7 Months, 10 Days In Captivity

David Rohde interviewed villagers in southern Afghanistan, above, in the late summer of 2007, about a year before he was kidnapped while working on a book about the region. Tomas Munita for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

THE car’s engine roared as the gunman punched the accelerator and we crossed into the open Afghan desert. I was seated in the back between two Afghan colleagues who were accompanying me on a reporting trip when armed men surrounded our car and took us hostage.

Another gunman in the passenger seat turned and stared at us as he gripped his Kalashnikov rifle. No one spoke. I glanced at the bleak landscape outside — reddish soil and black boulders as far as the eye could see — and feared we would be dead within minutes.

Read more ....

My Comment: It took this horrible experience for Mr. David Rohde to realize that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are one and the same .... he should have talked to me. I have never been to Afghanistan or Pakistan, but even I figured that out the Al Qaeda-Taliban connection a long time ago.

This is a fascinating read on one man's experience with the Taliban. Read it all.