When Omar Khadr, seen here when he was nine years old, lived with his family in Pakistan, his father Ahmed was being held by Pakistani authorities. Khadr met Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who was visiting Pakistan in January 1996. Chrétien asked Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to ensure Ahmed received a fair trial.Why, how nice of that nice Prime Minister Chretien to help that nice Khadr family during its, er, difficulties with Pakistani authorities.
The truth, of course, is far less anodyne (the Ceeb wrote it up here):
Ahmed Said Khadr's wife and some of their children came to Chrétien's hotel in Islamabad to plead the case of her husband. The oldest son, Abdullah, who was 15 at the time, remembers his encounter with the Canadian prime minister.
"He told me that 'once I was a son of a farmer, and I became prime minister. Maybe one day you will become one.' That was a nice compliment."Rather puts things in a completely different light, no?
Jean Chrétien raised the Khadr case with the Pakistani prime minister at the time, Benazir Bhutto, and within weeks, Ahmed Said Khadr was released. He resumed his life, which he claimed was devoted to charity work in Afghanistan.
He raised money in Canada that he said he was using to provide food and schooling to Afghan orphans.
U.S. and Canadian Intelligence sources, however, identified Ahmed Said Khadr as a close associate of Osama bin Laden.
Now for the first time, members of the Khadr family admit that bin Laden and Ahmed Said Khadr were old friends. They fought together during the Afghanistan war in the 1980s.
It's always been known that the people who fought the US and allies in the current Afghan war are the same people, or similar, who fought the Soviets in their Afghan war, and fought each other in between.
ReplyDeleteKhadr's father's involvement in the cause against the Soviets is why he brought his family to live in/near Afghanistan when Omar was about 4. It's why the Khadr father used to be considered a hero before he was considered a possible terrorism supporter. Same beliefs, different side.
When Khadr's father was arrested, Canada says what it always does, give him a fair trial. The Pakistanis made their own decision to let him go without any trial.
Omar's father believed that it was right to fight the invading US same as they fought the invading Soviet Union and taught his son that. Like most 15 year olds, Omar accepted his father's beliefs on that sort of thing.
So Omar ended up fighting the Americans when he was 15. This is no reason for all the mindless hatred against him just because we don't agree with his father's views. People should look objectively at this case. If the US says after having him in prison for years that he isn't dangerous and agrees to release him, we should be willing to have our own authorities make a similar judgement and not be stuck in some bog of irrational hate and lynch mentality.