In this week’s Delingpole podcast, special guest Sean Langan talks about his kidnapping by the Taliban, beheading of his best friend, Jim Foley and meeting Al Qaeda, Islamic State, and Hamas leaders.
“I was abducted by Islamic terrorists in Kashmir,” the British journalist and documentary film-maker began.
Langan revealed that before his kidnapping, and four-month-long imprisonment by the Taliban he was abducted in Kashmir, where he recorded his first documentary, looking for kidnapped Western backpackers. He shared an anecdote about how one of the terrorists was “shouting at the local translator,” when he asked “is there a problem,” to which the translator responded, “no, no there’s no problem.” Six months later, he discovered “translating with subtitles what was being said by the shouting Afghan with an AK 47” pointing at him – “we told you not to bring any foreigners here, we’re gonna (bip) cut his head off.”
Langan revealed that he “knew nothing about Islamic extremist, jihadists, and suddenly” “was thrust into this world with those five backpackers who were kidnapped”. He shared that looking at this experience in “hindsight,” he realized that “ignorance is bliss.” But, his life was far from blissful when he recalled:
I was kidnapped by the Taliban and I would shoot myself rather than go through it again.
Langan expressed not feeling “regret over the experience”, but made clear that he would never go through it again, saying “that was an incredible lesson, but on a day to day, it was hell”. He recalled being handed a letter stating ‘‘you’ve been charged with working for foreign government’, then followed by saying, “I looked at my translator and said, we’ve been kidnapped”, to which he responded, “no we’re dead”.
I was told, you’re going to be executed!
The guest shared that by the time he was told his “execution was planned for the next day”, he was “fully resigned to death”. He recalled leaving his prison cell, and coming “into the light like a mole, blinking’, all ‘covered in bed bugs bites’. Standing in the courtyard, he asked the tribunal in charge of his execution, “any chance you could shoot me in the back of the head’, instead of slitting my throat with a knife?
After being granted this request, Langan took it a step further and pointed at “the man who brought” him food while in prison, asking “do you mind very much if that man over there shoots me?” Langan shared that the man “was so touched, he started crying”. – The execution was temporarily called off:
Two days later, they come back and said, your TV company started negotiations.
For the full interview visit here:
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