Suspected terrorist admits buying weapons for use against U.S.
TORONTO (AP) - A man accused of purchasing weapons for al-Qaida confessed that he bought the firearms for use against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
In an affidavit submitted to the Superior Court of Justice, Abdullah Khadr admitted having ties to senior al-Qaida members, purchasing guns and rocket launchers, and participating in a plot to assassinate a Pakistani government official, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Konrad Shourie.
Khadr, 24, the eldest son of an accused al-Qaida financier, was arrested in his family's Toronto apartment on a U.S. warrant weeks after returning to Canada from more than a year of detention in Pakistan, officials said.
He was scheduled to appear at a bail hearing here on Monday and faces extradition to the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston, where the charges were filed. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan declined to comment Monday on why the charges were filed in Boston.
Typically, a suspect has some ties to the jurisdiction where charges are filed, but it could be something as minor as doing business with a local bank.
In the affidavit, Gregory T. Hughes, an FBI agent assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston, said Khadr's alleged crimes took place outside any state or district of the United States, but "within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the United States."
He allegedly bought explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and other munitions for al-Qaida at the request of his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian who was killed in a 2003 battle with Pakistani forces.
Abdullah Khadr had been held in Pakistan since Oct. 12, 2004, when Pakistani intelligence officers picked him up in a car in Islamabad.
His lawyer, Dennis Edney, accused the U.S. of participating in the "abuse of Mr. Khadr for the past 18 months in a Pakistani prison." He said the United States had pressed Khadr for "evidence against persons of interest to the U.S., people whom he didn't know."
According to the affidavit, however, FBI agents from Boston "traveled to a location outside the United States" and questioned Khadr over three days. He allegedly said that over a six-month period in 2003, he bought approximately $20,000 worth of AK-47 rounds, PK rounds for use in Russian machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets and mortar rounds, according to the affidavit.
Khadr allegedly told investigators he took the munitions to a third party whom he identified as a high-level member of al-Qaida, who then distributed them to al-Qaida forces.
He also acknowledged transporting components for explosives, including 45 containers of hydrogen peroxide, to the third party so he could make mines for distribution to al-Qaida, according to the affidavit.
Khadr allegedly told investigators he purchased the munitions because his father asked him to do so and because he was paid $5,000 for his work.
Hughes said in the affidavit that Khadr told him he had never killed anyone personally.
"Khadr believed, like his father, that Canada should not be attacked unless that country did something against Muslims to warrant it," Hughes said in the affidavit. "However, Khadr said that the United States was a different matter as it had oppressed Muslims in many places around the world."
Khadr said his father was a colleague of Osama bin Laden, and that in 1997 and 1998, he and other members of his family visited bin Laden and his family for about a month at bin Laden's family compound at Nazim Jihad.
All three of Khadr's brothers have been detained at various times and linked to terrorism.
One brother, 19-year-old Omar Khadr, is the only Canadian detainee at the U.S. camp for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He faces trial on charges of murder and attempted murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic.
The U.S. attorney in Boston said Abdullah Khadr received military training at a camp in Afghanistan for four months in the mid-1990s.
Khadr denies any involvement with al-Qaida. He has acknowledged attending a training camp in Afghanistan for two weeks when he was 13 but said it had nothing to do with terrorism.
In an affidavit submitted to the Superior Court of Justice, Abdullah Khadr admitted having ties to senior al-Qaida members, purchasing guns and rocket launchers, and participating in a plot to assassinate a Pakistani government official, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Konrad Shourie.
Khadr, 24, the eldest son of an accused al-Qaida financier, was arrested in his family's Toronto apartment on a U.S. warrant weeks after returning to Canada from more than a year of detention in Pakistan, officials said.
He was scheduled to appear at a bail hearing here on Monday and faces extradition to the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston, where the charges were filed. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan declined to comment Monday on why the charges were filed in Boston.
Typically, a suspect has some ties to the jurisdiction where charges are filed, but it could be something as minor as doing business with a local bank.
In the affidavit, Gregory T. Hughes, an FBI agent assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston, said Khadr's alleged crimes took place outside any state or district of the United States, but "within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the United States."
He allegedly bought explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and other munitions for al-Qaida at the request of his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian who was killed in a 2003 battle with Pakistani forces.
Abdullah Khadr had been held in Pakistan since Oct. 12, 2004, when Pakistani intelligence officers picked him up in a car in Islamabad.
His lawyer, Dennis Edney, accused the U.S. of participating in the "abuse of Mr. Khadr for the past 18 months in a Pakistani prison." He said the United States had pressed Khadr for "evidence against persons of interest to the U.S., people whom he didn't know."
According to the affidavit, however, FBI agents from Boston "traveled to a location outside the United States" and questioned Khadr over three days. He allegedly said that over a six-month period in 2003, he bought approximately $20,000 worth of AK-47 rounds, PK rounds for use in Russian machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets and mortar rounds, according to the affidavit.
Khadr allegedly told investigators he took the munitions to a third party whom he identified as a high-level member of al-Qaida, who then distributed them to al-Qaida forces.
He also acknowledged transporting components for explosives, including 45 containers of hydrogen peroxide, to the third party so he could make mines for distribution to al-Qaida, according to the affidavit.
Khadr allegedly told investigators he purchased the munitions because his father asked him to do so and because he was paid $5,000 for his work.
Hughes said in the affidavit that Khadr told him he had never killed anyone personally.
"Khadr believed, like his father, that Canada should not be attacked unless that country did something against Muslims to warrant it," Hughes said in the affidavit. "However, Khadr said that the United States was a different matter as it had oppressed Muslims in many places around the world."
Khadr said his father was a colleague of Osama bin Laden, and that in 1997 and 1998, he and other members of his family visited bin Laden and his family for about a month at bin Laden's family compound at Nazim Jihad.
All three of Khadr's brothers have been detained at various times and linked to terrorism.
One brother, 19-year-old Omar Khadr, is the only Canadian detainee at the U.S. camp for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He faces trial on charges of murder and attempted murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic.
The U.S. attorney in Boston said Abdullah Khadr received military training at a camp in Afghanistan for four months in the mid-1990s.
Khadr denies any involvement with al-Qaida. He has acknowledged attending a training camp in Afghanistan for two weeks when he was 13 but said it had nothing to do with terrorism.
posted by Marko at 12/19/2005 05:19:00 PM
<< Home