Ahmed Khadr

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.

On February 7, 2008, the National Post reported that a biography of Khadr was published on an "al Qaeda web-site" as part of an on-line book entitled Book of 120 Martyrs in Afghanistan. Seven months later, his family launched The Khadr Legacy which emphasized his work as a relief worker. By July 2013, the website was replaced with a Japanese facial care website.

Sgt. Layne Morris and Sgt. Speer's widow Tabitha, both represented by Donald Winder, launched a joint civil suit against the estate of Khadr – claiming that the father's failure to control son Omar resulted in the loss of Speers' life and Morris' right eye. Since American law does not allow civil lawsuits against "acts of war", Speer and Morris relied on the argument that Omar throwing a grenade was an act of terrorism, rather than war. Utah District Judge Paul Cassell ruled on February 17, 2006, awarding C$102.6 million in damages, approximately C$94 million to Speer and C$8 million to Morris. He said this likely marked the first time terrorist acts have resulted in civil liabilities. The Salt Lake Tribune suggested that the plaintiffs might collect funds via the U.S. Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, but since the Federal government is not bound by civil rulings, it has refused to release Khadr's frozen assets.

It was finally reported in January, three months after the operation, that his DNA had been matched to a body found just outside the doorway and he was indeed killed in the attack, leading his family to request the return of his body for burial in Canada. Arab News reported that he had only been killed in January, following another Pakistani strike in Wana, after successfully escaping the October firefight. In Canadian Federal Court Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson's 2005 ruling rejecting Hassan Almrei's application for release, she quoted a confidential CSIS agent named only as P.G. as having testified about Khadr dying in 2004.

Khadr was killed on October 2, 2003, along with al-Qaeda and Taliban members, in a shootout by Pakistani security forces near the Afghanistan border. Following his death, his family members moved back to Canada, where they remain today.

In July 2003, the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress stated that Khadr's last known whereabouts were in Afghanistan in November 2001. Meanwhile, Khadr was asked to organise militants operating near the border of Shagai, Pakistan, and subsequently asked his son Abdullah and Hamza al-Jowfi to help him procure weapons. He clashed with Abdul Hadi al Iraqi, arguing that guerilla tactics would prove more useful than front line battle.

On October 2, 2003, Khadr, his son Abdulkareem, al-Jowfi, al-Iraqi, Khalid Habib and Qari Ismail were all staying at a South Waziristan safe house. The following day, after Fajr prayers, Khadr told his son that Pakistani troops had warned a raid was scheduled in the village, and told him to start preparing to leave the village together. However, a Pakistani helicopter team and hundreds of security forces attacked the village before the pair were able to depart, and Abdulkareem lay down in a ditch but was shot in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. The 17-year-old Khalid Murjan Salim was arrested at the scene, the son of alleged militant Murjan Salim, and extradited to Egypt shortly thereafter.

Two of his sons were captured separately by United States forces in Afghanistan in 2002, after their invasion in the fall of 2001 following the 9/11 attacks. The sons were detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Captured at the age of 15, Omar Khadr was among the youngest detainees at the camp, and the last Western citizen to be held there. He 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.

In 2002, Abul-Dahab confessed to Egyptian interrogators that he had funded the bombing of the Egyptian embassy on orders from bin Laden, and had transferred money from a Californian bank account to Pakistan to finance the attack.

Shortly afterwards, Bin Laden approached Khadr and asked him to join the Mujahideen Shura Council, organising the retreat of families from the Northern Alliance onslaught, to the relative safety of the Pakistan border. In April 2002 it was believed that he had fled Nangarhar to Paktia, along with Mullah Kabir. He was noted for maintaining a close relationship with Maulvi Nazir.

Khadr's Canadian property was raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as part of Project O Canada in January 2002. There was also reference to a "seized photograph" that showed Khadr standing alongside an anti-aircraft gun along with anti-Soviet mujahideen.

In January 2001, Khadr's name was added to a United Nations list of individuals who supported terrorism associated with Bin Laden.

Immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States found Khadr's name while "seeking anyone they believe might be linked to bin Laden" and issued a statement that he was "wanted in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks", and on October 10 listed him as a "primary suspect". Three days later, the United States froze his assets.

Khadr remains a controversial figure. Canadian attorney Dennis Edney, lawyer for the Khadr family, has challenged the assumption that Khadr was a member of al-Qaeda, saying in 2001 that he was "really interested in obtaining one piece of evidence that would show indeed that Mr. Khadr was actually a terrorist. To me, it's just folklore." Khadr's imam in Canada, Ali Hindy, spoke after his death, saying "I don't think that he was al-Qaeda, but I think he felt that now he became part of Afghanistan." His friends described him as being "proud of [being a] Canadian citizen". Some politicians and media have suggested that he disliked the country.

Due to his prominent regional role, Khadr helped negotiate compromises among rival warlords, power brokers and leaders to establish peace in the region. The Canadian government had considered him to be that country's highest-ranking member of al-Qaeda. In 1999, the United Kingdom added Khadr's name to a United Nations list of al-Qaeda members.

In 1999, Khadr met with bin Laden again to try to mitigate hostilities between bin Laden, the Taliban and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom Ahmed had recently met in Iran. That year, the United Kingdom submit his name to be put on a United Nations list of individuals believed to finance terrorism, but refused to share any evidence with Canadian officials. He was subsequently sanctioned, and UN states were forbidden from commerce with him.

In May 1998, Essam Marzouk and Mohammed Zeki Mahjoub were also introduced to each other at the home of Khadr's in-laws while he was in Toronto. Also that year, Mahmoud Jaballah met Khadr, having invited him to share a cup of tea and discuss their mutual experiences in Peshawar, Pakistan, after Khadr's mother-in-law took his wife grocery shopping. At some point, Mohammad Harkat met Khadr in Ottawa and the two of them shared a van back to Toronto. Harkat claims that he met Khadr through his roommate Mohamed El Barseigy, and that Khadr was silent during most of the trip, and his only advice to Harkat was "tell the truth to immigration authorities". Harkat and Jaballah would both later be jailed on security certificates which cited their contact with Khadr as a factor in their detention.

In June 1998, the family moved into Nazim Jihad while Ahmed was away; but were only there a short time before bin Laden moved and didn't invite the family to accompany him. He caved to the demands of his "problem child", Abdurahman, and purchased him a horse of his own.

In 1997, while living in the Pathan district of Peshawar, Khadr began visiting Nazim Jihad, bin Laden's family home in Jalalabad. In September, the Khadrs moved into a three-room house owned by Zaffar Rehman, to whom they paid $100 monthly rent. At an unspecified time during his life in Pakistan, Khadr made use of his master's degree and provided computer training and systems "for the government employees from 14 departments".

When Mohamad Elzahabi was injured in a 1995 battle in Kabul, Khadr visited him the Peshawar hospital.

In July 1995, Khadr arranged for his daughter Zaynab to marry an Egyptian man named Khalid Abdullah, "an Egyptian guest of the Taliban" from the Sudan, in December, and Maha began preparing an apartment for the couple in the family's house. Abdullah lived with the family for two months, "like a trial engagement".

Before leaving for Tajikistan in 1994, a young Ibn Al-Khattab gave Abdulkareem a rabbit, which was named Khattab. The rabbit's legs were injured during rough play with his youngest daughter Maryam, and the crippled Ahmed would often sit in the backyard, crying over it.

In 1994, he sent his two oldest sons, Abdullah and Abdurahman, to Khalden training camp. He visited the camp once after they started there, to meet with Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi.

In the autumn of 1993, Khadr returned to Pakistan with his family, renting a comfortable house with its own garden in Hayatabad while he continued working with HCI despite his injuries. Without the use of his right hand and walking with a limp, Khadr found his injuries frustrating.

In 1992, Khadr sustained severe shrapnel wounds which tore apart his right side, puncturing his bladder and a kidney. The exact cause of the wounds is debated, Human Concern International maintains that Khadr was inside one of their refugee camps when he stepped on a landmine, while his son Abdurahman has said that he was hurt by a bomb during the ongoing battles between warlords.

In September 1991, Khadr gave a fundraising lecture entitled Afghanistan: The Untold Story at the Markham Islamic Centre. He described the suffering of the widows and orphans, but emphasized the valor of the mujahideen who had repelled the Soviets. They had been supported by the United States at the time.

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.

Khadr demanded a Sharia court be convened to mediate the matter, and sought Sheikh Rabbani, Sheikh Sayyaf, Yunus Khalis or Gulbuddin Hekmatyra to arbitrate. It was ultimately led by Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif and Abu Hajjer al-Iraqi in Osama bin Laden's compound on December 26, and Azzam was found guilty in absentia of spreading allegations against Khadr and ordered to return the money to the charity for which it had been raised, and to return Khadr as director of the charity. No further sentence was imposed, although Azzam refused to comply with the Court Order which aggrieved al-Sharif who later published a book in which he characterizes Azzam as having rejected the sharia by his default, although Ayman al-Zawahiri later wrote a piece in which he criticised al-Sharif for being too quick to judge Azzam's intentions and reminding readers that both parties were noble mujahideen. When Azzam was killed in 1989, Khadr was among the mourners at his funeral.

In 1989, Maha gave birth to a fifth son, Abdulkareem. Eight months after the end of the Soviet invasion, Khadr was profiled in the Toronto Star newspaper, pleading for Western aid to help Afghanistan rebuild; he noted the nation had the highest child mortality rate in the world. Around this time, he began to adopt the kurta and pakul associated with the Mujahideen, giving up Western clothing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Khadr started working at Bell Northern Research, while writing his masters thesis, entitled Development of a CSSL interface to GASP IV. Maha gave birth to their son Abdullah in 1981.

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 in the Soviet invasion of the 1980s. He funded the construction of Makkah Mukarama Hospital in Afghanistan with his own savings, as well as seven medical clinics in the refugee camps of Pakistan.

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.

Ahmed Said Khadr (Arabic: أحمد سعيد خضر; March 1, 1948 – October 2, 2003) was a Canadian citizen who began working in Afghanistan in the 1980s. There he has been described as having had ties to a number of militant and Mujahideen leaders in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda. Khadr was accused by Canada and the United States of being a "senior associate" and financier of al-Qaeda.

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.