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Have just transcribed Joshua Boyle's statement to Pakistani military, recorded on video and released moments ago. Quotes to follow. #Thread
"We all thought that day I wld be released wld be happiest day of my life. To be certain that was true."
"But what was surprising was the handling of the situation by the Pakistanis [...] It has been incredibly professional. I have been amazed."
"In Canada and the US, I have seen similar [rescue ops] being bungled very badly ... but this has been a tremendously precision work [sic]"
"The proof was the [...] ISI and the army got bw the criminals and car to make sure that prisoners were safe and that my family was safe."
"There are good Muslims, there are bad Muslims and there are those who are not Muslims, they are pagans."
"Men who kidnapped us did not even make pretence of being Muslim [...] they even ceased to call themselves mujahideen."
"[Kidnappers] were undoubtedly criminals. They were undoubtedly pagans. They were directed by commanders who were not guided by Islam [...]"
"The five years that we spent a large bulk of that time in Afghanistan, I did not see the presence of Afghan soldiers."
"I did not see control of the Afghan govt in these areas. Some areas were controlled by Taliban, some maybe were controlled by mujahideen."
[Interesting that Boyle appears to make conscious distinction b/w Taliban and "mujahideen" as distinct entities controlling separate areas.]
"Some areas are certainly controlled by criminals. And some areas are completely uncontrolled."
"[I hope] Western media reports will look at Pakistan a little bit differently now, and will understand that it is not a...disaster area."
/#EndThread Lots to parse through, in that video message.
