Rebel News Podcast - Omar Khadr flies first class to Halifax

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. A very unusual podcast today. I was flying to Halifax to report on Omar Khadr's

00:00:07.300 speech. Little did I know that Khadr was sitting just a few rows ahead of me in the airplane. I'll

00:00:14.220 let you know how that goes. Before I do, let me invite you to become a premium subscriber

00:00:18.020 to Rebel News. Just go to premium.rebelnews.com. Here's today's show.

00:00:30.000 Tonight, I flew to Halifax to listen to a speech by Omar Khadr. Little did I know he

00:00:45.220 was sitting a few rows in front of me on the plane. It's February 10th, and this is the

00:00:50.800 Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:53.820 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:57.380 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:01.700 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's

00:01:06.100 my bloody right to do so.

00:01:12.880 I'm in a hotel room in Halifax right now. As you can see from the window behind me, it

00:01:17.640 is awful out there. Wind, rain, sleet, snow, the works. So forgive me for taping this inside

00:01:24.300 my hotel room. My story was meant to start tonight when I go to hear Omar Khadr speak

00:01:31.840 at Dalhousie University. Now, the timing of it was such that I was going to record my interaction

00:01:37.020 today and play it on the show tomorrow. It's just time zones, and I don't know what I would

00:01:42.820 get, and we'd need time to edit it. But I flew in early to Halifax to make sure I wasn't

00:01:48.320 late for the event and to get checked in and all ready. And I want to tell you, when I went

00:01:53.620 onto the plane, I passed through business class to where I was sitting in the economy seats.

00:01:59.660 And not that it mattered, but I noticed someone turn away and hide their face and look at

00:02:05.280 something else. I didn't feel like they were hiding from me. I just saw someone turn away,

00:02:10.340 and he was sitting next to a woman in a hijab, but that's not particularly remarkable.

00:02:14.380 So I thought, nothing of it. Two and a half hours passed. As we were landing and getting

00:02:19.880 off the plane, I was about three seats behind this fellow, I saw as he stood up and turned

00:02:25.240 his face slightly, the man who had hidden himself from me on that flight was Omar Khadr. And it

00:02:33.620 wasn't just a coincidence that someone turned away as I walked on the plane. He obviously knew

00:02:38.080 who I was and was hiding his face deliberately. Well, I was enough rows back that I couldn't

00:02:44.500 catch up with him then. And he got off the plane. I assume he had bolted. So I asked both the flight

00:02:49.580 attendant and the co-pilot who was standing in the aisle, if they knew that an Al-Qaeda terrorist,

00:02:56.720 who presumably is on a no-fly list, was on their plane. Neither of them said they knew anything

00:03:02.620 about it. And they encouraged me to contact Air Canada. Anyways, I left the plane assuming that

00:03:08.200 Omar Khadr had long gone. I mean, the fact that he hid his face from me suggests he knew I was there

00:03:13.940 to report on him. I'm one of the handful of skeptical journalists in this country. When it

00:03:19.220 comes to Omar Khadr, as you may know, a few years back, I published a book about Omar Khadr called

00:03:23.880 The Enemy Within, Terror Lies in the Whitewashing of Omar Khadr. So I took my time to get off the

00:03:30.040 plane. But as I walked down by the baggage area, I saw Omar Khadr, his wife, and a gaggle of fans.

00:03:37.960 I think all of them were women. It's like the women who write, become pen pals with serial killers 1.00

00:03:44.500 in prison. There's a strange phenomenon of liberal women loving terrorists and murderers. And he was

00:03:50.460 surrounded by a gaggle of them. And I thought, I'm going to go up to him very calm, very gently,

00:03:55.920 and just ask some very basic questions, starting with, why were you on the plane? I have to admit,

00:04:02.160 I didn't have all my best questions ready. I didn't think I would be engaging with Khadr until

00:04:06.720 much later that night. I had seen an email from the university suggesting that there would be no

00:04:12.140 direct interaction with Omar Khadr. All the questions would be filtered by a moderator. So

00:04:17.200 really, my plan was not to engage with Khadr himself. He would be protected by a bodyguard of

00:04:21.920 his compliant journalists. So I put the questions to him that I could. For example, I asked him

00:04:27.660 why he was on an airplane. I asked why he was hiding his money from Tabitha Speer, the widow of

00:04:33.620 Christopher Speer, the U.S. Army medic murdered by Omar Khadr. I asked why he did not renounce his

00:04:38.960 father's jihad. I tried to put my questions. Let me show you how that went. Can I have a word?

00:04:45.140 Can I talk to you for a minute? Can we take a selfie together?

00:04:50.880 If you want. Yeah. Can I ask you a couple of questions?

00:04:55.800 How did you get on the plane? I thought you were on the no-fly list.

00:04:59.280 This is exactly what we figured would happen. Why don't we go ahead and walk away from

00:05:02.660 things that are hurt. But aren't you on the no-fly list?

00:05:07.000 Is there security? For me or for him? For filming a person when that's really not an

00:05:13.840 okay thing to do. Can I ask you why you won't let the widow have access to some of the money 0.99

00:05:23.660 you got? I'm not harassing anybody. That's a convicted al-Qaeda terrorist right there who

00:05:31.100 just flew on an airplane. He's entitled to do what? He's entitled to leave the airport.

00:05:38.420 Yeah. That's good. Thanks. Excuse me, sir. It's assault. Get your hands off me. 1.00

00:05:51.460 Why have you never renounced your father's terrorism? I don't understand why this is allowed.

00:05:55.040 Why have you never renounced your father's terrorism? Okay, just walk. We need to go.

00:05:58.140 Because we're not under Sharia law. Let's just walk to the park. Come on.

00:06:04.500 Where have you stashed the rest of the money? Why don't you feel an obligation to pay money

00:06:09.800 to the widow whose husband you murdered and the two children? This is an airport. There's

00:06:14.620 a public place. Exactly. That's why I'm filming.

00:06:17.140 Sir, you're a proxy. She's touching me. That's a battery. No, it's not. Yes, it is, actually.

00:06:28.520 That's a terrorist. That's an al-Qaeda terrorist right there. Al-Qaeda terrorist. It's an al-Qaeda 0.74

00:06:34.140 terrorist right there. Al-Qaeda terrorist right there. Okay. Go ahead. Just go on.

00:06:38.840 Sir? Sir? Yes. Sir? Yes. Yes? Why are you touching me? You're impeding someone from leaving

00:06:47.320 the building. No, I'm not. You're impeding me from leaving the building. What's your name

00:06:50.440 and badge number? I'll give you my card, sir. Give it to me. I will give it to you, sir.

00:06:53.340 You're very close to being arrested. You understand me? And you're very close to getting a civil

00:07:14.940 lawsuit for assault and battery. Don't jaywalk, sir. Let's watch back there, okay? Am I clear?

00:07:32.260 Don't jaywalk. What are you stepping on me for? What are you stepping on me for? 0.96

00:07:38.720 Doing your job, sir. Doing your job. And what job is that? Keeping the public safe.

00:07:42.760 Who's safety was in breach there? Everyone's safety, sir. You're a goddamn liar and you know

00:07:49.220 it. You're a disgrace to that badge and you're a disgrace. I'm proud of what I do, sir.

00:07:52.920 You're proud of defending a terrorist? I'm proud of keeping people safe, sir.

00:07:56.640 Safe from whom?

00:07:59.900 I was furious. I mean, my heart was pumping to begin with, coming face to face with the

00:08:07.180 murderer. I don't know if I've actually met a murderer before. I can't say I was scared of

00:08:12.740 him, per se. I don't think he would have done anything there, but my heart was pumping. I was

00:08:17.440 trying to think on my feet. But for the police to come in and intervene and say that I was the threat,

00:08:24.300 that the police would arrest me while letting a terrorist on a flight, I was shocked and furious.

00:08:31.620 What do you think about that? Well, I am upset about the fact that Omar Khadr has been normalized,

00:08:37.680 and with it, Al-Qaeda, and with it, Muslim extremism, and with it, a kind of supine journalism.

00:08:45.300 I should tell you that in the past, Omar Khadr has had fake media events all the time, actually.

00:08:51.420 And here's a moment where he was first released from prison and his lawyer said to the assembled

00:08:55.920 journalists, if you ask any questions we don't like, we will cancel the press conference. And instead

00:09:01.280 of defying this lawyer or pushing back, they meekly submitted. It was quite incredible. But it shows

00:09:07.600 you that Canada's journalists are not journalists when it comes to Omar Khadr. They're his press

00:09:12.260 agents. Take a look at this. Let me tell you, I've had a long day, and I don't mind going back into

00:09:17.480 that house. So let's just be respectful here, okay? Do you hear me? Thank you. Omar's going to say a few

00:09:31.320 words. You can also ask him certain questions. If the questions become too intrusive, then I'll shut it

00:09:39.200 down, and we'll go back in the house. You know, a few years later, Kian Bexty accosted one of 0.55

00:09:47.240 Khadr's lawyers with Khadr in front of a courthouse in Edmonton and referred to Khadr as a terrorist.

00:09:52.760 And I think it was literally the first time any journalist had ever described Omar Khadr as a

00:09:58.280 terrorist. Look at the reaction on the face of Omar Khadr's lawyer to that. Take a look.

00:10:02.760 Even if he gets a passport, which airline in Canada will take him to Saudi Arabia?

00:10:07.960 You'd have to ask some Canadian airlines. I doubt that they'd want to take a terrorist

00:10:11.800 across the sea to Saudi Arabia. Okay. Well, this is all by way of preamble. I am here in Halifax to

00:10:19.560 see the Omar Khadr event tonight. It was originally slated to be hosted by a Muslim CBC journalist,

00:10:25.720 Nala Ayyad. But of course, the CBC has been the greatest champion of Omar Khadr in Canada.

00:10:31.880 Need I remind you that just a few months ago, Omar Khadr was welcomed on CBC's French language TV

00:10:37.720 station on a program called Toulomban d'Arparo. And he was welcomed literally with music,

00:10:45.560 disco balls, and glasses of champagne to an ovation. Take a look at this.

00:10:51.000 Omar Khadr.

00:10:53.000 They were cheering the terrorist, murderer, war criminal. They were cheering him. That was

00:11:13.480 Canada's state broadcaster. So of course Nala Ayyad was going to moderate tonight. I got an email from

00:11:19.960 Dalhousie saying that she would no longer moderate just the other day, and that she would be a

00:11:24.200 reporter. Yeah, sure. I think she was going to be such a loving reporter. She knew that would become

00:11:29.320 news in itself. I should say that there is no questions allowed tonight. I don't know if I'll

00:11:35.800 be allowed in tonight at all, given my interaction with Khadr and his police. Apparently, the police work

00:11:41.880 for al-Qaeda terrorists and not law-abiding citizens anymore. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

00:11:46.760 We won't have the footage in time for today's show. But I want to say one more thing about the

00:11:51.640 no-fly list. As I say again, Omar Khadr, convicted al-Qaeda terrorist, many years in Guantanamo Bay,

00:12:00.200 pled guilty, his lawyers pled guilty to a detailed confession of terrorism. Obviously on the no-fly list,

00:12:06.520 but he flies. And unless they were lying to me, and they truly seemed stunned, the co-pilot and flight

00:12:12.920 attendant on flight 806 or 608 rather from Toronto to Halifax had no idea. So even they were surprised.

00:12:21.480 That's terrifying. And I do recall from Omar Khadr's guilty plea and plea bargain with the

00:12:27.800 Obama administration that one of his undertakings was to never set foot in the United States again.

00:12:34.200 But I presume that means over their airspace too. And I fly enough in Canada to know that many flights

00:12:41.960 from Toronto to the west, to Vancouver, to Calgary, because of the curvature of the earth and how far

00:12:48.200 south Toronto is in terms of latitude, a lot of those flights actually fly over the United States.

00:12:55.240 And obviously that's no problem. We love them. They love us. We both do that. But Omar Khadr is a

00:13:00.600 convicted, confessed war criminal and Al-Qaeda terrorist who signed a promise never to go into

00:13:05.400 the United States again. I wonder if the US government knows that in fact, Omar Khadr does

00:13:11.720 fly over the US and maybe even into the US. How did that happen? Did Justin Trudeau give him a special

00:13:18.760 permission to fly? And is he flying perhaps under an assumed name, a secret name? How many times has he

00:13:24.840 flight? How would, where is he flying? Is anyone even following him? I didn't detect any police

00:13:31.880 following Omar Khadr on the plane. And the only police that you saw at the airport were local

00:13:36.360 airport cops who didn't really know what was going on. Compare that to the United Kingdom where you

00:13:40.760 have full-time police details following along behind released terrorists. It's a pointless gesture

00:13:46.920 because they just commit terrorism before they can be stopped. Just the other week in London,

00:13:50.360 that happened. Someone who had committed terrorism, was convicted of terrorism, served a short sentence

00:13:55.400 for terrorism, was back out on the street, committed terrorism again. Now he was quickly taken out

00:14:00.200 by the team of police that followed him everywhere. Omar Khadr has no such team of police. He clearly

00:14:05.960 knows about me since he hit his face and he clearly knows that he's winning. He's the one flying first

00:14:13.480 class with his 10.5 million dollars. He's the one that the media loves, that the police protect. And as so

00:14:21.080 often happens with our tell the other side kind of journalism, it's us that the police are investigating.

00:14:28.760 Coming up next, I talk to my friend Andrew Lawton, who I've just shown the tape to.

00:14:43.480 Well, I am still revved up from my airport encounter with Omar Khadr and even more so with the police.

00:14:51.560 But I knew my friend Andrew Lawton from True North would be here, so I thought I'd commiserate a bit

00:14:56.520 with him. Andrew, it's great to see you. What do you think? What do you think of that encounter?

00:15:00.920 I was so mad. Maybe I was too angry at the cops. But I thought, I'm not the terrorist. He is.

00:15:05.880 Well, I think it underscores the real injustice of the whole Omar Khadr case. I mean,

00:15:10.200 here's a guy who gets a red carpet treatment wherever he goes. Courts, the media, now Dalhousie

00:15:15.480 University, Air Canada, apparently. That's right. I thought he was supposed to be on a no-fly list.

00:15:19.480 See, no, I don't know about that. Convicted all kinds of terrorists.

00:15:21.960 But I remember there was a story I read not too long ago where his lawyer was saying that it was

00:15:26.280 a distinct possibility. And they didn't know at the time. And I think that was in McLean's,

00:15:30.520 when he had gotten his passport back. But again, you know, the whole idea that I've put forward

00:15:36.040 about Omar Khadr in the past, and I know you have as well, is that he has never met a request

00:15:41.400 he wasn't given when it comes to how the Canadian government, the Canadian courts,

00:15:45.400 and the media have responded to him. The entire establishment is on his side,

00:15:48.600 except the people despise him. I've never seen such unanimity in every single public court

00:15:55.800 against him and the payoff of him and the cuddling of him.

00:15:59.000 No, and it's not even just people that say, you know, it's a tragic situation and it's complex.

00:16:04.760 You get cheerleaders, like actual cheerleaders for him. And I wouldn't be surprised if they're,

00:16:09.720 you know, like the Rockettes are introducing him today. And I guess the big question mark

00:16:13.560 that I would have about this case is where the justification for this really comes from.

00:16:19.240 And I know that the framing of this event at Dalhousie is the child soldiers narrative,

00:16:23.240 which is one that has never actually been distinctly proven. And in fact,

00:16:27.720 even if he is acknowledged as a child soldier under some UN convention, it doesn't mean he is under

00:16:33.240 Canadian law and under American law. And I think Howard England, when he was with the PMO,

00:16:37.720 had done a tremendous amount of research on this. But here you've got a guy who is really held up as

00:16:43.880 a victim when he's never denounced. If he is a victim, a victim of his family, a victim of circumstance,

00:16:50.120 why has he not denounced those circumstances? He's never renounced his father. He's never renounced

00:16:55.240 the jihad in general. He's never expressed regret for murdering Christopher Spear. He did express

00:17:01.400 a mealy-mouthed regret that the widow happened to be widowed because the only person he meant to kill

00:17:07.800 was Sergeant Spear. That is not regret, remorse, apology. The grossest thing was when the CBC had that

00:17:15.640 champagne party for him. Oh yeah, Tullamans. Oh my god. Now, the CBC was supposed to be moderating this event.

00:17:22.920 They backed out at the last moment. I think that was someone in CBC saying,

00:17:27.160 what are you doing branding us as the pro-terrorist network? Everyone already knows the pro-terrorist

00:17:32.520 network. But I thought this, maybe they, like, that was interesting to me. Even they thought this was

00:17:38.280 a bad idea. Well, and remember, you can't be a part of the story if you're covering the story. And this

00:17:44.120 is CBC's own journalistic ethics. So now they're saying, well, they may cover the event, but they won't

00:17:48.760 be a part of it, hosting it. Because again, one of the things that we know is that Omar Cotter does

00:17:52.920 not want to answer any questions that aren't scripted. He just doesn't. I mean, this is going

00:17:58.120 back to the first day that he left jail and was on his lawyer's driveway. Every time he's appeared

00:18:05.320 anywhere, there's been no opportunity for any real question. And the lawyers say you ask one tough

00:18:09.480 question, we're shutting it down. Yeah, we're pulling him inside. And the media says, okay, I've never seen that

00:18:13.480 before that any lawyer says, if you ask my client a question I don't like, you're gone. And the media

00:18:18.440 all says, yeah, I'm a good boy. I'm a good puppy. Give me a donkey treat. I've never seen it. It's the

00:18:24.760 judiciary. It's the, today I saw it was the police. Let me ask for your thoughts. I just showed you the

00:18:29.240 video of what happened at the airport. I was a little angry. I was a little mouthy, but I didn't touch him.

00:18:34.840 I didn't block him. I didn't swear at him. I actually started very quiet and meek. And the cops,

00:18:41.240 I don't know, maybe they didn't know who he was. They just saw a guy with the camera and said back

00:18:47.320 off. But I find it extremely creepy when an Al Qaeda terrorist is a VIP first class traveler on air 0.86

00:18:54.360 Canada. And I'm told to get away or I'll be arrested. Well, the interesting thing about the

00:18:59.480 video was people saying you're stopping them from leaving while they stand there, not moving, saying

00:19:04.680 that you're stopping them from leaving. I mean, he was free to go. And he did. And if you didn't want

00:19:08.760 to answer any questions, that's his prerogative. It's certainly your prerogative to ask them though.

00:19:13.080 And I will say on a formatting note, I mean, the organizers of this event have made it so there

00:19:18.440 is no opportunity for the media to engage with Omar Cotter. The Q&A is going to be moderated Q&A

00:19:24.600 questions that are submitted in advance. So even so, any questions he takes will be approved

00:19:29.720 questions. So even after this, this public appearance, there will not be any opportunities

00:19:34.120 for people to put the real questions to them. It was a serendipitous encounter that you could,

00:19:38.760 even if you didn't get any answers. Yeah, I was not expecting that. My questions weren't that great.

00:19:43.640 I was sort of daydreaming when you're on a plane for two and a half hours by yourself.

00:19:47.800 Your mind wanders. I was not ready for that encounter, but I was shocked by it.

00:19:51.160 Well, listen, Andrew, I'm so glad to see you. I bumped into you at all the most interesting events

00:19:55.160 around the world. Tell our viewers, we know you're with True North. That's tnc.news.

00:20:00.680 Yes. And you've got a podcast there. Yep. And is there anything else you want to tell us?

00:20:05.640 Any other links or projects you're working on? Because we're big fans of yours. You know that.

00:20:10.040 Tell our viewers that there's anything else you got going on. So if anyone goes to

00:20:13.080 andrewlottonshow.com, they'll have all the subscribe links to my show on whatever podcast

00:20:17.640 platform you have, or you can watch on YouTube as well. And also my Twitter will be loading,

00:20:22.760 loaded up with all of the details of the Cotter event tonight. And that's at Andrew Lotton.

00:20:26.760 All right, great. Well, listen, my friend, you're one of the good guys. Thank you.

00:20:30.040 I believe that you and me are possibly the only two journalists who will ask a question

00:20:37.240 today that's in any way journalistic, any way skeptical or critical. And it's quite sad that

00:20:43.960 that's the case. I mean, I'm happy to help fill the gap, and I know you are, but it's a sad statement

00:20:48.040 on the media culture. Last word to you, my friend. You know, look, this is not a free speech issue. No

00:20:53.320 one's saying he doesn't have the right to speak. This is about judgment, and it's about the media's of the

00:20:57.800 left's red carpet treatment. And that's what we're here to shine a light on.

00:21:00.440 All right. Thanks. Good luck tonight. I hope they don't erase either of us.

00:21:03.560 Likewise. All right. So stay with us. My final thoughts ahead.

00:21:06.120 Well, that's our show for today. It's sort of a pregnant show because tonight I'll go to the 0.99

00:21:20.040 event. Will they let me in? What will Omar Khadr say, if anything? What will the moderators say?

00:21:25.160 What will the journalists say? Will there be protesters pro and con? I won't have that

00:21:29.400 information for you until tomorrow. Until then, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,

00:21:34.500 to you at home, goodnight. Keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - February 11, 2020

Omar Khadr flies first class to Halifax

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