Something doesn't add up with the family freed from the Taliban

[Chasstev365]

If you were held hostage and your wife was being raped, why would you have two kids while in captivity?

Am I missing something in this story?

[cilla4progress]

1. I agree.

I hate to question their veracity... but the other thing I think is weird is - backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012, while wife is pregnant? There are a million other places not in war zones to choose from...

[yurbud]

10. Yeah, much like Americans hiking in Iran. They are either intel agents or really stupid.

Since this guy took his pregnant wife, it looks like the latter.

On the other hand, this makes it a lot easier to advocate for sending more troops to Afghanistan, which pushes this back toward the first option.

[left-of-center2012]

12. "backpacking in Afghanistan"

A few years ago some people were backpacking the Iraq-Iran border,
and were captured by Iranian troops.

[JI7]

20. I can understand the iran iraq thing

Iran is not at war and many people travel there as tourists.

I can see some people being curious but still idiots with going to far in these type of countries.


But afghanistan is different.

[left-of-center2012]

21. Iran holds a number of American tourists prisoner

No sense tempting them by hiking along their border.

[Dulcinea]

36. This.

Who goes hiking in Afghanistan while 7 months pregnant? Who goes hiking in Afghanistan at all?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

41. Exactly

With all the bucolic splendor that America (at least until Pruitt has it all trashed for industry profits) has to offer for hiking, they choose......Afghanistan? Who does THAT? There are PLENTY of less dangerous places to hike even in Europe. I can't even imagine going ANYWHERE in the ME for any reason (and thankfully, don't have to).

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Somehow, I doubt that her captors would have provided her with contraceptives.

I haven't heard why they were backpacking in Afghanistan in the first place.

[mahina]

9. Some kind of missionary work, or that was the story.

It reads fishy as hell to me too but I don't have any idea what I imagine they were really doing.

If a husband proposed such an idea to a pregnant woman, who would agree? Even if he said he knew it was God's will, I can imagine her explaining how God had a very different idea.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

42. Are there not enough people to minister/help here in America?

Appalachia? Inner cities?

[Trust Buster]

3. Whos children are they ?

[dalton99a]

37. +1

[janterry]

4. How would you prevent it?

n/t

[Chasstev365]

5. A fair point, but the whole thing doesen't make sense to me

[kcr]

13. What about it doesn't make sense?

They were held five years.

[Doreen]

6. What religion is he? If he is Muslim he must not be fanatical Muslim or

he would have to kill his wife in an honor killing because she got raped. The first thing I wondered why they had children why in captivity. Wouldn't they have kept them separate? If she was raped who's children are they really? Hiking in a dangerous area with a pregnant wife? How stupid can one be? They killed the girl but they let the boys live. The boys are the ones who have a chance of going and fighting them later and kill them. You would think the boys would have been taken and made into little militia men. Something is fishy.

[PSPS]

7. "They killed the girl" -- actually, she had an abortion.

[kcr]

14. What? n/t

[PSPS]

18. Michelle Shephard has been writing about this in the Toronto Star

The story has now evolved to "his wife’s rape and forced abortion."

[kcr]

22. What does that have to do with their infant daughter who was murdered? n/t

[PSPS]

24. The impression is that they were using the term "murder" for what was actually an abortion.

[kcr]

25. According to whom?

Like I said in another post, all I see is a mention of them using cryptic hints in their letters and videos because they can't talk about what is actually happening. No one that I can see is claiming it was actually an abortion.

[PSPS]

27. According to Joshua Boyle himself

NPR broadcast a segment this morning with Michelle Shephard who, herself, had interviewed Boyle. She said Boyle talked about the conditions the family endured, including being held underground and at times in cells no larger than the size of a bathtub. He also told Shephard his wife was forced to have an abortion, referencing the infant daughter he said was killed.

You can hear the interview here:
http://www.npr.org/2017/10/15/557863642/canadian-man-details-horrors-family-endured-in-years-held-by-haqqani-network

[kcr]

28. Right in your link:

"In a brief statement during a press conference in Toronto, Boyle said his wife had been raped and their infant daughter killed while they were in captivity."

Michelle Shepard seems to be the only one who thinks it was an abortion.

[PSPS]

29. Shephard's interview was not the press conference. Listen to the segment in the link (upper-right.)

[kcr]

31. Why does it matter?

It is still being reported everywhere, including NPR, right in that article, that Boyle is stating his child was murdered. The only person who states it was an abortion is Shepard. But even if it was a forced abortion, it's still pretty horrific.

[PSPS]

33. Words matter

Of course, it's horrific any way you put it. But Boyle's use of the word "murdered" has a different connotation. They discuss this very issue in the interview. You should listen to it. It's only six minutes long.

[kcr]

23. And I think you're confused. I just googled for that journalist and newspaper.

It says nothing about it being an abortion. It does mention cryptic hints they gave during their captivity, one of them being a mention of an abortion.

[Blue_true]

8. The dad sounded pretty radical in his press conference.

He seems to be radical, but not terrorist radical.

[Igel]

11. That's my take.

He might even support the Taliban. It was Haqqani that allegedly took him.

I'm hedging on that because for all the bad things we have just their word.

In August there was a crackdown on the Haqqani network by Pakistan. All kinds of leaders and others fled. Some were caught. They'll reorganize, to be sure, but they'll be weakened a bit for a while.

It was precisely during this time that the couple was caught in transit. Perhaps they were being transported to a safer place. Perhaps they were fleeing. Dunno. They control all the evidence, unless US or Pakistani intelligence has something on them. The Pakistanis aren't talking, and the couple went out of the way to avoid US jurisdiction--which might be relevant (of course, "might be relevant" logically is just another way of saying "might not be relevant&quot .

And, to be honest, it's a blip that will have no long or medium term consequences, and no short- or very-short term consequences that will affect me in any way or that I have any control over or say in.

[Yupster]

30. If you are the daughter of an Al-Quaida member

you don't marry someone you met at a beer bash or at work.

You are matched by your family with a suitable mujahadin family, often with a man that you never met before maybe in a foreign country.

The fact that an Al-Quaida family thought this man suitable to marry their daughter shows that at least they thought he was a supporter of theirs.

He probably has good reason to stay out of the USA.

I recommend the book "The Exile" by Cathy Scott- Clark. It tells the inside story of Al-Quaida from 9-11 to Osama's death. A lot of the book is about the family lives of the Al-Quaida leaders.

[cwydro]

15. Ive found something off about this story too.

And apparently, he was previously married to the sister of some Al Queda dude. Not that is immediate cause for suspicion, but I just have a strange feeling about it.

[Cicada]

16. If shes pregnant with dads child that blocks Taliban child

[malaise]

17. Someone asked a gret question on TV

Who would take their pregnant wife on a trip to Afghanistan?
Something is really wrong.

[former9thward]

32. Something is really wrong

when people try to make excuses or justify the Taliban raping women.

[malaise]

35. The person who said that was cretainly not justifying rape n/t

[JI7]

19. The whole thing is strange.

[Not Ruth]

26. They do not seem to want to go to the US, not sure if because they hate Trump, or love single payer

But they are in Canada

[stevenleser]

34. Everything I have read about this guy, his background, his statements, makes him seem off

and not just a little off, WAAAYYY off. Completely screwed up.

I cannot imagine willingly taking a pregnant spouse to somewhere like Afghanistan or Somalia or any war zone.

You're not missing anything. This guy was many cards short of a full deck.

[edhopper]

38. He referred to

he and his wife as "Pilgrims".

[WinkyDink]

40. "himself."

[edhopper]

43. my grammaring

ain't so good sometimes.

[WinkyDink]

39. There is MUCH missing. Forcing a woman to give birth FOUR TIMES, making one's own children

HOSTAGES, under the primitive conditions and the Taliban, reeks of MENTAL ILLNESS and/or SYMPATHY with the Taliban. Indeed, they had privacy for their marital relations?

Hubby also seems to like saying that his wife was raped often.

He's one sick puppy.