Ahmed Saïd Khadr (; March 1, 1948 – October 2, 2003) was an Egyptian-Canadian with alleged ties to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His activity in Afghanistan began in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and he has been described as having had ties to a number of militants within the Afghan mujahideen, including Saudi militant Osama bin Laden. Khadr was accused by Canada and the United States of being a "senior associate" and financier of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.Thorne, Stephen. The Canadian Press. "Pakistan to release wounded Cdn", January 26, 2004Friscolanti, Michael (August 4, 2006). "The house of Khadr". Maclean's.
During this period, Khadr worked with a number of charitable non-governmental organizations that served Afghan refugees and set up agricultural projects. He set up two orphanages for children whose parents had been killed over the course of the decade-long Soviet–Afghan War. He funded the construction of Makkah Mukarama Hospital in Afghanistan with his own savings,Bell, Stewart (October 10, 2001)). "FBI hunts for 'The Canadian': Former Ottawa man appears on primary list of suspected bin Laden associates". National Post.Review of Book of 120 Martyrs in Afghanistan Bell, Stewart (January 24, 2004). "Khadrs Reveal Bin Laden Ties". National Post. as well as seven medical clinics in the Afghan refugee camps of Pakistan.
Due to his prominent regional role, Khadr helped negotiate compromises among rival Afghan warlords, power brokers, and leaders in order to establish peace in the region.Berger, J. M. (June 3, 2006). . Intelwire.com. The Canadian government had considered him to be the locally highest-ranking member of al-Qaeda."RCMP allege clips of Bin Laden's voice on confiscated laptop". Canada Free Press. (June 15, 2005). In 1999, the United Kingdom added Khadr's name to a list of al-Qaeda members compiled with the United Nations."Indepth: Khadr". CBC News.
Shortly after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, two of Khadr's sons were captured separately by American troops in 2002. They were later detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. Aged 15 at the time of his capture, Omar Khadr was among the youngest detainees at the camp, and the last citizen of a Western country (Canada) to be held there. Omar accepted a plea deal (which he later recanted) and pleaded guilty to charges of war crimes in October 2010; he was repatriated to Canada in 2012 to serve the remainder of his sentence and was released on bail in 2015.
On October 2, 2003, Khadr was killed by Pakistani security forces during a gunfight with al-Qaeda and Taliban militants near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. Following his death, his family members moved back to Canada, where they remain today.
Early life He was born in Egypt in 1948 to Mohamed Zaki Khadr and Munira Osman. Raised in Shubra El-Kheima, Khadr was a shy child with a speech impediment. He frequently stayed at the house of his much older half-brother Ahmed Fouad. When Fouad left for the United States in the early 1970s, Khadr asked his father if he could follow – but was forbidden. Planning the move behind his father's back, Khadr moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1975 at the age of 27.
After a few months in Montreal, Khadr moved to Toronto. He was accepted at the University of Ottawa to study Computer Programming. In Ottawa he met Qasem Mahmud, the founder of Camp Al-Mu-Mee-Neen in Creemore, Ontario. Khadr volunteered to help at the camp. There he met Maha el-Samnah, a Palestinian immigrant and volunteer. She was impressed by his calmness and thought he was a good listener. Mahmud later described their meeting as "love at first sight".
Marriage and family Ahmed and Maha married in November at Jami Mosque in Toronto. In May 1978, the couple moved to Ottawa so Ahmed could finish his studies. In 1979, Maha gave birth to their first child and daughter, Zaynab.
Khadr joined the Muslim Students Association at the university. He came to agree with their notions of Sharia law, and advocated Islamic rule for his native Egypt.
Khadr started working at Bell Northern Research, while writing his master's thesis, entitled Development of a CSSL interface to GASP IV.Bilkent University: Maha gave birth to their son Abdullah in 1981.
Career The following year, Khadr was offered a position at the Gulf Polytechnique University in Bahrain, where he hoped to become a professor. According to a biography published by al-Qaeda in 2008, he did not like living in Canada, so he accepted the position.
In 1982, Maha gave birth to Abdurahman, their third son. Disappointed to find Western influences in Bahrain, Khadr became interested in the struggle of Afghans as a result of the Soviet invasion. He wanted to help the Muslim widows and orphans in Afghanistan.
Through 1983 and 1984, the family lived in Bahrain while the children were in school. During the summer holidays, Khadr traveled to Pakistan. His wife took the three children to Scarborough, Canada, where they lived with her parents. Khadr told friends that he had no intentions of helping to fight the Soviets, only of helping the victims of the invasion.
Charitable work begins
During his 1984 summer in Pakistan, Khadr joined Lajnat al Dawa, a Kuwaiti-run relief organization to help Afghan refugees living in Pakistan after the Soviet invasion. He returned to Toronto in December with his family, to explain his decision to Maha's parents. After returning briefly to Bahrain, the family stopped in Kuwait to meet the charity's organizers. By January, they had settled in a second-floor apartment above the Kuwait Red Crescent Society's offices in Peshawar, Pakistan.
While in Pakistan, Khadr became known by the kunya Abu Abdurahman al-Kanadi (Father of Abdurahman, the Canadian), due to the community mistaking which of his sons was eldest. Refusing to abandon his Western clothing, Khadr frequently took care of the children while Maha volunteered at the Red Crescent hospital. During his time in Pakistan, Khadr met with the journalist Eric Margolis several times. He later said that Khadr was a "man of respect" in the city, and seemed "entirely humanitarian and not ideological at all".
The family returned to Canada several times a year, visiting relatives. Khadr conducted fundraising for his charitable work, giving speeches at mosques and community events. During one of the visits back to Toronto, on July 6, 1985, Maha gave birth to the couple's fourth child, Ibrahim. Diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, the boy was transferred to the city's Hospital for Sick Children for surgery.
Three months later, the family returned to Peshawar. That year, Khadr met Abdullah Anas, an Algerian who had helped fight the Soviets in northern Afghanistan. Anas would later describe Khadr as "not a man of fighting, not a man of jihad, just a man of charity work aid". He also became acquainted with Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the founder of the Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan and a mujahideen warlord, with whom Khadr would later nurture a close relationship.
Returning to Toronto in the summer of 1986, Ibrahim underwent more surgery. On September 19, Maha gave birth to another son, Omar. Six days later, the 39-year-old Khadr was featured in the Toronto Star, calling attention to the plight of Afghanistan. He condemned the Soviets for cluster bomblets and landmines disguised as colorful toys, attracting children who picked them up and sometimes lost limbs.Cahill, Jack. Toronto Star, "'Pretty toys' maiming Afghan kids", September 25, 1986
In the autumn, the family returned to Peshawar, where Khadr met Ayman al-Zawahiri, a doctor who had been convicted in Pakistan five years earlier for arms dealing. The doctor was then working in the Red Crescent hospital treating wounded refugees. The two quickly became friends, and had many conversations about the need for Islamic government and the needs of the Afghan people. At this time, the family was living in a "tiny" apartment on an $800 monthly allowance.
In 1987, Khadr convinced his wife to let her parents take care of their sickly son Ibrahim in Scarborough. He said she could help a hundred Afghan children in Peshawar if she sent him back for care. He often praised the bravery of the fighters in the Battle of Jaji to his children, but never suggested that he had participated.
In January 1988, Maha returned to Toronto with her youngest, Omar, to look after Ibrahim so her parents could visit relatives in the Middle East. Ibrahim became sick during the visit, and was rushed to the hospital. He was pronounced brain dead the following morning.
That year, Khadr joined Human Concern International full time; it was a Canadian-based charity operating in Peshawar with which he had been cooperating."National Post Apologizes to Human Concern International" , South Asia Partnership Canada, April 26, 2004 The charity had been investigated following a statement by Osama bin Laden that "The bin Laden Establishment's aid covers 13 countries ... this aid comes in particular from the Human Concern International Society".Burnett, et al. v. al Baraka Investment and Development Corp., et al., January 18, 2005, Findlaw Under Khadr's leadership, HCI built Hope Village in Akora Khattak to house 400 orphans,Boyle, Theresa (December 15, 1995). "Canadian held in Pakistan bombing: Worker's family 'going through hell'". Toronto Star.Human Concern International, "Rehabilitating and Reconstructing a Torn Land, Afghanistan" and a number of unemployed refugees were given work repairing damage at the Khost airfield. He gained the support of the World Food Programme, and a $325,000 donation from the Canadian International Development Agency.
Around this time in 1989, Khadr solicited aid from Canadian Doreen Wicks. She agreed to have her own charity send medical supplies to help the Afghan orphans.
Not long after, Anas spoke to Abdullah Azzam about the need to ensure Muslim help reached northern Afghanistan, and not just that of Western NGOs. Azzam appointed Khadr in charge of a new charity to be affiliated with the Muslim World League NGO. Khadr promised to help raise funds for a new Peshawar-based charity, to be named al-Tahaddi (The Challenge), if Azzam gave him an endorsement to help him appeal to Canadian mosques.
Citing a disagreement with Khadr, Abu Hassan al Madani and Enaam Arnaout led the Islamic Benevolence Committee to withhold its donation to al-Tahaddi, so Wael Julaydan met with Khadr on 19 October 1988 to discuss the financial shortfall and issues. Khadr and Julaydan signed a contract specifying the exact roles of personnel and funds in the group, but it appears Khadr didn't notice the clause that would allow a steering committee headed by Azzam to replace any administrative staff. Within days, Khadr received notice that he was being replaced just before his scheduled trip to Canada.
On November 2, unknown men assumed to be associated with Azzam broke into Khadr's Peshawar offices and seized documents, leading to the freezing of al-Tahaddi's accounts with Habib Bank and a shifting of the project's assets to a Saudi Red Crescent warehouse. When he returned to Peshawar, Khadr accused Azzam of "confiscating" the money he had raised, and spreading rumors that he was a Western spy by having faxed all of al-Tahaddi's associates with a list of accusations against Khadr and announcing new leadership.