The curious case of Joshua and Caitlan Boyle

In October 2012, Canadian-American couple Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman were kidnapped in Afghanistan while they were on a “backpacking trip”. They were held in Taliban custody for five years and the couple had three children during their time in captivity. The couple was freed on 11^th of October 2017 as they were being shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan. Working off an intelligence tipoff from the United States, Pakistani forces undertook a successful rescue mission the moment the captors crossed over into Pakistani territory.

Joshua Boyle was previously in the limelight for his vocal stance against the 2002 incarceration of a minor from Canada named Omar Khadr. The US held the boy, aged sixteen at that time, in Guantanamo Bay. Joshua Boyle married Omar Khadr’s sister, Zaynab Khadr, also a Canadian citizen, in 2009. Boyle divorced Zaynab Khadr in 2010.

After ten years in Guantanamo, Omar Khadr was released into Canadian custody in September 2012 and consequently won damages of 10.2 million dollars in a settlement by the Canadian government for his denial of human rights and illegal imprisonment in American custody. Intriguingly, subsequent to Omar Khadr’s release, the Taliban took hostage his former brother-in-law, Joshua Boyle, along with his new wife in October.

Many questions arise. For instance, who allowed the Boyles to ‘backpack’ in hostile Taliban territory? How (and why) did they come to Afghanistan? Why were they not rescued inside Afghanistan for five long years? Why did Boyle refuse to board the US aircraft offered to him at Islamabad to return him and his family back home? What did Boyle mean by his statement that his interests and US interests were not the same? Additionally, in a statement in Ottawa, why did Boyle blame the Haqqani Network for the rape of his wife and death of his daughter during captivity? Why does Boyle’s statement paint his Taliban captors in a softer light? Moreover, why were no drone strikes conducted on the Taliban while they were shifting the Boyles to Pakistan?

Why were the Boyles allowed to ‘backpack’ in Taliban territory?

Were the Boyles persuaded to come to Afghanistan at the same time that Omar Khadr was being released into Canadian custody from Guantanamo Bay? The couple’s arrival in Afghanistan and movement into the heart of the Taliban territory could not have been without US and Afghan knowledge. Did the Boyles become a bargaining chip to keep Omar Khadr quiet and eventually put the blame on the Haqqani Network [for rape and death of his daughter] and give praise to the Taliban [as Boyle has done] for subsequent negotiations?

Joshua Boyle refused to board a US aircraft at Islamabad. Did he foresee another incarceration at Bagram Air Base instead of reaching Ottawa? It is telling when he expressed his sentiments of not being on the same page with the United States.

Why were there no rescue attempts by the U.S. for five years?

Another interesting aspect of the Boyle abduction is that strangely enough it did not elicit any serious rescue attempt by US troops and their Afghan allies. Moreover, if the US had such precise intel about the Taliban shifting the Boyles to Pakistan, then why was the family not rescued while in Afghanistan? Does the US not trust its Afghan allies or even its own forces to undertake such operations inside Afghanistan? Or does the US not want to attack the Taliban inside Afghanistan?

Why were no drone strikes carried out?

Despite intelligence being as precise as the exact time of the Taliban movement and shifting of the Boyles towards Pakistan, there was no drone strike conducted in Afghanistan. Was it because Caitlan Coleman is an American citizen and her children could also be termed the same? Or, was the US concerned about the negative fallout of the Boyles becoming collateral damage during a drone strike? ‘Collateral damage’ is a term used frequently when others are killed by US operated drone strikes. Or could it be that the rapid response of the Pakistani forces upset the US apple cart by preventing a US raid and drone strike inside Pakistan?

The Trump connection

Just prior to the rescue of the Boyles, Trump was quoted as telling his aides that “a country very disrespectful to the US is now going to show us respect. I have just been told by a General.”

Once the rescue was announced, he called it a positive moment in relations with Pakistan and said, “Pakistan’s cooperation is a sign that it is honouring America’s wishes for it to do more to provide security in the region. I believe they are starting to respect the United States again.”

From Trump’s statements, it could be deduced that the “get tough policy” on Pakistan was working and it was now going to do more for America. So perhaps the Boyles were used as pawns and the Taliban were coaxed into moving them into Pakistan by the US.

Release of Sergeant Bergdahi, Colin Rutherford

The confinement of the Boyles could have been intertwined with the captivity [2009] and release [2014] of US Sergeant Bowe Bergdahi. Five high-level prisoners known as the “Taliban Five” were released into Qatar’s custody from Guantanamo for the freedom of Sergeant Bergdahi. Former Green Beret Lt Col Jason Amerine in his testimony before a Senate Committee hearing in 2015 stated, “Because the US was only focused on Sergeant Bergdahi as he was American, we lost the chance of rescuing other hostages like the Boyles and Rutherford in Talban captivity. The State Department scuttled plans to rescue all hostages.”

At the start of the quadrilateral peace talks between Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US in January 2016, the Taliban freed Colin Rutherford, another Canadian that they had taken prisoner in February 2011.

It is possible that the US allowed the Boyles to languish in captivity for a longer period because it was more interested in its own citizen and enhancing peace negotiations with the Taliban.

Postscript

Pakistan should not expect any bonhomie in its relations with the US even after the Boyles’ rescue. Trump’s statements of so-called “praise or appreciation” are disparaging enough. No upbeat headlines should be written about these remarks. The demonising of Pakistan by the US will continue.

By quickly responding to the hostage crisis and freeing the Boyles, Pakistani troops may have stopped plans for a unilateral US rescue operation. This may not have been to the liking of the military-dominated confrontational White House. Hence, the speculation that the Boyles were perhaps inside Pakistan for some time and only a get tough policy with that country ensured their release.

The abduction of the Boyles raises many questions. However, the answers may never be found due to the murky game being played by the US in the region.

Joshua and Caitlan allegedly met online as teenage Star Wars movie friends. Maybe they were beamed down into Taliban territory and then again beamed onto Pakistan’s border. Who has this capability? Definitely not Pakistan!

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2017.

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