Amr Hamed
Amr Mohamed Hamed (عمرو محمد حامد) (also Amer Ahmed[1]) was a Canadian who died in the American bombing of an Afghan training camp on August 20, 1998, as retaliation for the African embassy bombings.[2][3]
Life in Egypt
While living in Egypt, Hamed had played for the Egypt national basketball team.[4] But he immigrated to Canada, landing at Lacolle, Quebec and making his way westward to Vancouver, British Columbia.[4]
Life in Canada
In 1998, he co-founded an import-export business named 4-U Enterprises with his "best friend", former Egyptian Essam Marzouk who shared his love of sports.[4][5] The two shared their faith openly, and would sometimes disappear into the forests of the coastal mountains for days at a time as a spiritual retreat to memorise the Quran.[4]
Considered to be "naive and inexperienced", he followed Marzouk seeking "the adventure of Afghanistan" and lived for a while with the Khadr family in Pakistan, where he became known for his love of banana splits and sharing their ability to mix the Western world with his current life.[1]
Death and legacy
On August 20, 1998, Al Farouq training camp was bombed by American cruise missiles and Amr Hamed was killed.[1]
In November 2001, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigated claims that the Northern Alliance had discovered an "al-Qaeda office" in Kabul that contained business cards reading 4-U Enterprises - Amr H. Hamed with the address for a rented postal box in a B.C. convenience store.[3][5] The same search also yielded a number of documents belonging to Amer el-Maati.[6]
In 2003, he was referred to by Abdurahman Khadr, who told authorities that "a lot" of Canadians had trained at Khalden, including "a Vancouver man he knew as Amer, who was killed in a 1998 U.S. missile strike".[7] Abdurahman stated he first felt hatred for Americans after Hamed was killed .
In their 2008 report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) misidentified Hamed and Essam Marzouk as being the same person.[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Michelle Shephard, "Guantanamo's Child", 2008.
- ↑ National Post, "Dozens of Canadians join Jihad terror camps", October 22, 2003
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Salopek, Paul. Chicago Tribune, "A chilling look into terror's lair", November 18, 2001
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Bell, Stewart. National Post, "A model life, a model operative", October 14, 2005
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 CBC, "B.C. refugee may have terrorist links", November 15, 2001
- ↑ National Post, "FBI seeks terror suspect with Toronto ID", November 14, 2002
- ↑ Bell, Stewart. National Post, "'A lot' of Canadians in al-Qaeda", August 1, 2004
- ↑ Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah, February 22, 2008. p. 33
