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Taliban captures Canadian national in Ghazni in 2010, released 2016

This case makes me sad.  Adventurous young Canadian learning some tough lessons... But what makes me even more sad, is looking around at the Canadian blogsphere, and witnessing how quickly some Canadians are willing to believe the Taliban and label this kid a spy.

The only thing we can really do is advise our loved ones to never set foot over there, at least not without understanding the very significant risks involved.

I sincerely hope that Mr Rutherford makes it out ok.
 
Poor kid. Thats the problem with the youth, they have a open mind and think well of the world. I'm sure he thought the people there would treat him well as his intentions were good. Hard way to learn a lesson. I honestly have huge respect for reporters who go out there alone and try to get the stories,  I wouldnt have the parts....but going in alone with a vague story of studying culture....not the best idea I've heard.

I done enough travelling in the country. Without a ton of buddies and a ton of weapons...I won't be going back.
 
dogger1936 said:
Poor kid. Thats the problem with the youth, they have a open mind and think well of the world. I'm sure he thought the people there would treat him well as his intentions were good. Hard way to learn a lesson. I honestly have huge respect for reporters who go out there alone and try to get the stories,  I wouldnt have the parts....but going in alone with a vague story of studying culture....not the best idea I've heard.

I done enough travelling in the country. Without a ton of buddies and a ton of weapons...I won't be going back.

I think rather, that is the problem with the world, it is dangerous and unreceptive to the open minded.  I can't fault the young for being open minded and thinking well of the world, although they do need to be prevented from getting into situations like this. 

 
This from Oral Questions yesterday:
Hon. Jim Karygiannis (Scarborough—Agincourt, Lib.):  Mr. Speaker, on November 4 last year, a young Canadian, Colin Rutherford, was kidnapped in Afghanistan and accused of being a spy.  His kidnappers have contacted Canadian officials with their demands. His family has not been told what the demands are. Once again, a Canadian overseas needs the help of the government.  Other than lip service, what have the Minister of Foreign Affairs and his officials done to secure the release and safe return of Colin Rutherford to Canada?

Mr. Deepak Obhrai (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, CPC):  Mr. Speaker, the government is aware of this case.  Due to security and privacy concerns, it would be absolutely inappropriate for us to comment on this case.
 
Perhaps he found it too embarrassing to say that DFAIT was changing the font on their website so that the WARNING on travel to Afghanistan was in in a flashing florescent red 72 pt Times New Roman font, making it stand out more for young Canadians to read.
 
George Wallace said:
Perhaps he found it too embarrassing to say that DFAIT was changing the font on their website so that the WARNING on travel to Afghanistan was in in a flashing florescent red 72 pt Times New Roman font, making it stand out more for young Canadians to read.
Those that choose to check in the first place, anyway.
 
Canada's still on the case:
A Scarborough woman whose son is being held in Afghanistan by kidnappers is "sick with worry" and "can't get a straight answer" from the federal government on how they will get her son home, local Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis says …. Media reports have said Rutherford's kidnappers sent demands to Canada's government, but Karygiannis, his mother's MP in Scarborough-Agincourt, said she has not been told what the demands are and his own inquiries about the case have gone unanswered.  Karygiannis confirmed Rutherford's mother does not want to speak to reporters, but in a release this week the Liberal MP quotes the woman as saying the federal government told her "due to privacy issues, they cannot discuss the case."  A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Canada, which advises Canadians against all travel to Afghanistan, confirmed Rutherford, "after travelling to the country as a tourist," is missing there.  "Canadian officials are working with Afghan authorities to assist the family in securing the safe release of their loved one," Priya Sinha added on Wednesday. "We ask that the media respect the privacy of the family."
Source:  insidetoront.com, 8 Jul 11
 
A bump with the latest:
The family of a Toronto man who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan last year is trying to bring him home by reaching out to his captors themselves.

Brian Rutherford, whose brother Colin was taken hostage during a vacation to Afghanistan in November 2010, told CBC News his family hopes to get in touch with his captors to find a solution. They have set up two phone lines, one for Canada and one in Afghanistan, and an email address for this purpose.

“We want to talk to the people that have him,” he told the CBC’s John Lancaster. “We want them to get in contact with us so we can work something out."

Rutherford's mother, Wendy, said she understands the Canadian government has done all it can and, now, it’s up to the family.

“My goal is to bring Colin home,” she said.

(....)

Since then, there have been no demands or ransoms made by Rutherford’s abductors. But in May, the Taliban released a video of Colin (downloadable from non-jihadi site), then 26 years old, giving brief answers to a man off-screen.

(....)

The department of foreign affairs would not comment on the specifics of Rutherford’s situation, but said it was "concerned" about his case.

"We are very limited in what we can say as we will not compromise the safety of any Canadian hostage," a spokesman said in an emailed statement. "We're obviously tremendously concerned about such cases. We are monitoring the situation and maintain contact with the family. Our thoughts are with them at this difficult time."

But the opposition’s associate foreign affairs critic, NDP MP Jinny Sims, is urging Ottawa to push harder for Rutherford’s release.

“We have had a significant presence in Afghanistan, and I think we have an incredible amount of contacts that could be used to locate this young man,” she told CBC News ....
CBC.ca, 22 Dec 11
 
But the opposition’s associate foreign affairs critic, NDP MP Jinny Sims, is urging Ottawa to push harder for Rutherford’s release.

Really? I do wish they wouldn't spout this bull....they are not doing the family any favors, just their reelection chances......
 
GAP said:
Really? I do wish they wouldn't spout this bull....they are not doing the family any favors, just their reelection chances......
What's interesting is how differently THEY would do things if they were in power, knowing more about the bigger picture than they do now.  Then again, that could be scary, too....
 
There's nothing in the article to suggest that the Government is not vigorously, but quietly working through intermediaries to get this guy released.
 
Brian Rutherford, whose brother Colin was taken hostage during a vacation to Afghanistan in November 2010,

Because you're an idiot.  Good job Colin.

 
I think he is going to exceed his wanted knowledge of the culture and people of this majestic region of the world.

Maybe he will get to see some historic sites previously unexplored by westerners. Experience things like Chai boy nights, women beating and killing, sharia law, inbreeding, total intolerance for anything outside their compound walls, more inbreeding, Allah, some more Allah, and all the great things that make Afghanistan a wonderful tourist destination.

This is the best example of the good idea fairy leading people into bad situations I've seen in a long time.
 
CDN Aviator said:
How convenient for the NDP........

Exactly, and because they cried and complained about casualties we don't have a strong combat presence anymore. They want their cake and to eat it too.
 
PuckChaser said:
Exactly, and because they cried and complained about casualties we don't have a strong combat presence anymore. They want their cake and to eat it too.

Actually, they want to eat their cake and have it. Anyone can have a piece of cake and subsequently eat it. The trick is to eat the cake and still have it left.
 
Bumped with the latest, shared under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) - highlights mine (with copy of his statement also attached) ....

"Special Forces officer: American hostages held overseas ‘failed’ by U.S. government"
Dan Lamothe, Washington Post, June 11 at 10:37 AM

Washington’s effort to recover American hostages held overseas is “dysfunctional” and mired in failures hidden by bureaucracy, an Army Special Forces officer once involved in the Pentagon’s part of the mission told the Senate on Thursday during a hearing for whistleblowers.

Lt. Col. Jason Amerine testified that he started working on hostage policy at the Pentagon in early 2013. At some point, he became frustrated with the inaction to free Americans and said he took his concerns to Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, after exhausting all other options. The Army, when it learned about his discussions on Capitol Hill, responded by removing him from his job, suspending his security clearance and launching a criminal investigation into his actions, Amerine said.

“My team had a difficult mission and I used all legal means available to recover the hostages,” Amerine said in prepared testimony. “You, the Congress, were my last resort. But now I am labeled a whistleblower, a term both radioactive and derogatory. I am before you because I did my duty, and you need to ensure all in uniform can go on doing their duty without fear of reprisal.”

Amerine testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee during a hearing called “Blowing the Whistle on Retaliation: Accounts of Current and Former Federal Agency Whistleblowers.” He first acknowledged facing an Army investigation and communicating his concerns about U.S. hostage policy to Hunter in a Facebook post on May 15.

The case pits one of the first heroes of the Afghanistan War against the Army. Amerine led a Special Forces team there in 2001 that protected future Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Amerine was wounded by an errant American bomb on Dec. 5, 2001, that killed three other Special Forces soldiers. He later received the Bronze Star with “V” and the Purple Heart, and was labeled by the Army as a “Real Hero” in the 2006 version of its popular video game, “America’s Army.”

The Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) has disputed that it is investigating Amerine as an act of reprisal, and declined to say whether the soldier is under investigation at all. A spokesman for CID, Chris Grey, declined to comment Thursday on Amerine’s testimony.

Amerine told the Senate that in 2013, his office at the Pentagon was asked to help recover Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier held captive for five years overseas and charged earlier this year with desertion. He was later recovered May 31, 2014, in a controversial swap for five Taliban officials.

“We audited the recovery effort and determined that the reason the effort failed for four years was because our nation lacked an organization that can synchronize the efforts of all our government agencies to get our hostages home,” Amerine said. “We also realized that there were civilian hostages in Pakistan that nobody was trying to free, so we added them to our mission.”

Amerine’s team worked to develop a viable trade for Bergdahl, bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and fix the interagency recovery efforts, he said. He “used all legal means” available to recover the hostages, and then went to Congress when he ran out of other options, he said. That prompted the FBI to complain that he was sharing classified information, he said. The Defense Department inspector general later determined he did not, he added.

Amerine credited the Defense Department inspector general with handling a reprisal complaint he filed well. The FBI has previously declined to comment on Amerine’s allegations.

Amerine credited Hunter with influencing the Pentagon to appoint Michael D. Lumpkin, a retired Navy SEAL and current deputy undersecretary of defense, as the Defense Department’s hostage recovery coordinator. Doing so allowed the Pentagon to respond quickly when a deal was struck to recover Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban officials, Amerine said.

But the other civilians held hostage — including Warren Weinstein, who was accidentally killed in a U.S. drone strike in January — were left behind, Amerine said. One of the options Amerine’s team developed would have swapped seven Westerners for one Taliban drug trafficker and warlord: Haji Bashir Noorzai. He was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to life in prison after being lured to the United States in 2005.

Amerine told the Senate that the trade developed would have freed Bergdahl, Weinstein, Canadian Colin Rutherford and a family of three: Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman, and their child born in captivity. He declined to identify the seventh hostage.


It’s unclear how the Noorzai swap would have worked. Bergdahl was held by insurgents affiliated with the Taliban, while Weinstein was held captive by al-Qaeda.

“Is the system broken?” Amerine asked. “Layers upon layers of bureaucracy hid the extent of our failure from our leaders. I believe we all failed the commander in chief by not getting critical advice to him. I believe we all failed the secretary of defense, who likely never knew the extent of the interagency dysfunction that was our recovery effort.”

Hunter said on the House floor last month that Amerine was critical in providing information that helped craft a congressional amendment that would require President Obama to appoint a specific federal official to oversee all hostage recovery efforts.

“Lieutenant Colonel Jason Amerine has worked with my office now for about two years on this amendment, and he is someone that really cares,” Hunter said. “He’s been working hostage stuff with about every government agency that there is, and he played a big role in getting this to where it’s at now.”

Amerine said he “failed” Weinstein and the four other Western hostages still in captivity.

“We must not forget: Warren Weinstein is dead while Colin Rutherford, Josh Boyle, Caitlin Coleman and her child remain hostages,” Amerine said. “Who’s fighting for them?”


 
~1800 days later ...
A Canadian man captured by the Taliban in 2010 has been freed.

Colin Rutherford was on a private vacation in Afghanistan when he was seized by the militant group in November of that year.

The last indication the Toronto man's family had that he was alive came in a 2011 video released by insurgents where he answered questions; an accompanying email accused Rutherford, then 26, of being a spy.

In the video, Rutherford insisted he was not a spy and had travelled to Afghanistan to study historical sites, old buildings and shrines.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion announced Rutherford's release in a brief statement, but did not explain what steps were taken to secure his freedom ...
A tiny bit more from the Foreign Affairs Minister:
“Canada is very pleased that efforts undertaken to secure the release of Colin Rutherford from captivity have been successful.

“We look forward to Mr. Rutherford being able to return to Canada and reunite with his family and loved ones.”

“The Government of Canada will continue to provide Mr. Rutherford with consular assistance and will assist in facilitating his safe return home.‎

“As minister of foreign affairs, I extend my heartfelt thanks to the Government of Qatar for its assistance in this matter.‎”
 
What a dummy. I'm glad no CAF members lives were put in danger trying to rescue him.
 
I'm sure any post-release debrief will focus strongly on potential radicalization while he was a guest of the Taliban.
 
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