Joshua Boyle

Joshua Boyle
Born Joshua Ainslie Boyle
Nationality Canadian
Known for Taliban hostage
Spouse(s) 1) Zaynab Khadr, m. 2009-divorced 2010
2) Caitlan Coleman, m. 2011-
Children two sons
Parent(s) Patrick J. Boyle, Linda Boyle

Joshua Boyle is a Canadian hostage held by the Taliban.[1][2] His wife Caitlan Coleman,[2] a U.S. citizen who was born in York County, Pennsylvania, is also a hostage, as are their two surviving children.[3] Boyle first received press coverage in 2009 after an attack on his father's home. At the time Joshua Boyle was married to Zaynab Khadr of the well-known Khadr family, and Boyle expressed suspicions that this fact was connected to the attack.[4]

Background

Joshua Boyle is the second of five children of Patrick and Linda Boyle. He attended a Mennonite school and was involved with his mother's "Anglican church and his father’s Catholic faith."[5] He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Waterloo in 2005.[6][7] He is known by his friends as a pacifist.[8]

Boyle had a long-standing interest in Islamic terrorism, stating in 2009 that “anything related to terrorism on Wikipedia, I wrote, pretty much.” He took an interest in the Gitmo detainee, Omar Khadr and married Omar's sister Zaynab Khadr in 2009 becoming her third husband. At the time Boyle was believed by co-workers to be, or perhaps converting to become, Muslim taking prayer breaks at work at appropriate times.[4] During his marriage to Zaynab, Boyle's parents' Ottawa house was fired upon and ransacked by an intruder but no valuable were taken. Boyle believed it was related to his marriage to "a woman who had ties to Osama bin Laden."[9][6][10] US FBI investigators have concluded that the kidnapping of Boyle and his wife was unrelated to his first marriage and have described it as "a horrible coincidence".[11][12][13] The Canadian RCMP agrees with the FBI assesment;[14][15] Boyle and his wife have been described as innocents and "harmless hippies" by a former Canadian senior intelligence officer familiar with the case.[16][17] Boyle expressed interest in doing humanitarian work in places known to be dangerous.[4]

Taliban captive

Boyle and Coleman met online as teen aged Star Wars movie fans, became friends and married in 2011.[4][18][19] They went missing in 2012 while traveling through Wardak province, a Taliban haven 40 km from Kabul near the Pakistani border.[2] They had been touring Central Asia for several months and were taken days after entering Afghanistan.[20][14] Boyle last contacted family on October 8, 2012 from an internet cafe in an "unsafe part" of Afghanistan.[7] Coleman, who was five months pregnant at the time she was kidnapped,[21][22][18] gave birth in captivity[4] and subsequently had a second child.[10] They are held by the Haqqani network.[2][23][24] Afghanistan was not part of the original travel plan, according to his parents.[7] They are civilians with no military or government ties.[25][26][27]

No ransom has been demanded.[17][16][28][29][30][31] The Taliban is said to be seeking an exchange for the release of certain Haqqani Network members imprisoned by Afghanistan,[32][28] including Anas Haqqani.[33][34] Lt. Col Jason Amerine testified in 2015 at Senate congressional hearings that he believed the June 2014 prisoner exchange for USMC Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl could have included Boyle, his wife Caitlan and their first son.[35][5][26][1][27][36][37][38] In 2016 an agreement to release Boyle alone was reported, but he refused to leave his American wife and children behind.[39] In 2017 the Obama administration was reported to be working hard in its last few weeks to secure the release of American hostages of the Taliban and Haqqani Network, including the Coleman Boyle family.[32]

References

  1. 1 2 Shane Harris (April 23, 2015). "An American Mom and Her Baby Are Being Held Hostage by The Taliban". Daily Beast. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Joshua Boyle, Canadian held hostage in Afghanistan, pleads for help in new video". Globalnews.ca. August 31, 2016. Archived from the original on October 25, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Pa. woman, husband, 2 sons speak in Taliban hostage video". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 2016-12-21. Archived from the original on 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Nick Logan (June 4, 2014). "Canadian held in Afghanistan: Who is Joshua Boyle?". Globalnews.ca. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016.
  5. 1 2 Michelle Shephard (September 16, 2016). "Delivering his own son by flashlight: Kidnapped Canadian's correspondence gives glimpse of life in captivity". Toronto Star.
  6. 1 2 Michelle Shephard (April 2, 2009). "A break-in, slaying and Khadr marriage mystery". Toronto Star.
  7. 1 2 3 Michelle Shephard; Jessica McDiarmid (December 31, 2012). "Khadr’s Canadian ex-husband and new wife missing in Afghanistan". Toronto Star.
  8. ↑ Edwards, Alex (2015-10-03). "The Sad, Strange Story of the Taliban’s Canadian Hostage".
  9. ↑ David Pugliece (June 11, 2015). "Plan to release Canadian hostages stymied by U.S. gov't infighting, lawmakers hear". Ottawa Citizen.
  10. 1 2 Keri Blakinger (July 1, 2016). "American woman held hostage by Taliban for nearly four years has second child in captivity". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Couple Held Captive in Afghanistan Plead for Help in Newly-Public Video". The Atlantic. 2014-06-04.
  12. ↑ "Missing N American couple in 'Taliban' video". BBC News. 2014-06-04.
  13. ↑ "Canadian held captive in Afghanistan with U.S. wife makes plea on video | Toronto Star". 2014-06-04.
  14. 1 2 "Family keeps hope alive for son, daughter-in-law kidnapped by Taliban | Toronto Star". 2014-07-26.
  15. ↑ "They met online, shared a love of 'Star Wars.' Now the Taliban has them.". The Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News. 2016-12-21.
  16. 1 2 "Canada must do more for the taken". Globe & Mail. 2017-05-11. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
  17. 1 2 "Canada's no-ransom policy is flawed, hypocritical: ex-CSIS official". Globe & Mail. 2017-05-11.
  18. 1 2 "Delivering his own son by flashlight: Kidnapped Canadian's correspondence gives glimpse of life in captivity | Toronto Star". thestar.com. 2016-09-16.
  19. ↑ "Khadr’s Canadian ex-husband and new wife missing in Afghanistan | Toronto Star". thestar.com. 2012-12-31.
  20. ↑ "State Dept. - US aware of Afghan hostage video, assessing it". AOL.com. 2016-08-30.
  21. ↑ "US faces challenge freeing Americans held hostage on Pakistani-Afghan border". Fox News. 2016-01-18.
  22. ↑ "They met their grandsons in a Taliban hostage video | Toronto Star". thestar.com. 2016-12-21.
  23. ↑ Bergen, Peter (2015-06-24). "How to free American hostages". CNN.
  24. ↑ Bergen, Peter (2016-12-21). "How Trump should respond to hostage appeal". CNN.
  25. ↑ "Special Forces officer: American hostages held overseas ‘failed’ by U.S. government". Washington Post. 2015-06-11.
  26. 1 2 "U.S. government botched chance to rescue Canadian hostages in Pakistan, American soldier says". National Post. 2015-06-12.
  27. 1 2 "Canadian held hostage in Afghanistan freed after five years". Globe & Mail. 2016-01-11.
  28. 1 2 "Canada’s forgotten child hostages | Toronto Star". 2017-05-16.
  29. ↑ "New Videos Show Western Couple Held Captive in Afghanistan". Time. 2014-06-04.
  30. ↑ "Child born to couple held in Afghanistan". Aljazeera. 2016-06-05.
  31. ↑ "Missing western couple in Afghanistan plead for help in videos". Fox News. 2014-06-04.
  32. 1 2 "One Hand on Light Switch, Obama Isn’t Flipping to ‘Off’ Just Yet". The New York Times. 2017-01-15.
  33. ↑ "American Woman Abducted in Afghanistan Issues an Appeal to Obama". The New York Times. 2016-12-19.
  34. ↑ Bergen, Peter; et al. (2017-01-08). "American hostages more likely to die than others from the West". CNN.
  35. ↑ "Special Forces officer: American hostages held overseas ‘failed’ by U.S. government". Washington Post. 2015-06-11.
  36. ↑ "Hostage Rescue Plans Bungled by Bureaucracy, Green Beret Says". ABC News. 2015-06-11.
  37. ↑ Bergen, Peter (2015-05-28). "Why is this Special Forces war hero being investigated?". CNN.
  38. ↑ "Special Forces officer under investigation by Army called to testify at whistleblower hearing". Washington Post. 2015-06-04.
  39. ↑ "Western couple appear in Taliban video". Daily Mail. 2016-08-30.
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