JCC JediWarrior And Connemara Missing In Afghanistan (Update: What a ****show.)

I don't even know what to say.

 

So are they saying this is at least purported to be a new video? Or just that CBS has obtained the video and has no idea whether it's the one from 2014?

Man, I share everyone's gut-churning feeling every time new stuff gets posted to the thread. I really don't see how this will have a happy ending. The only vague possibility is to have a black ops rescue attempt, which has of course been done or at least attempted in other cases..


But yeah. Definitely don't feel good about this in any way. And actually seeing a clip of thar video makes it all the more real.

 

In that article, Connemara's father does say that she's "naïve." Also interesting, the initial articles seem to suggest Taliban involvement whereas the latter articles indicate otherwise (or at least say that a Taliban spokesman is denying his group's involvement).

 

Wasn't there a blogger who met them commenting on how naïve they both were?

And didn't Boyle have a kind of useful idiot connection to radical Islam - he converted, right?

 

From January this year: http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/01/americans_hostages_taliban_afg.html

Odd how Josh told Connemara's father that they were "going to the mountains" and in one of those earlier articles it's mentioned that the mountain areas are notoriously dangerous. This article indicates that the highlands are occupied by a specific terrorist cell. It also does again state that the Taliban is involved.

Ender, I'm not sure what conclusions you're willing to draw but the whole thing does seem sketchy. :/

Edit:

A 2014 article about Josh's connection with radicals: http://globalnews.ca/news/1374898/canadian-held-in-afghanistan-who-is-joshua-boyle/

 

An article I read said the Canadian government is now convinced that Josh's connection to a radical family is just a strange coincidence. Or perhaps at most, that it emboldened him to feel like they'd be fine out hiking in that area.

So at least, that's what Canada is saying about it.

 

Oh I don't think he's been punished or anything. Stupid idea.

No, I mean more, if you trace his involvement with the family whose name escapes me in Canada, Eh to the blogger who met them in central Asia (or even Afghanistan proper), there's this utter disregard for safety. Which means they were stupid, and got caught as a result of being ill-prepared; or Boyle assumed his conversion and activism in the West would actually shield him and her from issues.

Like, I don't want to feed any ideas that he might've been trying to "join up" or any inferences to that nature. I just think they thought it'd be an adventure and they'd be ok because Boyle's experiences showed they weren't hostile to Islam or whatever.

i.e. Boyle never read Lenin.

 

I believe that the US said something similar about it being an unrelated coincidence.

 

I'm only seeing this now? Well, I suppose I was gone for a few years.

Anyway…there are no words. I remember Connemara back in the day, spoke with her a bit. smh … Guess I'll just offer up the overused "Wow."

*sighs*

 

No word on the baby? Ugh.

I'd say seeing this thread upped brings up not just dread but anger at their stupidity. Can't get past that, sorry.

 

Disquieting news.

 

I always get a slight chill when this thread rises to the top.

 

She's definitely the victim. The US and Canada don't want anything to do with him but they want to help her. What a fiasco.

 

What is it now, 4 years? Hope they get out of it alive.

 

I'm brown and of Muslim upbringing and I would still never think it's safe for me to go there. They torture their own people after all. Converting to Islam doesn't offer any protection from extremists who don't actually believe in the faith they're claiming association with.

 

That sucks, and you are right in that extremists don't believe in anything, but death and chaos.

 

No, she's an adult and responsible as well. That they put themselves in harm's way is one thing. The victim here is their baby, who has (hopefully present tense still applies, though I hardly believe it the case) two nimrods as parents.

 

They say they have two kids.

 

What kind of debate is "who is the victim?" And what does it ultimately matter? Are we otherwise okay with people having their lives threatened, and being held in captivity against their will for years on end because they "deserve" it? I would sort of hope we could acknowledge the situation as sad regardless of how people ended up there.

 

According to this site...

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP that the video was not new and had in fact been recorded in 2015. Mujahid said Boyle and Coleman and their two children remained in captivity but in good health.

 

Does anyone ever do crowdsource fundraising to collect ransom money?

 

Two children. Both born (and one conceived) in captivity. Ugh :/


Edit:

From what I've read, no random has ever been demanded. But I could be wrong.

 

Despite the bleakness, this did make me laugh.

"if the policies of the Afghan government are not overturned, either by the Afghan government or by Canada, somehow, or the United States"

the Afghan government can do it! US government, too!

Canadian goverment...ehhhhhh

 

What policies are they referring to?

 

Executing Taliban captives.