Canadian authorities impounded a computer and recordings from a woman whose family has ties to al-Qaeda as she entered the country, and discovered a wealth of information that may lead back to Afghanistan. The RCMP has held the laptop, DVDs, and tapes for three months, but now has to publicly give a reason for continuing to retain them to keep Zaynab Khadr from taking them back:

The RCMP and Canadian military believe they've discovered a vital cache of information on Al Qaeda that includes the whereabouts of wanted members and details of attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The information is allegedly contained in a laptop, dozens of DVDs, audiocassettes and the pages of diaries, seized by the RCMP officers who met Zaynab Khadr at Pearson airport with a search warrant as she arrived back in Canada in February, court documents state. ...

With the three-month time limit allotted to the federal police force to hold the items having now expired, the RCMP must go to a Toronto court this Friday to persuade a judge to allow them to continue doing a forensic evaluation of the seized materials. But Khadr's lawyer Dennis Edney says the Mounties are on nothing more than a "fishing expedition," and will argue that Khadr is entitled to her possessions.

Khadr, 25, said in an interview yesterday that anything found on the laptop, except personal pictures and a few "cartoons" that she downloaded, are not hers. She says she bought her laptop second-hand about seven months before coming to Canada. The audiocassettes, described in court documents as providing "significant information regarding `after-battle action reports' of Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents" involved in attacking coalition forces in Afghanistan, were found among her father's possessions after he was killed in 2003, Khadr said.

"I think it's my right to bring what I want since I'm not breaking any laws, so I decided to bring them," she said. "Although I don't know what's on them, I still thought I'd bring them."With the three-month time limit allotted to the federal police force to hold the items having now expired, the RCMP must go to a Toronto court this Friday to persuade a judge to allow them to continue doing a forensic evaluation of the seized materials. But Khadr's lawyer Dennis Edney says the Mounties are on nothing more than a "fishing expedition," and will argue that Khadr is entitled to her possessions.

Khadr, 25, said in an interview yesterday that anything found on the laptop, except personal pictures and a few "cartoons" that she downloaded, are not hers. She says she bought her laptop second-hand about seven months before coming to Canada. The audiocassettes, described in court documents as providing "significant information regarding `after-battle action reports' of Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents" involved in attacking coalition forces in Afghanistan, were found among her father's possessions after he was killed in 2003, Khadr said.

"I think it's my right to bring what I want since I'm not breaking any laws, so I decided to bring them," she said. "Although I don't know what's on them, I still thought I'd bring them."

The RCMP and Canadian government want more time to thoroughly investigate the tapes and determine exactly what the data means. They have already determined that the material gives information on the identity and whereabouts of AQ operatives with the Taliban and their missions. They also found songs about killing Americans and videos of an attack in Saudi Arabia on a housing area for Westerners in 2003. In other words, these aren't the normal family home videos.

Speaking of family, finding this material likely did not surprise the RCMP, as Khadr's father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was known to have been involved in radical Islamist activity by Canadian authorities. Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien had to rescue Ahmed when Pakistan charged him with bombing the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, after the Khadrs stirred up enough public sympathy for the naturalized Canadian
citizen. After 9/11, Ahmed Khadr went to war for the Taliban against the US and died in Pakistan in 2003.

The RCMP does not mention whether they've interrogated Ms. Khadr about her good fortune in buying a laptop that just happens to coincide with the work her father has done. It's possible, after all, that she's telling the truth and she just got lucky, and that her travels and possessions tell nothing about any involvement with AQ on her part. However, she isn't the only family member to be caught red-handed. Her brother, as it turns out, is the guest of the US government in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It looks like the entire family should be under scrutiny.

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» Oy, Canada. from Bloggledygook
Khadr pere was a known terrorist dedicated to fighting the US and yet the prime minister of our northern neighbor, strong trading partner and putative ally intervenes to set him free? And he turns up on a battlefield in Pakistan? [Read More]

Tracked on June 15, 2005 8:04 AM