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.
During this period, Khadr worked with a number of charitable non-governmental organizations that served Afghan refugees and set up agricultural projects. as well as seven medical clinics in the Afghan refugee camps of Pakistan. The Canadian government had considered him to be the locally highest-ranking member of al-Qaeda. In 1999, the United Kingdom added Khadr's name to a list of al-Qaeda members compiled with the United Nations.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. Refusing to abandon his Western clothing, Khadr frequently took care of the children while Maha volunteered at the Red Crescent hospital.
In the autumn, the family returned to Peshawar, where Khadr met Ayman al-Zawahiri, 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. 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". Under Khadr's leadership, HCI built Hope Village in Akora Khattak to house 400 orphans, and a number of unemployed refugees were given work repairing damage at the Khost airfield.
thumb|left|An outdoor class being taught at Khadr's Hope Village orphanage.
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. 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.
thumb|Nosaiba bint Kaab, a school for girls that Khadr built and named after [[Nusaybah bint Ka'ab|a companion of the Prophet whom he admired.]]
Maintaining his connections with regional warlords, Khadr was furious at their in-fighting which he felt was invalidating the Mujahideen success in driving out the Soviets.
In Pakistan, Khadr renovated an abandoned building, which had previously used by the KhAD secret police, to be used for his charity, but once it was refurbished, the government announced they would re-take control of the building. An angry Khadr wrote a letter to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, complaining that he should be compensated for the money he spent in fixing the building.
Arrest, investigation and release
thumb|300px|Maha (Abdulkareem in arms), [[Omar Khadr|Omar, Zaynab, Abdurahman (facing camera) and Maryam (foreground) in an Islamabad hotelroom while Ahmed was in prison.]]
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, Two dozen Pakistani went to his house on November 27 at approximately 23:00, but he was still in Afghanistan and had been there since before the attacks. Maha barricaded the door, while the 15-year-old Zaynab took her father's rifle and held it over her head screaming. $29,000 in cash from the home. While he insisted the money was to pay the salaries of HCI workers, others alleged he had used HCI to launder money eventually used to finance the attack. His wife and children were released shortly after the raid, while his in-laws were held for a month before being released. although investigators conceded they "did not have much evidence" linking him to the bombing.
After being refused food for two days, Khadr announced he was launching a hunger strike, which led to his collapse on his fifth day He stated that his work consisted solely of charitable work to provide food and schooling to Afghan orphans.
As Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien happened to then be visiting Pakistan, he mentioned the matter to Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who promised "fair trial and fair treatment". Lacking evidence to suggest Khadr was involved in the bombing, Pakistan dropped their charges and released Khadr in March. Upon returning to Canada, Khadr kissed the ground.
Health & Education Projects International
thumb|Khadr's identity card from HEP
Trying to distance themselves from the controversy, HCI issued a statement in December, stating that Khadr and his colleague Helmy el-Sharief no longer worked for the organization. which was located in the Kart-e-Parwan district of Kabul and listed the Canadian Salahedin Mosque as a partner. American prosecutors have alleged the new group, while collecting $70,000 in donations, supported Afghan training camps. In July, Khadr met with bin Laden for the first time, as the latter was beginning construction on a large house.
In 1997, while living in the Pathan district of Peshawar, 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, He caved to the demands of his "problem child", Abdurahman, and purchased him a horse of his own.
thumb|left|250px|"[[HEPI concentrates its efforts on serving the vulnerable people of the Afghanistan, namely the orphans, widows and disabled... The price of one sheep is $100 Canadian, and the price for a share of cow is $45 Canadian"
Reports suggest that when Pakistani forces stormed the apartment of an Algerian named Abu Elias in Lahore, Khadr was actually present but was either not recognised by the troops, or allowed to leave.
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.
In January 2001, Khadr's name was added to a United Nations list of individuals who supported terrorism associated with Bin Laden.
Later that year, Egyptian forces surrounded Khadr's house in Peshawar, and requested that Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence forces offer assistance in capturing the man they still believed had knowledge of the embassy bombing in Islamabad. Instead, the ISI contacted the Taliban, who sent a diplomatic car to pick up Khadr and bring him into Afghanistan.
Sought by the United States
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" Three days later, the United States froze his assets.
The family fled Kabul the day before its fall to the Northern Alliance, and made a temporary home in the Logar orphanage the night of November 10. Maha and Ahmed returned however to gather their possessions. While packing, Kabul's walkie-talkie communications ring began reporting that the Taliban had been defeated and the city was being overrun. Running out to their car, they saw wounded men filtering into the streets. Tossing out their computer and a chair, the couple made room in their backseat for three men who had been injured in an explosion. They reached the Logar Hospital at 2am, but were told that only two of the men could be treated. Speeding off with the third, they continued to another nearby hospital but arrived to find their passenger had succumbed to his wounds. Returning to their children at the Logar orphanage, they were informed that Abdurahman had decided to take the truck to Kabul in their absence and spend the night with friends.
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.
When his second son, Abdurahman was taken prisoner by the Northern Alliance in November, 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. and Abdulkareem lay down in a ditch but was shot in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down.
Pakistan initially reported that Khadr had escaped hours before the raid. Other reports suggested that rumors of his death may have been staged to escape investigators. Early reports said that it was a joint American-Pakistani operation, while later reports denied American involvement.
thumb|Abdulkareem in 2004, after returning to Canada, built this mock-up of [[Disney's Black Pearl.]]
Reports said that 12 "al-Qaeda and Taliban members" were killed in the raid on the "armed encampment", including Hasan Mahsum, and that two al-Qaeda members had been captured. Three weeks after the attack, Pakistan was still reporting that he had escaped the raid and that they had been conducting house-to-house searches for him, although they spoke of having killed a "high-ranking" al-Qaeda member in the attack with a bounty on his head.
In late December, Maha had attorney Hashmat Ali Habib file a petition to the Supreme Court of Pakistan asking for details about whether her husband and son were killed or captured in the operation. Meanwhile, it was believed that the Saudi Sheikh Asadullah stepped up to fill the void left by Khadr's death
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.
Civil lawsuit
thumb|125px|Judge Paul Cassells
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.
Legacy
After his death, the media began referring to a "Khadr effect". The Prime Minister had intervened <!-- when? -->to ensure that Khadr got a fair trial, and the press said that he had intervened after Khadr's release. The suggestion was that politicians and the public were equally unwilling to lend any support or benefit of the doubt to the remaining family.
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 which emphasized his work as a relief worker. By July 2013, the website was replaced with a Japanese facial care website.
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."