Memo to the Khadrs: It Isn’t Going To Work

September 9, 2008


Fed up with what they consider negative and unfair attacks by the press, the infamous Khadr family has launched their own website in order to rebuild their reputations and get son Omar out of Guantanamo Bay.
The Khadrs, as you may know, have been vilified for their ties to Al-Qaeda and for having, what many Canadians consider, only a convenient citizenship in Canada.

So they’ve launched www.TheKhadrLegacy.com in hopes that it will help sway public opinion in their favour.  They’re also hoping to make it an issue in the current Federal election: Omar’s sister Zaynab states in a press release that “Our brother is being held in Guantanamo Bay based on the lies told by both the American and Canadian governments. (A)n election is the perfect opportunity to tell those politicians that we are not going to be their bogeyman any longer.”
Unfortunately for the Khadrs, the general public has made them their bogeyman as well.  And, judging by the website, they don’t seem to have realized that.
Throughout the website’s vignettes of the Khadrs as a normal, happy family and pleas of sympathy for Omar’s plight, there’s a general tone of disgust with Canadian values and morals.
If you’re launching your own public relations campaign, it’s generally not a good idea attack the people whose opinions you are desperately trying to sway.
The irony of the website is the first voices against come from Omar Khadr’s U.S. military lawyers. The official line from U.S. Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler is”I share the extreme displeasure of most Canadians with  (Omar’s mother) Maha and Zaynab Khadr. Omar has specifically and repeatedly asked them to stop making public statements on his behalf – they don’t represent him or his views,”
Since the website is only hurting the one person it is supposed to save, and insulting to the people it wants support from, I have to wonder what the Khadrs’ real point is.
If they just felt like ranting, then maybe they should have just gotten an account at Blogspot.  It would have been cheaper at least.
Because the longer they leave TheKhadrLegacy up and running,  the more it will solidify their woeful reputations in Canada.


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