Canada's role in terror case is questioned

[seemslikeadream]

MICHELLE SHEPHARD
STAFF REPORTER

An older brother of the only Canadian terrorism suspect held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is reportedly also in U.S. custody after Canadian officials refused to take him, his lawyer says.

Dennis Edney said he was told Abdullah Khadr was arrested Oct. 15 in Pakistan and questioned for several weeks by Pakistani authorities before being handed over to the FBI. The Edmonton lawyer said he was told Pakistani officials offered to turn Khadr over to Canada, but were referred instead to the FBI.

"This offer was refused by your officials," Edney wrote in a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew. "Please advise on what basis you refused to recognize Mr. Khadr's status?"

For months there have been rumours that Khadr, the eldest son of accused Al Qaeda financier Ahmed Said Khadr, who was killed in a battle with Pakistani forces in 2003, is in U.S. custody. Last November, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said it was trying to determine if a Canadian citizen has been arrested in Pakistan and was facing terrorism allegations.

Last February, a Taliban spokesperson told a French newswire service that Khadr was the suicide bomber who killed a Canadian soldier a month earlier. He came out of hiding to meet a CBC television crew to proclaim his innocence after hearing of the report.
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[Spazito]

1. This should trigger an inquiry such as is taking place with the Arar

case, imo. It is inexcusable, if true, that the Canadian government is in any way complicit in the illegal detention of a Canadian by refusing to deal with the issue and, instead, referring the fate of a Canadian to the FBI!