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| Great White North |
| Khadr the Younger's been turned |
| 2004-07-15 |
| A former Guantanamo Bay detainee has appeared in a Montreal court to testify that he knows precisely who in Canada has attended al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. If found credible, Abdurahman Khadr's assertion could throw a wrench into one of the government's national-security cases. Mr. Khadr, 21, has publicly renounced the views of his extremist Islamic family, who moved from Canada to Afghanistan in his childhood. He has been in court to fight a federal government decision to deny him a passport on national-security grounds. But at a bail hearing for Adil Charkaoui in Federal Court in Montreal on Tuesday, Mr. Khadr presented himself as an authority on Canadians who have taken weapons and explosives training in Afghanistan. He said he saw Mr. Charkaoui for the first time in court this week. The government has presented evidence that says captured al-Qaeda figures have identified Mr. Charkaoui as an Afghanistan-trained operative. The 30-year-old Moroccan immigrant is accused of training in Afghanistan in 1998, three years after coming to Canada. Last year, the government jailed him and, deeming him a threat to Canada's national security, initiated deportation proceedings. Mr. Charkaoui's supporters, who say they asked Mr. Khadr to testify after learning about his life story through media reports, regard his testimony as a coup. "He made a very good case about why he would have known people who came from Canada to train," said Mary Foster, a member of the group called Coalition for Justice for Adil Charkaoui. She said he spoke of how the Khadrs made a point of meeting the few Canadians who entered the tightly knit networks in Afghanistan. Mr. Khadr, who has spoken of his terror-camp training, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Ms. Foster said the government is trying to counter Mr. Khadr's testimony by attacking his credibility. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |