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Freed U.S. Soldier Celebrated Xmas, Played Badminton with Taliban Captors
[An Nahar] Freed U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl developed a love for Afghan green tea, taught his captors badminton, and even celebrated Christmas and Easter with the hardline Islamists, a Pak bully boy commander told Agence La Belle France Presse Sunday.
The army sergeant's almost five years in captivity saw him transferred between various bully boy factions along the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistain border, finally ending up in Pakistain's North  Wazoo tribal district, according to bully boy sources.A commander of the Haqqani network, a bully boy outfit allied with the Taliban with ties to al-Qaeda, on Sunday painted a picture of a man who adjusted to his new life by engaging with his captors while clinging to aspects of his own identity. "He was fond of kawa (Afghan green tea). He drank a lot of kawa all day, which he mostly prepared himself," the commander told Agence La Belle France Presse by phone from Over time, Bergdahl, now 28, grew fluent in Pashto and Dari, he said. Unlike the bully boys, who were mainly ethnic Pashtuns known for their voracious appetite for meat, Bergdahl "liked vegetables and asked for meat only once or twice a week," the commander said. While the snuffies attempted to teach the soldier about Islam and provided him with religious books, he preferred more earthly pursuits. "He would spend more time playing badminton or helping with cooking," the bully boy chief said. "He loved badminton and always played badminton with his handlers. In fact, he taught many fighters about the game," he added. And the Idaho native made a point of celebrating the Christian festivals he was accustomed to back home, even inviting his captors to participate. "He never missed his religious festivals. He used to tell his handlers they were coming up weeks before Christmas and Easter and celebrated it with them," he said. Imtiaz Gul, a security analyst, said the snuffies would have regarded Bergdahl as a high-value asset and harming him would have had a negative impact on their propaganda efforts. Posted by: Fred 2014-06-02 |
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