Abdurahman Khadr Abdurahman Khadr ( , ; born 1982 ) is a Canadian citizen who was held as an enemy combatant in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camp s , in Cuba , after being detained in 2002 in Afghanistan under suspicion of connections to Al - Qaeda . He later claimed to have been an informant for the CIA , which the agency declined to comment on when asked for confirmation by the United States ' PBS news program Frontline . He is the third child and second son of Ahmed Khadr , a prominent Canadian who was noted for his charity work in Pakistan and Afghanistan , as well as for alleged ties to terrorists and al - Qaeda . His younger brother Omar Khadr was captured by United States forces separately at the age of 15 in Afghanistan in 2002 during a firefight ; he was also held in Guantanamo . Early life and education . Abdurahman Khadr was born in Manama , Bahrain , the son of Ahmed Khadr and Maha el - Samnah , Egyptian and Palestinian immigrants respectively , who had become naturalized citizens in Canada , where they had met and married . His father went to graduate school in Ottawa , and then started working in Bahrain . He visited Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the early 1980s , and brought his family to Pakistan in 1985 . There he worked for charities assisting Afghan refugees . In his youth , Khadr was known as the " problem child " in the family , frequently running away and getting in trouble , refusing to follow any rules , drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes . He had an older sister , three younger brothers and a younger sister . In 1994 at the age of 12 , he was sent to Khalden training camp along with his older brother Abdullah , where he was given the alias " Osama " . The two young brothers fought constantly at the camp , and one day their argument became so heated that they pointed guns at each other , screaming with fury . A trainer stepped between them . In 1997 , a dispute between the brothers was mediated by the older Abu Laith al - Libi , who earned their confidence and respect telling them about the city of Dubai and imported Ferrari s ; he was later described as " really cool " by Abdurahman . While the family was briefly living in Nazim Jihad with Osama bin Laden ' s family in 1998 , Abdurahman became close friends with Abdulrahman bin Laden , who was near his age , and the only child in the group to have his own horse , a fine Arabian . Abdurahman successfully persuaded his father to buy him a horse , too . Once , when the two horses fought , the young bin Laden pointed a gun at Khadr , yelling at him to stop the fight before his prized Arabian was killed . When the family was leaving the compound , Abdurahman and Abdullah fought over seating in the car . Their mother ended up asking bin Laden if he could take care of the troublesome Abdurahman since " she could not control him . He grudgingly agreed to look after the youth until his father returned . But , the next day bin Laden told Abdurahman that it would not work , and he asked Saif al - Adel to take the 16 - year old to the bus station so he could catch up with his family en route back to Peshawar . The following year , at age 13 , Abdurahman was sent to " Jihad Wel al - Farouq " for seven days ; US officials have said the training camp was run by al - Qaeda personnel to train their militants . On August 20 , 1998 , the Al Farouq training camp was bombed by American cruise missile s and Amr Hamed , a friend of Khadr ' s , was killed . Khadr later said as a youth , he had hated the Americans for killing his friend . Arrest and release . In November 2001 at the age of 19 , Khadr was captured by the Northern Alliance in Kabul , where he was wandering around . An elderly man later claimed that Khadr had installed an anti - aircraft gun on the roof of a house . He was transferred to United States authorities on suspicion of having killed an American medic , but was released . He later claimed to have been captured several other times , and released each time . At this point , Accounts differ . Khadr claims he lived for nine months in a CIA safe house near the American Embassy in Kabul , and worked abroad as an informant . But other sources say he was taken to Guantanamo Bay on March 21 , 2002 and held as an enemy combatant . The " New York Times " later reported that the CIA offered Khadr a contract in March 2003 and asked him to work as an infiltrator for American intelligence in Guantanamo , to be paid $ 5 , 000 and a monthly stipend of $ 3000 . While in Cuba , Khadr worked to obtain information from his fellow inmates before spending five additional months at the Camp X - Ray prison , where he claims to have been given training as an undercover CIA operative . The Department of Defense published height and weight records for all but ten of the captives held in Guantanamo . Khadr is one of the ten men whose height and weight records were withheld . Khadr was listed as " Abdul Khadr " on the DOD ' s official list of Guantanamo detainees . The Department of Defense has not offered an explanation for why no records for those ten men were published . The United States later said that Khadr had been removed from the camp in July 2003 . But the " Washington Post " reported that an October 9 , 2003 memo summarized a meeting between General Geoffrey Miller and his staff and Vincent Cassard of the ICRC ; it acknowledged that camp authorities were not permitting the ICRC to have access to Khadr and three other detainees , due to " military necessity " . Khadr says he was later given a bogus passport and boarded a Gulfstream jet assigned to CIA Director George Tenet . He said that after a stop - over in Portugal , he landed in Bosnia where he was asked to conduct a spy operation at mosques in Sarajevo . Khadr states that he tried to approach Canadian embassies in various nations and was rebuffed at all of them . He phoned his grandmother Fatmah el - Samnah while in Sarajevo and asked her to go to the Canadian media and tell them that he had been stranded and refused entry back into Canada . He was finally granted admission to the Canadian embassy in Bosnia and was flown back to Canada on November 30 , 2003 . On December 4 , 2003 , Khadr held a press conference with his attorney Rocco Galati . He discussed his role in the War on Terror , but omitted later claimed cooperation with the CIA . The following month , he denied reports by the " Toronto Star " that he had been released in exchange for giving the Americans information on the location of his father , who was killed in a Predator drone airstrike in Waziristan two weeks before Abdurahman ' s release . Interviews . In March 2004 , Khadr gave a series of three interviews to PBS , which became the basis of a documentary entitled " Son of al Qaeda . " ( He had largely passed a polygraph test . ) He claimed to have grown up in " an al - Qaeda family " , and said that he resented his father for associating with militants . Khadr has offered a number of conflicting accounts of his life . For example , he has claimed that he was as young as 9 when he began attending Afghan training camp s , and that he remained in them until as late as 2003 , years after he had not only been kicked out of the camps , but was detained by the United States . He has repeatedly made comments suggesting that everything up until his most recent story was a lie . Passport issue . In July 2004 , Khadr was denied a Canadian passport by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson , on the explicit advice of Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham , by invoking the " royal prerogative " . Graham claimed the decision was " in the interest of the national security of Canada and the protection of Canadian troops in Afghanistan . " National security was not listed as a ground of refusal in the Canadian Passport Order at the time , thus requiring the use of royal prerogative . It was , however , added as a ground shortly thereafter on September 22 , 2004 . Under the terms of the amendment , the Minister was empowered to revoke or refuse to renew or issue a passport on national security grounds . Khadr sought judicial review of the Minister ' s decision . On June 8 , 2006 , the Federal Court of Canada ruled that the Minister did not have the power to deny Khadr ' s passport in the absence of specific authority set out in the Canadian Passport Order , but stated in " obiter dicta " that if the Order were to be amended ( as it had been after the fact ) , Khadr would likely not be able to challenge the revocation . On August 30 , 2006 , the Minister of Foreign Affairs , then Peter MacKay , with the support of Prime Minister Stephen Harper , again denied Khadr ' s application , this time on the basis of the now - amended Canadian Passport Order . Movie deal . On January 9 , 2005 " Variety magazine " reported plans to make a movie based on Khadr ' s life . " Variety " reported the movie deal might be worth " mid to high six figures " to Khadr . On June 5 , 2005 " Variety " reported that Kier Pearson , the screenwriter for " Hotel Rwanda , " would be working on a script for Paramount Pictures .