Father of freed Taliban hostage lashes out at her 'unconscionable' Canadian husband for taking her to Afghanistan and slams him for snubbing US military plane ride home
- Jim Coleman, 71, spoke out against son-in-law Josh Boyle on Friday morning
- He said it was 'unconscionable' for him to take Caitlan Coleman to Kabul in 2012
- Caitlan was five-months pregnant when they went there on a 'hiking vacation'
- On Wednesday, the pair were freed in a joint rescue mission by US and Pakistan
- Boyle however refused to let the family board a US military plane afterwards
- Coleman's father criticized that decision given the US's role in saving them
- The couple and the three children they had in captivity are en route to Canada
Jim Coleman said it was 'unconscionable' for son-in-law Joshua Boyle to take Caitlan to Kabul, Afghanistan, without telling either of their families when she was five-months pregnant in 2012.
'What I can say is taking your pregnant wife to a very dangerous place, to me, the kind of person that I am, is unconscionable,' he told Good Morning America on Friday, a day after the pair were rescued along with the three children they had in captivity.
Coleman, who lives in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, also criticized Boyle, 34, for refusing to board a C-130 US military plane which was ready to take them home on Thursday.
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Jim Coleman, 71, said it was 'unconscionable' that his son-in-law took his daughter to Afghanistan in 2012 when she was pregnant, a decision which resulted in their kidnapping
Instead, the family insisted on traveling on a commercial flight with Canadian officials.
'I don't know what five years in captivity would do to somebody but if it were me and I saw a US aircraft and US soldiers, I'd be running for it,' he said.
Coleman added that President Trump should be given 'full credit' for the family's rescue, which was carried out by Pakistani troops at the behest of US intelligenceare
On Thursday night, Boyle told The Toronto Star in a telephone interview that he and his family would return to Canada to start their new life.
'We’re looking forward to a new lease on life, to use an overused idiom, and restarting and being able to build a sanctuary for our children and our family in North America,' he said.
He also spoke of the 'betrayal' they had experienced over the last five years which he said left him 'psychologically and physically shattered'.
Caitlan Coleman, 31, and Joshua Boyle, 34, were rescued in Pakistan on Wednesday along with their three young children, two of whom are pictured above in a 2016 hostage video. Boyle then refused to board a US military plane which would have brought them home
Instead, the family is now on their way back to Canada, where his parents Linda and Patrick (above in Ontario on Thursday) live
Canadian officials have said nothing to celebrate his release since it was announced on Thursday morning.
Boyle is not thought to be under investigation in either the US or Canada.
Boyle was previously married to Zaynab Khadr, a terror suspect now believed to live in Sudan
He was married to Zaynab Khadr between 2009 and 2010 after growing close to the woman when he volunteered to defend her brother, Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr.
Though he grew up a devout Christian, Boyle volunteered to be the family's spokesman in the media when Omar was jailed at the age of 15 for allegedly murdering a US Sergeant in combat in Afghanistan.
He spent ten years in Guantanamo before being released to Canadian authorities after pleading guilty to murder.
Zaynab, who is now believed to live in Sudan, bonded with Boyle at an anti-abortion rally. She drew controversy in 2004 when she publicly defended the 9/11 attacks.
Her father, Ahmed Khadr, was one of Osama Bin Laden's closest friends. He died in Afghanistan in 2003.
Friends said that when he was kidnapped, Boyle 'may have been converting to Islam'. He had a 'passion' for the country, others said.
President Trump, his Chief of Staff and the State Department have all spoken of their relief that Boyle and his family has been freed.
Coleman's family in Pennsylvania say President Trump deserves full credit for orchestrating their rescue
None have hinted that they may face scrutiny if they return to the US.
Instead, they are focusing on the cooperation between US and Pakistani officials to secure their release.
Pakistani troops were mobilized on Wednesday night after receiving intelligence from US agencies that the family were being moved by their captors.
Accounts vary on how long they had been in the country. Pakistani officials say they only crossed over from Afghanistan that night whereas US and Canadian officials said they may have been in Pakistan since 2015.
Trump has long accused Pakistan's government of fostering and enabling terrorist organizations such as the Haqqani network.
Coleman was five months pregnant when her husband took her to Afghanistan in 2012. They are pictured before they departed on the trip
Caitlan's mother Lynda said it was 'incredible' to hear her daughter's voice again after five years
Coleman was five-months pregnant when she and her husband traveled to Afghanistan in 2012 for what they told relatives was a hiking vacation. They never mentioned their plans to go to Afghanistan before they left
Joshua Boyle's previous marriage to daughter of 'Canada's first family of terrorism'
Before he married Caitlan Coleman, Joshua Boyle was connected with Canada's 'first family of terrorism'.
In 2009, he married Zaynab Khadr, the older sister of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr and the daughter of Ahmed Khadr, one of Osama Bin Laden's closest friends.
The pair grew close after Joshua worked on Omar's case. He volunteered to be the family's spokesman after Omar was sent to Guantanamo when he was 15 for allegedly murdering a US soldier during a battle in Afghanistan.
Friends say he was fascinated by terrorists and 'deeply cares about justice' which is why he got involved.
He believed Omar - who was 15 when he allegedly threw the grenade - should never have been treated as a terrorist. They said at the time that at best, Omar was a child soldier.
Omar Khadr was 15 in 2002 (left), the year in which US officials say he tossed the grenade which killed US Sergeant Christopher Speer (right) in Afghanistan. He was captured and was sent to Guantanamo Bay
Through his time working with the family, he became close with Zaynab. Zaynab shot to infamy in 2004 when she defended the 9/11 attacks in an interview about her younger brothers imprisonment.
In 2009, Zaynab and Boyle married. They divorced the following year. He was already friends with Coleman, who he'd befriended on the internet as a teenager.
In 2011, they got married and the following year, he took her backpacking in Afghanistan when she was five months pregnant - setting in motion the chain of events which would lead to their capture and release five years later.
Joshua met Omar's sister Zaynab (above) through his work on behalf of Omar and they got married in 2009
The Khadr family have been dubbed Canada's 'first family of terrorism' over their links to al Qaeda.
In 2002, Omar was accused of killing American soldier Sgt Christopher Speer with a hand grenade in Afghanistan and planting mines to target US vehicles.
Omar spent eight years in Guantanamo before being released to Canadian authorities in 2010. He was released on bail in 2015 and is pictured above that year
He was captured and sent to Guantanamo Bay where he spent eight years before pleading guilty to war crimes which resulted in an eight year sentence.
He was then moved to Canada to serve out the remainder of the sentence and, in 2015, was released on bail.
Since then, he has asked to have unsupervised communication with his older sister, who now lives in Sudan. His request was turned down.
The Khadr family is linked to al Qaeda, the fanatical organization founded by Osama Bin Laden.
Unlike the Taliban, which is focused on building an Islamic state leadership in Afghanistan alone, al Qaeda's ambition knows no geographical boundaries.
On Thursday, Boyle's parents expressed their gratitude to the US government along with Pakistan's in a video on Thursday night. They also gave thanks to Canadian officials.
Coleman's mother has not broached the politics surrounding her daughter's rescue.
In an interview with GMA, she spoke only of the 'incredible' moment she heard her daughter's voice for the first time in five years.
'I've been waiting to hear that voice for so long. And then to hear her voice, and have it sound exactly like the last time I talked to her,' she said.
Boyle's parents in Ontario, Canada, say they look forward to welcoming the pair back to the country.
Pakistani troops shot out the tires of kidnappers' car to save family of Taliban hostages who were hiding in the trunk after receiving a tip from US spies about where they were
Pakistani military officials have described how they rescued a US-Canadian family of Taliban hostages in a dramatic late night ambush on Wednesday.
They say the rescue began with a tip off from US intelligence that suggested Caitlan Coleman, 31, Joshua Boyle, 34, and their three young children were being transported by their Haqqani network captors.
The tip said the family was being moved from Afghanistan into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas.
At 4pm local time, US officials informed Pakistani intelligence and at 7pm, the family was rescued in Kurram, 165 miles across the border from Kabul where the couple was kidnapped in 2012.
Residents in Kurram said they had seen drones flying above them for days before the rescue. Pakistani officials say they ambushed the vehicle that was transporting the family and shot out its tires to bring it to a sudden halt.
The couple was rescued on Wednesday night in Kurram in Pakistan which is near the Afghan border
Reports of whether the captors survived are conflicting. Boyle said they were murdered after saying 'kill the hostages'.
The family was hiding in the trunk of the car and were removed. They were placed on a Pakistani military helicopter and were taken to the US embassy in Islamabad.
US officials tell a different story and suggest that the family had been in Pakistan for two years before they were rescued.
The discrepancy is significant - the US has accused Pakistan repeatedly of harboring and enabling terrorist networks.
President Trump and his administration has given repeated warnings to its government that the US will not tolerate its apparent leniency on networks such as the Haqqani network and al Qaeda.
Pakistani troops said they planned to intercept the vehicle at a checkpoint in Kurram but that the captors drove off-road
US intelligence officers learned that the family was to be transported to Kurram, a tribal area in Pakistan, in the days before their rescue. Residents there described seeing drones flying above them last week
Major General Asif Ghafoor, the spokesman for Pakistan's Armed Forces, celebrated the rescue online on Thursday
It was in Pakistan where Osama Bin Laden hid for years in a secretive compound as he evaded capture after orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.
The collaborative effort between the US and Pakistan to rescue Coleman and Boyle however demonstrates a shift in relations between the two countries.
Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, the spokesman for Pakistan's Armed Forces said of the mission: 'We sent our troops, traced the vehicle on the basis of intelligence sharing by 1900 hours yesterday (Wednesday) and recovered the hostages.'
He said they planned to intercept the vehicle at a security checkpoint in Kurram but that the terrorists drove it off the road.
They then tried to force it to stop by following it in their own vehicles for a few miles. When they refused, Pakistani troops shot out the tires.
Unnamed US and Canadian officials however say the family had been in the country for years and that Pakistani officials were aware of their presence there.
'It means Pakistan could have released them far earlier... But due to the tension with the US they felt it was the right moment,' one source said.
A senior Taliban commander also denied the military's account to AFP, saying the militants had released the hostages of their own volition.
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