University alumnus Jere Van Dyk trekked deep into Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled border with Pakistan in February 2008 and, four days later, found himself staring at a video camera with a gun pressed to his temple, saying goodbye to his friends and family.
As a University senior 40 years earlier, Van Dyk took an anthropology course that instilled in him a great need for adventure.
“I now know why so many years ago I went to that anthropology class,” Van Dyk said Wednesday, in a lecture hosted by the University’s School of Journalism and Communication. “I wanted an adventure, and that adventure led me to the world of journalism.”
And journalism led Van Dyk to the Taliban and 45 days within their captivity — an experience that he explained in detail to the group of journalism students and professors gathered to hear him speak as part of a day committed to media ethics.
“I felt like I could do what no one else could do,” Van Dyk said of his choice to accept the assignment that led to his capture.
Van Dyk saw Afghanistan’s tumultuous history firsthand. In 1973, he first visited Kabul — a city filled with happy schoolgirls, outdoor cafes and 5,000 hippies, he said.
“I could hear the Rolling Stones, mixed with the call to prayer,” he said.
He returned in 1981 to Soviet tanks roaming the streets.
He knew the people and their customs. During his time covering the war between the Soviet Union and Afghan rebels for The New York Times, he had even connected with the Taliban — taken in by Jalaluddin Haqqani, today the most important military leader of the Islamic militia group.
“He treated me like a king,” Van Dyk said.
So, in 2007 when CBS sent him to investigate a possible link between the Taliban and al-Qaida, he was confident he would succeed.
“I wanted to go to the heart of the Taliban,” Van Dyk said. “I wanted to do what no one else had.”
For months, he traveled back and forth between Afghanistan and Palestine, each time going farther into Taliban territory. On Feb. 12, Van Dyk, two bodyguards and an interpreter were led far away from the Pakistani border and into the hands of Taliban leaders.
He didn’t expect to live past the first night.
“I’m all alone in this place, and I’m never going to get out alive,” Van Dyk said he told himself throughout the 45-day ordeal, which he documented in a reporter’s notebook.
But though they threatened to kill him several times, the Taliban eventually negotiated Van Dyk’s release.
“Thank God that they let me live,” Van Dyk said, adding that it gave him a new purpose to report on Afghanistan and its war.
“I’m now in a position to say a lot of things,” Van Dyk said. “I have an obligation now to do all that I can to keep us from killing one another.”
The experience did not discourage Van Dyk from wanting to return to the nation, he said, but the experience will stay with him forever.
“It did not end with 45 days,” Van Dyk said. “It’s always there; it’s always with me.”
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