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."
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or