A documentary about a Canadian family closely linked to Osama bin Laden portrays the al-Qaeda chief as a well-meaning family man who banned ice in drinks, loves volleyball and has trouble controlling his children.
The program, broadcast on Canada's CBC television on Wednesday night, lifted the veil on the private life of the world's most wanted man, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide attacks in the US.
It included lengthy interviews with the widow and children of Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-born friend of bin Laden and an accused al-Qaeda financier.
Khadr was killed in a gun battle with Pakistani police last October, and his son, Omar, 17, is in US custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, accused of involvement in the death of a US soldier in Afghanistan.
Another son, 21-year-old Abdurahman Khadr, was released from Guantanamo Bay late last year and now lives in Toronto. In the documentary he described bin Laden as quite normal.
"He has issues with his wife, and he has issues with his kids, financial issues, you know, the kids aren't listening, the kids aren't doing this and that. It comes down to [the fact] he's a father and he's a person," he said.
Khadr's 23-year-old daughter Zaynab said bin Laden -- who attended her wedding in 1999 -- was athletic.
"He loved playing volleyball. And he loved horse riding ... Kids played around him. ... And [when] they'd go shooting he'd go with them. If he missed his [shot], they'd laugh at him and stuff like that," she said.
Ahmed Said Khadr emigrated to Canada in 1977 and got married there, but went to Afghanistan to fight Soviet troops after the 1979 invasion. His family joined him later.
The Khadrs lived in the bin Laden family compound in the Afghan town of Jalalabad for several years, leaving soon before US forces attacked Afghanistan in 2001. One son, 14-year-old Abdul, was paralyzed in the fight that killed his father.
Most members of the family -- apart from Omar and Abdurahman -- now live in Pakistan but still retain their Canadian citizenship. Abdurahman is the only family member to renounce al-Qaeda and bin Laden's tactics.
Zaynab said bin Laden imposed many restrictions on his three wives and their children and banned the use of electricity in their part of the compound.
"He didn't allow them to drink cold water ... because he wanted them to be prepared [so that if] one day there's no cold water, they'd be able to survive," she said.
Abdurahman recalled: "He was against using ice, and he actually forbade it [for] the people that lived around him."
Ahmed Said Khadr was arrested in Pakistan in 1996 on suspicion of financing a bombing of the Egyptian embassy there. He insisted he was an innocent charity worker, and was released after then Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien intervened.
"I admit it that we are an al-Qaeda family. We had connections to al-Qaeda," said Abdurahman Khadr, who says he resisted his father's urgings to become a suicide bomber.
But another son, 22-year-old Abdullah Khadr, backed the idea of martyrdom for Islam.
"Every Muslim dreams of being a shahid [martyr] for Islam," he said. "Everybody dreams of this, even a Christian would like to die for their religion."
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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