I got to know it quite by chance

[Troy]

I got to know it quite by chance. Our Canadian citizen an ethnic Arab Redvan Halil if my memory doesn’t fail me was killed in a faraway Russian Chechnya. Fancy he was in the Chechen rebels’ ranks! The guy left Canada for Saudi Arabia to visit his relative getting married. Then he made his way straight into that Chechnya to die there. He was only 26. Why did he act this way? Why Chechnya? He’d rather stay here in safety. Far as I know there are lots of immigrants here and they are pretty well with nobody subduing them. Well these very Chechens are quite well-off here. This whole story with Halil looks fishy enough. This is such a long way from here to Chechnya. During this disaster in Beslan there were some Arabs and even a Negro among the attackers. I gather Chechens have been recruiting men worldwide and this is a large scale process indeed. Their methods and financial footage are just in the realm of sci-fi. Then I an under strong impression that many Chechens are not striving to fight in reality. Perhaps some of them don’t believe in their claimed course any more. Amd some of them are definitely have got too much money. Amnd with your pockets stuffed with bucks you are going to live long happily life instead of dying somewhere in sideway pit. Many Chechens here have developed liking for comfortable life. They can afford luxuries that even or local tycoons have no access to. There is only one irritant with them and that is ‘racketeering’. Oddly enough but they don’t want to sort it out at the police. This prompts me think this racketeering is of the Chechen origin too. My idea is that Chechen terrorists are pressing their own fat cats for more money on recruiting and operations of the Beslan like. Perhaps there is the same picture in Europe. That’s why they are giving somewhat cool welcome to Chechens coming there and oppose so intensely new chechne refugee camps on their soil. Beslan was an eye-opening experience for many.

[Black Dog]

The Russians have yet to offer any proof that any of the Beslan attackers were Arabs, let alone Arab-Canadians.

Consequentially, I have a hard time believing your yarn.

[kimmy]

...but if anybody runs into Rudwan Khalil while they're bumping around Vancouver, let him know that he can pick up his driver's licence at the Russian security forces' Lost & Found desk.

Thanks;

-kimmy

[Black Dog]

..but if anybody runs into Rudwan Khalil while they're bumping around Vancouver, let him know that he can pick up his driver's licence at the Russian security forces' Lost & Found desk.

Still awaiting a citation or some sort of proof.

Oh look! A link!

I must say, the "official" story sounds very fishy, and I'm certainly not about to take the Russians word on anything.

Russian officials claimed the man they called Khalil was an explosives expert working with militant insurgents fighting to split Chechnya from the Russian federation.

Rankin said Abubaker's family was interviewed last Saturday by CSIS agents who asked about Russian allegations he had explosives expertise.

"We are reasonably confident that there is no basis for that at all," the lawyer said. "He wouldn't have had an opportunity to learn explosives, unless you can learn explosives in a couple of weeks."

A CSIS spokeswoman in Ottawa would not comment on its investigation.

It's possible, Rankin speculated, that Khalil could have been duped into working as a courier. But it's unlikely the dark-skinned Sudan-born man would have been recruited to fight in Chechnya.

"He doesn't speak Russian," said Rankin. "He looks like nobody in Chechnya."

[kimmy]

Mr. Rankin said Mr. Abubaker's family reported he and Mr. Elbahja went to Dubai for a holiday and to visit Mr. Abubaker's father, a retired accountant living in the Saudi Arabian capital of Jidda.

Mr. Abubaker was also apparently job-hunting in Dubai and considering opening a hip-hop clothing store there.

The family got a call from a cousin in Dubai in late August saying he and Elbahja had decided to go to Azerbaijan, which borders on Chechnya, to attend the wedding of friend Azar Tagiev.

The trip would have required travelling to Russia to get a connecting flight to Baku, capital of the predominantly Muslim former Soviet republic. Russian officials said Abubaker entered the country in August or September.

Mr. Tagiev, 31, was an immigrant to Canada living in the Vancouver area before returning to his homeland last May, according to his former boss.

"This was a man that decided to go and immerse himself in religion," said Percy von Lipinski, president of Visa Connection Ltd., which helps travellers to arrange visas to many foreign countries.

Mr. Lipinski said Mr. Tagiev, the company's general manager, has also disappeared from Baku.

( Globe & Mail )

A second Canadian may be missing in war-torn Chechnya, as Foreign Affairs officials try to confirm the identity of another Canadian, reportedly killed there.

Reynald Doiron, a spokesman from Foreign Affairs, told The Canadian Press that the Canadian embassy in Moscow has been asked by Russian authorities to look into the whereabouts of a second man.

CP said that news reports have identified the man as Kamal Elbahja, of Maple Ridge, B.C.

Elbahja was reportedly travelling with Rudwan Khalil Abubaker, 26, of Vancouver. Russia officials claim that Abubaker was killed in clashes near the village of Niki-Khita in the mountainous Kurchaloi region of Chechnya.

( CTV )

Younus Kathrada, a teacher at Dar Al-Madinah -- a Muslim prayer and information centre -- says he often spoke with Khalil.

Kathrada says he and others who had seen the Vancouver man come into the centre for the last two years couldn't believe the news out of Chechnya.

"We were in a state of shock, and we remain in a state of shock because we really don't know what has transpired, and just like everyone else we would like to know," he says.

Russian authorities described Khalil as an explosives expert, fighting alongside Chechen insurgents.

But Kathrada saw a different kind of man at the Vancouver prayer centre. "Actually a very gentle, and a very, very nice person."

Kathrada says the war in Chechnya was discussed at the centre, as was the plight of other Muslims around the world.

( CBC )

We don't yet know for sure that the body the documents were found on was actually Rudwan Khalil. There are other possible explanations. Perhaps the documents were stolen or taken from him by somebody who wanted to travel anonymously. We'll have to wait to find out for sure. Let's keep an eye on this.

-kimmy

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear kimmy,

I understand that selling one's identity and/or passport can garner a pretty penny. Canada, Australia, etc command higher prices because of the lack of restrictions on travel imposed by the passport issuing country, and the general 'goodwill' of certain countries. Two alledged Mossad agents have been charged with identity theft recently in Australia (or New Zealand, I think) and this is a common tactic among those who wish to operate anonymously, internationally, and beyond the law. Possibly the case here, but it is too early to tell.

[kimmy]

Still no news on Khalil.

Still no confirmation that the dead man is in fact Khalil.

There is confirmation that Khalil obtained a visa to travel into Russia to visit his friend in Azerbaijan. Khalil, his travelling companion, and the friend in Azerbaijan have all apparently disappeared.

-kimmy

[kimmy]

Here's the latest on Canada's best-known travel enthusiast.

In Vancouver, Abubaker's family lawyer, Phil Rankin, has called him a gentle man with an interest in soccer and music, and with no connection to violence or explosives.

But the mosque he regularly attended in Vancouver preached the virtues of jihad and hatred of Jews.

CBC article

[August1991]

The article states that he received a Russian visa because he was flying from Dubai to Baku through Moscow. (That's like flying from Toronto to Edmonton through Los Angeles. In addition, there is a direct flight between Dubai and Baku on Azerbaijani Airlines.)

He would have required only a Russian transit visa for such a trip. The Russians would have his visa application information as well as details of his arrival in Moscow.

(I suppose this evidence could be manufactured. But if the passport was stolen, then where is the real Khalil?)

BTW, to enter Chechnya, it would probably be easier from Russia than from Azerbaijan and Georgia.

I have a suspicion that this story will disappear from the news. The family and the Canadian government will likely prefer not to say anything.