Homepage Feature

Terrorist suspect on Canadian Idol

Play
Download

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Three suspected terrorists were arrested this week in Canada for allegedly plotting against targets in Canada and abroad. The suspects allegedly had plans and schematics to make improvised explosive devices. However, one of the suspects may have had aspirations other than bomb-making. Terror suspect Khurram Syed Sher appeared on Canada’s version of American Idol in 2008. Anchor Marco Werman has more. Download MP3


Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: You may have heard about the arrests this week of three terrorism suspects in Canada. The men have been charged with conspiracy to commit or support terrorist acts in Canada and elsewhere. Officials say the men had the materials to make improvised bombs, including electronic circuit boards that could be used as remote-control triggers. Well, there’s a surreal twist to this case. It seems one of the suspects once had other aspirations. Khurram Syed Sher auditioned for Canada’s version of American Idol in 2008. Here’s a clip from Canadian Idol when Sher introduces himself to the judges.

MALE SPEAKER:  So you hail from Pakistan?

KHURRAN SYED SHER:  Yes.

MALE SPEAKER: How long have you been here?

SHER: I’ve been here for a couple of years. I came in 2k five.

MALE SPEAKER: Okay, so what song you going to sing for us?

SHER: I can sing like different things, like Hilary Duff of Avril Lavigne.

MALE SPEAKER: Okay, so what are you going to sing first?

FEMALE SPEAKER: Whatever he wants.

SHER: Let’s take a vote. Whatever you guys say.

MALE SPEAKER:  Complicated.

MALE SPEAKER: Complicated.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Sk8ter Boi.

SHER: I’ll sing a song.

WERMAN: That’s when Sher breaks out this version of Avril Lavigne’s song Complicated. To really appreciate his rendition of the song, though, you need to go to our website, TheWorld.org, to check out the dance moves. Sher starts by offering up his version of a moonwalk, then manages a fairly passable robot. But it was not enough to impress the judges.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Have you ever thought of being a comedian or…?

SHER: Not really. I like hockey.

MALE SPEAKER: [SOUNDS LIKE] Acting. The dance moves were good, the singing bad. I’m a no.

MALE SPEAKER:  Now that was some genuine crap singing.

WERMAN: I guess he sounded more than just a little “pitchy.” Khurram Syed Sher gave up his singing dreams. He was working as a pathologist in Ontario up until his arrest this week. Now the 28-year-old is charged with conspiracy to facilitate terrorist activity. He made his first court appearance today.

WERMAN: I’ll say it’s complicated. This is PRI.


Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Discussion

2 comments for “Terrorist suspect on Canadian Idol”

  • http://floridasqueezed.blogspot.com Jarrett Terrill

    Ridiculous! Of course, it’s a Fox program… I wonder if Rupert Murdoch’s Saudi partners will have some commentary on this comical display of irony…

  • Roland

    911 Press For Truth made up of firefighters, emergency workers, engineers, professors, scientists, demolition experts, widows who lost husbands that day, and many others, has been calling for an investigation of what happened. Why is it we are so concerned with an Islamic center near ground zero when the 911 Commission never investigated the collapse of Building 7 nor the money trail to Pakistan’s ISI? There are many in New York and the nation who want a serious investigation, even though most of the evidence was removed from the crime scene before an investigation was even started.
    On The Daily Show, Bloomberg’s propaganda “the lives of their loved ones was taken because the right to build a mosque or to say what you want to say was so threatening to people,” is so ludicrous I don’t know where to start. Their lives were lost because someone planted explosives inside the three buildings, and this caused them to collapse. Yes two aircraft did do damage and deaths, mostly to the passengers who may have been inside, however most of the fuel was consumed within the initial fireball on impact. The fire burned black and is an induction of lack of oxygen. Firefighters to the first hit said it could be put out with three hoses! Some said that they heard and felt explosions after the first plane hit. The janitor (Rodriguez) who rescued people that day said that he felt the ground floor lift up and thought that an explosion occurred below that floor. There was Thermite found in the dust of the WTC, and the basement still had molten metal weeks after the hit. This wall of dust that came at people from the WTC when the buildings collapsed is found only in active volcanoes (like Mt. Saint Helens), and in demolitions, and is called a pyroclastic flow. Building 7 was not hit by an aircraft, yet it collapsed at near free fall speed into its own footprint with the classic demolition crimp in the top as it fell. Silverstein (the owner) told PBS that he told his min to “Pull it,” which is a classic demolition term meaning bring it down. Charges that were placed inside Building 7 would have had to been placed there well in advance of 911. Building 7 was almost half as high as 1 & 2, and very strongly built. No one could have gained access to this building without going through security which was controlled by a company owned by G.W. Bush’s brother. Certainly members of Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda could not have gained access. What is interesting is that the head of Pakistan’s ISI was meeting in Washington at the time. A truck was stopped by police containing Israelis, who turned out (after being released), to be members of the Mussad. They later stated on Israeli TV that they were there to document the event. Two trucks containing explosives were stopped, one on a bridge that had a picture of planes hitting the WTC. This information is available in police radio broadcasts, and radio communications from firefighters on scene.
    A local TV station broadcast that there were two additional explosives found inside the Morrow building that were more sophisticated and powerful than the manure truck bomb that Timothy McVeigh supposedly set off. You never heard this on national TV, nor were any questions raised. Add to this the fact that a phone conversation was recorded by an FBI informant that was partly responsible for the first WTC bombing because he thought he was being set up by his FBI handler. In it the FBI agent basically told him to use the real explosives and to go through with the operation. The truck load of explosive was never placed near the large internal beams, and therefore did not do the damage wanted.
    One can readily see that 911 should also be questioned and investigated!