Omar Khadr: The Youngest Terrorist?

From the Frontline interview of Abdurham Khadr, older brother of Omar.

This is real inside stuff.

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[”When you were going to these camps, was there ever a time that you kind of believed in bin Laden and believed in the Al Qaeda organization?]

The day I really believed in it was the day we were bombed in the training camp. All these people were killed and we were up on the mountain with guns, and we were just waiting for American soldiers to come down the mountain. I was like just waiting for them, “we’re going to shoot as much of them as we can,” you know? We’ve been bombed and we felt that, you know, we wanted them to come. We wanted a fight, you know.

Al Qaeda always wanted them to come and that’s why the biggest wish of Al Qaeda after Sept. 11 was that American troops attack Afghanistan. That was their biggest wish. They knew when it would be bombs, but their biggest wish was like they were like wishing America, begging America to send troops, you know, ground troops.

[Why?]

Because they wanted to have an American to kill, an American to kill them, because kill an American, good thing. Get killed by an American, you’re a shaheed, you know, a martyr in Islam. So they really wanted it.

[And you believed in that for a while?]

At that very point, I was so frustrated. That was the day I really hated Americans, that day when we were bombed.

[In terms of the religious training that you got in Al Qaeda camps or around your father, how [did] they regard non-believers and the duty to fight and jihad?]

In Islam, there is a saying by the prophet that there will always be a group of Muslims, very little, but these are going to be the group of Allah. These group are always going to fight for Islam. There’s always going to be this group. They’re going to be very little, very disgraced by people, everybody [will] try to kill them. But if you are with this group, this is the group that will go straight to [paradise]. This is the right group, if you’re around that time, try to get to that group.

So they believed they were that group of people. They believed that they’re on the right way, what they’re doing is right and any Muslim in his right mind should get into this group.

[And you believed that at some point?]

Yes. Some days, I just believed that, you know, this is the right path and I’m with the right people and I should really do this.

But you know, at no point did I believe in suicide bombing. Two or three times, I’m not sure, but two times, I’m sure now, my father himself tried to get me to become a suicide bomber. He sat me down with the Al Qaeda scholar, he sat me down with the person to train people to become suicide bombers.

He sat me down with these two people and tried to convince me to become a suicide bomber. He’s like, you know, you’d be our pride in this family, you’d be our pride if you do this. But I was totally against it. I was like, I believe in fighting, you know, someone on the ground and he shoots me and I shoot him. But I don’t believe in blowing myself up, killing innocent people. I don’t. I just don’t believe in that. …

[How do you look back at your father doing that to you?]

Well, I just see that he really believed in it. And he wanted me to believe in it too.

[Did your father ever tell you, if you threaten this family or if you threaten this organization, you’ll have to die?]

My father always considered me the cancer in their body, and that’s why he kicked me out of the house more than once. He said “you are like the cancer in this house. And I have to cut you out right now or you’re going to infect the rest of the family.”

He always referred to me like this. This is what I told the people I worked with in the CIA too. He always referred to me as like cancer in a body. That “you are the one that smokes, drinks, wants to, you know, work his own mind and you’re going to make your brothers like this. So I don’t want to keep you because I want your brothers to be good Muslims and all.” …

[What was your reaction when you found out about the African embassy bombings?]

We found out the same day, right when it happened. I was in the guesthouse and people started talking, you know, there was two bombings. And like in four or five hours, there’s a video. Someone … puts it on the big TV in the guesthouse so everybody can watch it. So we found out right away.

[What was your reaction?]

I thought it was horrible. … Those Africans or whatever they were, they weren’t even Muslims. They were innocent people. I didn’t think they had any right to kill all those people.

[So most everybody else was celebrating?]

Yeah, everybody was celebrating. It’s a hit to America even if another thousand people, innocent people, got killed. It’s just “we hit America, that’s it. That’s all that matters.” …

We were sitting in a guesthouse and the leader of the guesthouse went outside and brought juice for like everybody. Jugs and jugs of juice, just giving it out. Celebrate, everybody. And people were even making jokes that we should do this more often. You know, we’d get free juice.

[Would you argue about [Al Qaeda attacks] with your father?]

Oh yeah, I argued about it, about this and about Sept. 11. We talked about it a lot. So when I saw the video [of the Sept. 11 attacks], I was like looking at it and all and everybody was smiling, laughing. I was just looking at it, you know.

I saw this person jumping out of the building, you know, committing suicide, from the building because of what he’s going through. And I didn’t think it was funny, you know. I didn’t think it was smart. I was like more thinking about it, what was going through that person’s mind when he did it, you know?

And so my father was like, “what’s your problem?” I said “I don’t know, this was not right, you know. I don’t think this was right and this going to cause a lot of trouble.” He’s like “well, you know, we hit America.”

I was like “well, you hit so much people that were in that building that didn’t have anything to do.” “Well they pay taxes and taxes get guns and the guns kill Muslims. We’re hitting the American economy and there is collateral damage.” I just didn’t understand it. They explained it in 100 ways. I couldn’t understand it.”

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This whole Frontline piece is a MUST READ, if you haven’t.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/khadr/art/i1.gif

I don’t think they’re gonna quit .. we will be fighting these monsters for many years. God protect our troops and us.

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