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The Lawfare Podcast

An Islamic State Hoax?

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

International Law, Law, Government, Foreign Policy, News, Politics, Rule Of Law, International Relations, Current Events, Military, Constitutional Law, Intelligence, National Security, History, Terrorism, Diplomacy

4.76.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2020

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On September 25, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested a Canadian man for faking his involvement in the Islamic State. It’s a strange charge, but the situation is made more complicated by the fact that the man—who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Huzayfah—was the primary subject of “Caliphate” a popular New York Times podcast series about the Islamic State. In that series, Abu Huzayfah talked at length about spending time with the Islamic State and rehashed in great detail his involvement in the executions of prisoners detained by the group. It’s a complicated set of facts with a lot to unpack. Do we have any real sense of what happened? What features of the Canadian national security apparatus might have contributed to the bizarre situation? And what does the whole ordeal reveal about the challenges and pitfalls of telling stories about the war on terror?

To talk through everything, Jacob Schulz spoke with Leah West, a lecturer at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University and a fellow at the McCain Institute, and Amarnath Amarasingam, an assistant professor in the School of Religion at Queen’s University.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:04.0

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0:08.0

become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair.

0:14.0

That's patreon.com slash law fair.

0:18.0

Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings,

0:22.0

rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.

0:29.0

So the theory of the case must be that Canadians feared the fact that so-called cold-blooded killer for ISIS was walking around in Canada,

0:45.0

and that must generate fear in Canadians that they could be harmed from a terrorist activity,

0:52.0

which I think is going to be very challenging to prove.

0:55.0

They also need to prove that what he said was false.

1:00.0

So in this case, they're going to need to prove the negative, that he did not commit the crimes that he said that he did to the Caliphate podcast or to CBC.

1:12.0

I'm Jacob Schultz, and this is the LawFair podcast, October 2, 2020.

1:19.0

On September 25, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested a Canadian man for faking his involvement with the Islamic State.

1:26.0

It's a strange charge, but the situation is made more complicated by the fact that the man, who goes by the Nome de Gaire, Abu Huzafah,

1:33.0

was the primary subject of the Caliphate, a popular New York Times podcast series about the Islamic State.

1:40.0

In that series, Abu Huzafah talked at length about spending time with the Islamic State and rehashed in great detail his involvement in the executions of prison.

1:48.0

It's a complicated set of facts with a lot to unpack.

1:53.0

Do we have any real sense of what happened?

1:56.0

What features the Canadian National Security apparatus might have contributed to the bizarre situation?

2:01.0

And what does the whole ordeal reveal about the challenges and pitfalls of telling stories about the war on terror?

2:08.0

To talk through everything, I talked with Leah West, a lecturer at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs at Carlton University,

2:15.0

and a fellow at the McCann Institute, and Amarnaath Amara Singham, an assistant professor in the School of Religion at Queen's University.

...

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