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C B C . C A N e w s - F u l l S t o r y : CIA paid me to spy: Abdurahman Khadr Last Updated Fri, 05 Mar 2004 0:35:04
TORONTO -
A Canadian man who says his family was connected to Osama bin Laden and
al-Qaeda says he spent months working for the CIA as an informant.
Abdurahman Khadr made the comments Thursday in a documentary aired on
CBC's The National.
In the first part of the documentary, aired on Wednesday, Abdurahman
told CBC his father was old friends with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden, and that he and his brothers attended terrorist training camps in
Afghanistan.
Abdurahman says he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan when the
Taliban fell in November 2001. He lived in a CIA safehouse in Kabul for
months, showing intelligence agents al-Qaeda locations around the city.
"There was this tour. They called it Abdurahman tour," he said. "I was
famous for that."
Abdurahman says the CIA sent him to Camp X-ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
to spy on other inmates. When that failed, he says he was sent to Bosnia
on the CIA's payroll to spy on suspected al-Qaeda members.
"You see how much people are working with them, what they're doing.
They're buying weapons, they're selling weapons, they're recruiting
people. You know, information, just any information at all," said
Abdurahman.
When he asked to return to Canada, Abdurahman says the CIA dropped him
off at the Canadian embassy in Sarajevo after making him promise to keep
his CIA activities secret.
Aly Hindy, a Toronto imam and friend of the Khadr family, says he is
appalled by what he has seen on the documentary. He hopes there isn't a
backlash against Canada's Muslim community.
"It's very damaging for the family. I don't see how they could come back
to Canada," said Hindy. "It's also damaging for all the people who
supported them."
Some opposition politicians say the family shouldn't have the chance to
return. Conservative MP Stockwell Day says the remaining Khadr family
members should be barred from Canada.
"We have to signal to our allies that we are serious about fighting the
war against terrorism and we will not put political considerations
first. We'll put safety and security first," said Day.
Prime Minister Paul Martin says it's confidential whether Canadian
intelligence agencies knew about the Khadr family's terrorist
connections, but says it's a good example of why Canada is investing
more in intelligence.
"[The] reason we created a new ministry of Public Safety [and Emergency
Preparedness] is an indication of our response to the world in which we
now live," said Martin. "We have focused on a border strategy, and
greater funding of intelligence."
Abdurahman's mother, Maha, sister, Zaynab, and younger brother, Karim,
are in Pakistan, living on handouts from friends. His brother Abdullah
is believed hiding in Pakistan and brother Omar is a prisoner at
Guantanamo Bay. His father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was killed in an October
2003 shootout in Pakistan.
Written by CBC News Online staff
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