.
Zaynab Khadr (sister) and Maha Elsamna (mother): Living in Islamabad. Have previously refused assistance to return to Canada.
Paul Martin, if you and your government bring these people back to Canada, you are definitely going down to defeat in the next election. I suspect you are anyway, but this would cap it. Furthermore, you'd better get rid of the terrorists among us, as well. NJC
TORONTO - [. . . . ] Abdurahman Khadr, 21, a Canadian who was trained by al-Qaeda but says he later cooperated with the CIA, gave his impression of the elusive terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri at a news conference.
"I met him three times only, with my father," Mr. Khadr told reporters. "He's a very quiet type, as it seems. He's a mysterious person in al-Qaeda and that's as much as I know about him. I haven't seen him for almost two years and a half now."
He said al-Zawahiri was a friend of his father, Ahmed Khadr, a Canadian who went to the region in the 1980s to do aid work, and that both men shared a deep conviction in the al-Qaeda cause.
[. . . . ] At a hotel in downtown Toronto, Mr. Khadr pleaded with the federal government to help bring his family back to Canada, particularly his 14-year-old brother, Karim, who was injured in a shootout with Pakistani soldiers.
"He's in hospital [in Pakistan] and paralyzed. Karim has been through a lot and I think that he should be brought back to Canada," Mr. Khadr said, adding doctors had indicated he might walk again with proper medical treatment.
With all the Canadians who need medical treatment, this kid should concern us at all? Give me a cottin pickin' break! Let him be treated by Al Qaeda. NJC
He also said Ottawa should be doing more to help his brother Omar, who is detained by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay after he was captured following a deadly firefight in Afghanistan.
"I'm pleading with the Canadian government to do more for him to be released, and the rest of my family," he said.
Although his sister and mother condoned suicide bombings in a CBC television interview recently, Mr. Khadr said Canadians should understand they are under the influence of al-Qaeda.
"I'm just saying that my family deserves one last chance. And it's just the life they've been dragged into by my father -- was the life where you had to hate an American to be part of it."
He said he believes his family members would soften their views once they returned to Canada.
Give me one good reason Canadians should give a hoot about the remainder of the Khadr family. Don't pull that "They are Canadians" crap with me! They are not. They gave that up years ago. Let the Palestinians look after the Palestinian mama -- if she has no where else to go. NJC
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said the Khadrs are free to return to Canada at any time but they will have to pay their own way and the high commission in Islamabad will give them temporary travel permits rather than passports.
"What I'm saying is give them a chance to come back to Canada," Mr. Khadr said, standing with his lawyer.
"For Omar, I don't want you to let him go on the street, I want you to take him to court. Even the Americans are OK with me but I trust the Canadian court more, so I would want him to be tried here in Canada.
Of course, this young man knows our courts. Need one say more?
