Abdurahman Khadr (born 1983) is a Canadian citizen who was held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan and supposedly having connection to Al-Queda.
While much of Khadr's family is Canadian, he himself has only spent two years of his life in Canada. Born in Bahrain he has lived in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Scarborough. While in Afghanistan he attended the Khalden training camp a facility closely linked with Al-Queda. Khadr argues that when he attended in 1998 he was doing so merely because his father was strong supporter of the Taliban and he was doing what any loyal son and Afghani would do. He claims to have never received anything besides the most basic combat training, and views his experience as a "waste of time."
In November of 2001 he was arrested in Kabul and handed over to American authorities who flew him to Cuba. After many months of detention and interrogation he was returned to Afghanistan in 2003 after no links to terrorism or Al-Queda could be found.
The story of Khadr's release and subsequent treatment is a murky one. The United States claims that he was returned in July, Khadr says he arrived in November. Khadr states that he attempted to approach Canadian embassies in various nations and was rebuffed at all of them. He finally gained admittance to the Canadian embassy in Bosnia and was flown back to Canada from there on November 30.
See also: Maher Arar
