Canadian/American Family Freed In Afghanistan

[blankall]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Something about his story never felt right to me. I'm still convinced that he decided to go and join the group, they found him to be a idiot, and decided to make some money off of holding him hostage.

Any guy who takes his pregnant wife to Afghanistan is doing it for a pretty strong reason.

Or is an idiot.

He seems like he is mentally ill, and found a group of people who were irrational enough to put up with him.. Momentarily anyways. Whether it's due to mental illness or being a criminal, the guy is clearly a danger to himself and the public.

[Ducay]

Even if you take the man's word at face value (which at this point no one does), he has still displayed a long, long, long list of terrible life decisions. Now, if you assume some of his motives weren't so good, it is even worse. Poor kids.

Nothing that touches the Khadr clan is good

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Any guy who takes his pregnant wife to Afghanistan is doing it for a pretty strong reason.

They were backpacking for months before they got to Afghanistan, and apparently she got pregnant while they were travelling.

Guy is still an idiot, though.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Something about his story never felt right to me. I'm still convinced that he decided to go and join the group, they found him to be a idiot, and decided to make some money off of holding him hostage.

Any guy who takes his pregnant wife to Afghanistan is doing it for a pretty strong reason.

Or is an idiot.

A little from column A, a little from Column B.

[Minnie]

Good piece from Macleans. A good deal more than I added here, to read in the article.

Joshua Boyle sauntered through a suburban Ottawa shopping centre and pulled up a chair at a Timothy’s. Wearing a blue winter coat, baggy khakis and a chinstrap beard, he was indistinguishable from the other shoppers making their way in and out of the mall’s mid-range shops. “I’m sorry I’m late,” he said, planting his feet and leaning forward. “I was checking out a potential apartment and the bus got stuck in traffic.”

Less than a month and a half ago, Boyle, 33, along with his wife, Caitlan Coleman, 31, and their three children—Najæshi Jonah, 5, Dhakwœn Noah, 2, and Ma’idah Grace, around six months—were hostages of one of the most brutal terrorist groups on Earth, responsible for murdering thousands of innocent civilians.

For five years they were shuttled around some of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s most inhospitable places, beaten and starved, Coleman raped, not knowing from one day to the next if they would live to see another sunrise.

But in mid-November, back in humdrum suburban Canada, with the media frenzy surrounding their release reduced—for the time being—to a mild simmer, they seemed to have slipped briefly into a familiar routine: doctor appointments and apartment hunting, figuring out how to proceed with the education of their children, all of whom were born in captivity.



The family had been holed up in a hotel in downtown Ottawa, less than a kilometre from Parliament Hill. Their one-bedroom suite was littered with toys and bits of garbage. They had recently left the Boyles’ family home in Smiths Falls, Ont., where they stayed after arriving in Canada on Oct. 14. “We were stuck in one room there for the five of us,” Boyle explained. “It was intolerable.”

It was a surprising complaint, to say the least, given their recent past as captives of terrorists. But like so many things about Boyle and his family’s terrifying saga, things aren’t always as they seem. Weeks later, headlines blared that Boyle had been arrested on a long and disturbing list of charges, including sexual assault and forcible confinement. “It is the strain and trauma he was forced to endure for so many years and the effects that that had on his mental state that is most culpable for this,” Coleman said in a statement to the Toronto Star on Jan. 2.

In a week of meetings with Maclean’s before his arrest, signs of Boyle’s controlling nature and distress were evident. During interviews at the hotel, he refused to leave the room while Coleman spoke, at one point snapping at her when she responded to a follow-up question. “Check with me before you say any of that on the recording.”

Friends, speaking on condition of anonymity, described him as manipulative long before his ordeal. One, an American named Greg who met Boyle in an online role-playing game, described his digital persona this way: “He played this trickster character who would scam people out of their assets,” Greg said, asking that only his first name be used because he is a member of the U.S. military. “He was the best the game’s ever seen at doing that. The charisma, the intelligence and getting in and seeing how he could get to people, that very much appealed to him.”

In interviews, Boyle refused to comment directly on many of the questions that have been dogging him since his release: What drove him to go to Afghanistan in the first place, when Coleman was seven months pregnant? What were they hoping to achieve? Boyle’s previous marriage to al-Qaeda apologist Zaynab Khadr has led many to speculate that he had a desire to join the Taliban’s jihad.

Boyle was most eager to talk about what happened to them in those five years and the crimes he says were committed against them. What becomes clear from these conversations is that their ongoing story began with an overconfident and tragically naive belief that in their travels they would be accepted, even protected by Afghanistan’s extremists.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Minnie

Good piece from Macleans. A good deal more than I added here, to read in the article.

Did he somehow think that having been married to Khadr that he would be considered untouchable as he roamed around Afghanistan?

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Did he somehow think that having been married to Khadr that he would be considered untouchable as he roamed around Afghanistan?

Yep, true believers are like that

[CaptainCrunch]

Boyle claims that his captives desperately tried to recruit him and he resisted so they killed his daughter.

http://torontosun.com/opinion/column...to-recruit-him

Boyle told the Sun that HN tried to recruit him, and offered him a position within their organization – an invitation Boyle claims to have rejected.
“And that’s why I laughed and informed them I’d rather be beheaded than join their group, despite four repeated offers/demands that I had to join them … culminating in the death of my daughter.”

Reading that article, Boyle comes across as certifiably nuts.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Boyle claims that his captives desperately tried to recruit him and he resisted so they killed his daughter.

http://torontosun.com/opinion/column...to-recruit-him



Reading that article, Boyle comes across as certifiably nuts.

“I know you probably have a bias that I’m foaming at the mouth, or crazy, cunning sociopath or whatever it is that you’ve imagined me to be,” wrote Boyle in an email on Oct. 28.

Literally no one thinks this.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Literally no one thinks this.

What makes this comment awesome is I suddenly envisioned a guy sitting in one of those old wing back leather chairs with a cup of tea in a saucer and a brimmed hat on saying this in the most unimaginably dry British accent ever

And it made me laugh

[Wormius]

Some harsh words for Boyle from Global columnist.

https://globalnews.ca/news/3945758/j...-owes-answers/

Sexual assault. Forcible confinement. Drugging.

If the allegations against Joshua Boyle, charged with 15 offences by police in Ottawa, are true, we are reminded of what we should already know — this isn’t a man who deserves any sympathy.

[CliffFletcher]

I haven't heard a single person say Boyle deserves anything but contempt - and that was before the charges were laid against him. It was government officials and some of the media who expressed sympathy. So weird that public figures feel obliged to express sentiments that only a small fraction of people share.

[Ducay]

Can't wait to blow up the pictures and tweets from Trudeau with the creep during next election as billboards.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Can't wait to blow up the pictures and tweets from Trudeau with the creep during next election as billboards.

Yeah the off-topic blasts worked so well last time around that they might as well ratchet them up this time.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Slava

Yeah the off-topic blasts worked so well last time around that they might as well ratchet them up this time.

Well he did get a new haircut, so obviously they must have worked.

[CaramonLS]

There may not have been enough to charge the guy with any crime when he came back home, but you think that the Canadian intelligence community can't be that far out of the loop on this guy. You would think they would be feeding information to Trudeau who can then make the decision whether or not to welcome him with open arms and take photos with him.

It doesn't take a spook to realize that something was really off about this case from the start. The US had quite a bit of chatter on Bergdahl, you would think that we would be able to get something comparable for this guy.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

There may not have been enough to charge the guy with any crime when he came back home, but you think that the Canadian intelligence community can't be that far out of the loop on this guy. You would think they would be feeding information to Trudeau who can then make the decision whether or not to welcome him with open arms and take photos with him.

It doesn't take a spook to realize that something was really off about this case from the start. The US had quite a bit of chatter on Bergdahl, you would think that we would be able to get something comparable for this guy.

I don't know, I'm fuzzy on the subject, but wasn't CSIS basically cut off at the knees by the government in terms of information sharing with other agencies.

Also even though Canada is part of 5 eyes, maybe the American's just aren't sharing information with their allies like they used to.

Also, CSIS isn't exactly known for its overall competency anymore.

This one is really on Trudeau's security detail.

I doubt that the Conservatives or anyone in an election campaign are going to bother with pictures of Boyle and Trudeau sitting in the office.

Its not something that shows negative against Trudeau. It would think they would focus on how badly his other ministers have bungled their jobs and broken promises and ethics.

Those are things that Trudeau will struggle to fight against. Cussing him of sitting in an office with a werido psycho isn't on Trudeau.

Plus what do we expect, it feels like Trudeau doesn't do his home work anyways.

"Mr Prime Minister, we have your briefing package on Boyle and think you need to look at it"

"Nah, Dancing with the Stars in on"

[Slava]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

There may not have been enough to charge the guy with any crime when he came back home, but you think that the Canadian intelligence community can't be that far out of the loop on this guy. You would think they would be feeding information to Trudeau who can then make the decision whether or not to welcome him with open arms and take photos with him.

It doesn't take a spook to realize that something was really off about this case from the start. The US had quite a bit of chatter on Bergdahl, you would think that we would be able to get something comparable for this guy.

I think there is a definite failure there and I'm not sure if that is in the security around the PM or the PMO itself? Maybe both? Its crazy that someone accused of major crimes somehow managed a meeting with the PMO though. Surely the RCMP were aware and it never should have happened from that point of view.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I don't know, I'm fuzzy on the subject, but wasn't CSIS basically cut off at the knees by the government in terms of information sharing with other agencies.

Also even though Canada is part of 5 eyes, maybe the American's just aren't sharing information with their allies like they used to.

Also, CSIS isn't exactly known for its overall competency anymore.

This one is really on Trudeau's security detail.

I doubt that the Conservatives or anyone in an election campaign are going to bother with pictures of Boyle and Trudeau sitting in the office.

Its not something that shows negative against Trudeau. It would think they would focus on how badly his other ministers have bungled their jobs and broken promises and ethics.

Those are things that Trudeau will struggle to fight against. Cussing him of sitting in an office with a werido psycho isn't on Trudeau.

Plus what do we expect, it feels like Trudeau doesn't do his home work anyways.

"Mr Prime Minister, we have your briefing package on Boyle and think you need to look at it"

"Nah, Dancing with the Stars in on"

Even if it were the case that CSIS had minimal to no international info on this guy, you would think they could at least get some domestic information after his capture. A simple residence search/computer search could tell you if this guy wanted to close out his life in Canada prior to his trip.

I'd be curious to know if he drained his bank accounts prior to leaving.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I doubt that the Conservatives or anyone in an election campaign are going to bother with pictures of Boyle and Trudeau sitting in the office.

Its not something that shows negative against Trudeau. It would think they would focus on how badly his other ministers have bungled their jobs and broken promises and ethics.

Those are things that Trudeau will struggle to fight against. Cussing him of sitting in an office with a werido psycho isn't on Trudeau.

This is going to sound like I'm taking a shot at the Conservatives but I'm actually speaking from strategic perspective. I don't think the Conservatives want to get into the guilty by association game because they'll get absolutely hammered for their associations with the likes of Levant, Fox News, etc. I get that the alt+right isn't the same as Islamic extremism but it's still something they're going to want to downplay as much as possible.