AP Exclusive: Western couple held in Afghanistan
Source: AP-EXCITE
ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The family of a pregnant American woman who went missing in Afghanistan in late 2012 with her Canadian husband received two videos last year in which the couple asked the U.S. government to help free them from Taliban captors, The Associated Press has learned.
The videos offer the first and only clues about what happened to Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle after they lost touch with their families 20 months ago while traveling in a mountainous region near the capital, Kabul. U.S. law enforcement officials investigating the couple's disappearance consider the videos authentic but say they hold limited investigative value since it's not clear when or where they were made.
The video files, which were provided to the AP, were emailed to Coleman's father last July and September by an Afghan man who identified himself as having ties to the Taliban but who has been out of contact for several months. In one, a subdued Coleman — dressed in a conservative black garment that covers all but her face— appeals to "my president, Barack Obama" for help.
"I would ask that my family and my government do everything that they can to bring my husband, child and I to safety and freedom," the 28-year-old says in the other recording, talking into a wobbly camera while seated beside her husband, whose beard is long and untrimmed.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140604/afghanistan-missing_couple-2bc75c7b76.html
This undated handout photo provided by the Coleman family shows Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle. The family of a then-pregnant American woman who went missing in Afghanistan in late 2012 with her Canadian husband received two videos last year in which the couple asked the U.S. government to help free them from their Taliban captors, The Associated Press has learned. The videos offer the first and only clue about what happened to Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle after they lost touch with their family 20 months ago while traveling in a mountainous region near the capital, Kabul. U.S. law enforcement officials investigating the couple{2019}s disappearance consider the videos authentic but caution that they hold limited investigative value, since it{2019}s not clear when or where they were filmed. (AP Photo/Coleman Family)
= new reply since forum marked as read
why any non-military western woman (or man) would go to a place like that given the current environment. I just really don't get it. What is so god almighty important that you'd be willing to risk the nightmare of capture and imprisonment or worse? You couldn't get me anywhere near there (or India these days, for that matter) for love nor money. 
...I hate to say it but its kind of your own fault. Its like grilling steaks in your house with a charcoal grill with the windows closed or going for a jog in some parts of Chicago after 10PM.
Although I'm not sure I buy that these people are taking expensive trips to wars zones just to sightsee, I'll just leave it at that.
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I don't care what the cause is, I'm not going alone in a war zone or sneak into North Korea with bibles.
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^Marla Ruzicka was killed back in 2005. She traveled between Iraq and Afghanistan for years (usually alone or with a translator).
