This might sound like satire, but we assure you it’s real: A Canadian man rescued from the Taliban-linked Haqqani network has revealed that he thought his captors were joking when they told him Donald Trump had been elected president of the United States.
Joshua Boyle and his wife, Caitlin Coleman, were kidnapped while hiking in Afghanistan in late 2012. Unsurprisingly, they were rarely given news of the outside world while in captivity; and when Boyle was forced to participate in a “proof-of-life” video, he didn’t believe it when he was told Trump was president.
“It didn’t enter my mind that he was being serious,” Boyle said.
For what it’s worth, Boyle and Coleman were unaware that Justin Trudeau was the prime minister of Canada, as well.
Now that Boyle and his family are home safe, however, many are beginning to wonder what they were doing in Afghanistan in the first place. Boyle and Coleman were captured while backpacking through Wardak province, a known Taliban haven. If that’s not reckless enough, Coleman was pregnant at the time; she gave birth to three children while in captivity, but one child didn’t survive.
More questions arise given Boyle’s ties to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Prior to marrying Coleman, who is a U.S. citizen, Boyle was married to Zaynab Khadr, the older sister of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr and the daughter of Ahmed Said Khadr, a senior al Qaeda financier who died in a battle with Pakistani forces in 2003. The Khadr family also stayed with bin Laden for a brief time while Omar was young.
Notably, after being rescued Boyle refused to board a U.S. military transport plane en route to Bagram Air Base, reportedly because of his familial ties. He boarded a commercial flight to Canada, instead.
Don’t be surprised if we learn more about Boyle’s background and the reason he was in Afghnistan in the coming weeks.
Do you think there’s more to this story than we know? What do you think Boyle and Coleman were doing in Afghanistan? Share your thoughts and comments below!
