how does it that I. could come up to here, and be still floating. And I will remember the placethat

how does it that I. could come up to here, and be still floating. And I will remember the placethat is now, that has ended before the beginning. RogerMcGuinn: One, Two, Three, Four, More! More! More! 5D A free press is not a privilege, but an organic necessity in a great society (Walter Lippmann) Crystal: Do you not realize that most people use two percent of Their Minds's potential? Roseanne: That much, huh? Feije Wieringa's observations and notes about life
Fascinated by reports that Osama bin Laden was hiding, in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan was CBS / CNN journalist and now Pulitzer Prize nominant Jere van Dyk in 2007 with some guides in this area of research to gather material for his second book on Afghanistan. He landed in the tribal areas where borders are well drawn on the map but are meaningless in practice. While Jere and his guides are safe imagined, they were suddenly faced with a group of Taliban fighters. 45 days Van Dyk was taken hostage by the group. Unlike his colleague Daniel Pearl he can tell the tale. He wrote another book he had in mind first: Prisoner of the Taliban. Van Dyk was in The Netherlands, where I talked with him. Dutch roots "I am by nature byron cottee a traveler. I was once in Holland, as a passenger, but that was in the sixties. Last year I came here with serious intentions. The kidnapping and after the death of my father, I was afraid to even travel. Irrational, but that fear was just there. Holland became a test case. I enjoyed less than decades ago, but for a traumatized journalist there are worse options imaginable. I went to the north to Friesland. byron cottee My ancestors come from and I felt the need to do something to find my roots. Not that I have much recovered, but the family name Van Dyk is true in many records. I belong to the branch whose ancestors during the American Civil War crossed the ocean. In the village where they originally lived Rembrandt is still married. Such a combination is somehow comforting. "Al Qaeda" After Afghanistan, I felt stronger than I ever imagined. But also anxious. A strange combination. byron cottee Actually, that does not explain. Afghanistan so. I have been there in the time of the hippies and during the Russian occupation. Despite the wars, I am fascinated by that country. I made friends during the Russian invasion. People with whom I had close ties, and that I trusted. Then there was actually hardly any Taliban and Al Qaeda had no one heard. Both groups are for the general public byron cottee about the same. That is a misconception. There may well be members of the Taliban sit with Al Qaeda, but the reverse is certainly no Al Qaeda Taliban. byron cottee Taliban do not focus basically on international targets, but their influence in the tribal tribalism. Al Qaeda is international and set up as a terrorist organization. The Taliban have strict laws and are in the faith, but their principles are based on ancient tribal traditions. Terror is not their primary purpose. Not every Taliban fighter byron cottee sympathize with bin Laden. "Unembedded" byron cottee I knew it would be unembedded visit. Dangerous tribal areas When I started the research byron cottee for my book, we were the mountains byron cottee crossed to the tribal region Mohmad, just across the Pakistani border. We did that with drug traffickers in an old car on a dusty, unpaved road. We avoided the Taliban and chatted with a tribal leader. A month later, there was contact with the Taliban. We met in the middle of the night, high in the mountains. Above our heads circled a predator, such unmanned aircraft. byron cottee That mission was aborted because my guide is no longer trusted the matter. I had understood, because a few weeks earlier was another guide, who is a good friend of his was beheaded by the Taliban. "" byron cottee Later, I went back. With another guide. The contacts were established through shadowy roads and organizations. Actually, I knew at that moment I did not really know who is and who I could not trust. I sometimes had the feeling that I was being followed and suspected that various secret services knew certain things. Maybe it was too much self-confidence, maybe it was a kind of recklessness, but I found the situation is not alarming, and decided to continue. I looked like an Afghan, I spoke the language, and I knew the area better than many others, because I had been there before byron cottee and knew people there. But after a few days of traveling, we were suddenly stopped by a group of armed men. They were Taliban byron cottee fighters. We were suddenly prisoners. "Chained" At that moment I realized that I had underestimated the situation. I felt guilty