0:01

This is a CBC Podcast. Miserable,

0:09

miserable day on so many levels.

0:12

Indeed. It's

0:14

raining. I think

0:16

we have a flat tyre. Oh, we have a

0:19

flat tyre? We've

0:22

been in Syria almost a week, but it

0:24

feels so much longer. A

0:28

few regime checkpoints here and there, which

0:30

we're going to be avoiding again. We

0:33

don't have the paperwork from the regime of President

0:35

Bashar al-Assad. One

0:37

wrong turn, and we're on our way to a prison

0:39

in Damascus. But

0:42

we're here to meet with someone who could help with our

0:44

search for baby Salman. They're

0:48

supposed to be here, and this... Oh,

0:51

I can see the vehicle. Oh, wow. Look

0:54

at someone dancing. Someone's dancing on

0:57

the rooftop. Perfect. I think

0:59

that's him, that's David. Is that David, and

1:01

he's dancing on the rooftop of the car? Oh,

1:05

wow. In the rain. That

1:09

films it, isn't it? I now know who

1:11

this guy is, yes. This

1:18

guy dancing on the roof of a

1:20

Toyota SUV is David Eubank. MUSIC

1:46

Good to see you. Hi.

1:48

Hello. Good to meet you. You're

1:51

English. Cheers.

1:55

Hi, I'm Poonam. I'm Poonam Taneja. I'm

1:57

David. Hi, David. David

2:01

is ex-US Army Special Forces and

2:03

a devout Christian. After

2:06

his time in the Army, he set up

2:08

the Free Burma Rangers. It's a

2:10

humanitarian organisation that gives aid

2:12

to civilians in war zones. That

2:16

was quite some performance. Well,

2:18

I'm actually... My daughters are really good dancers.

2:21

And my son kicked off one of my favourite songs,

2:23

as we're waiting for you all, called

2:26

Come On Eileen, and

2:28

I was just thought, I

2:30

love that song, I love these people. So

2:33

I didn't expect you to catch me in

2:35

the act, but anyway, there's always joy. It

2:38

was pretty hard to miss you were dancing on

2:40

the rooftop of your car at a gas

2:43

station. What a lovely

2:45

start to the day. Brilliant. Thank you.

2:47

Well, thanks for being here. Great story. David's

2:51

a maverick, the kind of guy

2:53

you often find in conflict zones. He's

2:55

been in Syria for the past few years,

2:57

with his wife and children, and

3:00

a motley crew of humanitarian

3:02

and ex-military volunteers. We've

3:07

been supporting and working here for the last

3:09

seven years, in and out. We're helping rebuild

3:11

the hospital and do other

3:13

kids' programmes and medical work. I

3:17

wanted to talk to him because he was in the village of

3:19

Baguse in 2019. This

3:21

is where Islamic State Group made its last stand,

3:24

where we believe Aisha, Salman's mother, died, and

3:28

where Ash thinks Salman was too. I

3:33

just wanted to know, what did you see?

3:35

What was the situation? Carnage,

3:38

rubble, all that. Dead bodies

3:40

everywhere. And, I mean,

3:44

whole tent sites full of

3:47

improvised explosives. And

3:49

all the villagers had evacuated. Baguse and

3:51

the villagers behind were empty. It's

3:54

hard to find accurate numbers, but

3:56

when IS fell, the vast majority

3:58

of those who fired were dead. out of

4:01

bagus were women and children. Among

4:03

them were many orphans. Somewhere

4:06

alone, others had been picked up

4:08

by women who were fleeing. If

4:10

Salman survived, and if he got

4:12

out, then this could have been

4:14

how. When the kids

4:17

came out then, there were

4:19

many, many orphans. Many.

4:22

And, I mean, we're just,

4:24

like, picking them up, trying to

4:26

stick them somewhere in a truck. You know, they

4:28

bring the trucks up every day, give them food,

4:31

clean them up if they're wounded, change their diapers.

4:33

That's what my kids, my wife and kids were

4:35

doing. Put them on trucks and send them up.

4:38

So we did a program for them. David and

4:40

his team gave medical aid to some of these

4:42

kids. But many of

4:44

them were too sick and didn't survive.

4:47

Those who did were transported

4:50

by Kurdish forces to Al-Haul,

4:53

300 kilometres away. That's

4:55

where Jawaan and I saw all those tiny

4:57

graves. Once we got

5:00

to Al-Haul later in April and May of that

5:02

same year, 2019, suddenly

5:04

there was two, like, little compounds

5:06

within Al-Haul full of orphans, just

5:08

full of... These were foreign orphans

5:10

that we were with. How

5:12

old were they? There was babies,

5:16

like, months old, babies, orphans.

5:19

And they were from three

5:22

months old or less, all

5:24

the way up to, I remember, a 14,

5:26

15-year-old boy. Nobody stayed behind

5:28

in Baguus? No. And

5:30

I think the orphans, 99%, are in Al-Haul. I've

5:37

looked into this, looked into the kids,

5:39

looked into their parents, and it

5:41

feels as if after the fall of Baguus, many

5:44

of them should have been returned to safety,

5:46

but they've been languishing in camps since then.

5:48

Are we running out of time to prevent

5:50

them from being radicalised,

5:53

from dying, from facing

5:55

absolutely zero prospects in the future?

5:57

Is it a race against time? I

6:00

just think if I was a young boy, I didn't

6:02

know the evil of ISIS. I just

6:04

grew up in this family, and then my dad is killed.

6:06

Maybe my mom is wounded. My brother

6:08

or sister are killed, others are killed, and all I see

6:10

is the SDF and the Allied Coalition forces pounding

6:13

us, and then suddenly I'm taken to a

6:15

prison. What hope do I have? Oh,

6:18

if you follow God this certain way,

6:20

even martyrdom will achieve this. Well, I

6:22

got no other choice. I'm

6:25

gonna get out of here and fight. We

6:28

came to fight ISIS because

6:30

ISIS had an evil message that only they counted. Well,

6:33

we're giving the same message. We count, you

6:35

don't. That's

6:38

also evil. Every

6:40

country, take your people back. Try them in your

6:43

own courts, by your own systems. Make

6:45

up new laws if you have to. And

6:47

then these kids, give them a

6:49

chance. I'm

6:59

Poonam Taneja. This is

7:01

Bloodlines. I'm

7:04

Poonam Taneja. This

7:06

is Bloodlines. Are

7:22

you alright? I'm going to the bus. We can

7:24

go in now. Right. So

7:28

we're just driving in. There's

7:32

an electric metal gate guarding it. Guarding

7:38

the entrance. We're

7:41

still waiting on permission to get back into Al Hall camp.

7:45

We want to show Salman's photo to the staff who work

7:47

with kids there. But after days of bombings,

7:50

cancel meetings, full starts and a

7:52

lot of time on the phone,

7:56

we've finally been given permission to visit the

7:58

smaller camp, Al Hall camp. to

22:00

the campus to speak about Aishan like this.

22:02

All right. So what is the situation in

22:04

the camp now for you? I mean, it's

22:06

what's daily life here like? Just,

22:11

I don't know. Everything seems so routine. They do

22:13

the same thing. You just cook

22:16

and clean. And we're

22:18

just waiting. We're just waiting to get out. And

22:20

what about your boys? Are they going to school?

22:22

Yeah, yeah. They go. They go. You

22:25

guys, you like your school? Yeah. Yeah.

22:29

What about their dad? Is he alive?

22:32

Is he alive? Yeah. He's around. OK. OK.

22:36

His in detention? His writer? Yeah. He's

22:38

a person. Is he Canadian

22:40

too? No, no,

22:42

he's not Canadian. Well, nationality is he if

22:44

you're unsharing? Not really. You've

22:55

been really, really helpful. I hope so. Can

22:57

I leave these photos with you? Yeah,

22:59

you can. Or should you wish I leave you one?

23:02

Yeah. Do you not recognize them? There's something else I

23:04

want to run by her. Back

23:06

in London, Ash told me he

23:08

and his family had received a

23:10

mysterious message shortly after they

23:12

lost contact with Aisha and Salman.

23:15

Apparently, Aisha's family had received a

23:18

similar message too. I'm

23:21

just trying to work out. Someone contacted her family

23:23

to say that Aisha had died and so had

23:25

her children. So I'm just trying

23:27

to work out who, can you imagine who that

23:30

person would have been? Would have been somebody in

23:32

Baguus. The

23:36

thing is, I might

23:38

have an idea maybe who it was, but I

23:40

don't... This person

23:42

never told me. If this person

23:44

who contacted told me about Aisha, she

23:47

didn't say I seen the body. No

23:49

one I know said I seen her and her children

23:51

killed. What did they say? That

23:55

we heard. We

23:57

heard Aisha and her kids got killed. I

24:00

don't know anybody who said I seen Aisha and

24:02

her children or I was with them when When

24:05

they got killed or I saw where they

24:07

were living and got bombed. Yeah, I don't know right

24:09

Is anybody in the camp who knew Aisha apart from

24:12

you? Yeah,

24:16

yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe so there

24:18

is there is would you be able

24:20

to introduce us to Do

24:23

you mind if I Have

24:25

to speak to them first, of course, of course, do

24:27

you think you could ask while we're still here? We'll

24:29

be here for another hour. Thank you. Thank

24:32

you so much We

24:37

can come back in about one hour come

24:39

back in one hour, thank you. Thank you

24:56

You The

24:59

island of Newfoundland keeps its secrets

25:01

close shrouds them in

25:03

mystery But once in

25:05

a while the fog is lifted the

25:08

truth comes out Again

25:10

feeling something going on here. The whole

25:12

body was shaken you go to bed

25:15

Believing that you're a certain person one night

25:17

and then all of a sudden the next

25:19

day Everything that you've known is

25:22

not true. This is not the life that

25:24

I should have lived I'm

25:26

Luke Quinton from CBC. This is

25:28

come by chance available now Uncover

25:33

from CBC podcasts brings

25:35

you award-winning investigations year-round

25:38

But if you want to listen ahead all

25:40

episodes of bloodlines are available right now

25:44

Binge listen to the entire series

25:46

by searching bloodlines Wherever

25:48

you get your podcasts You

25:51

can also listen out free by

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subscribing to the CBC true crime

25:55

channel on Apple podcasts Uncover

25:58

the best in true crime crime. I think

26:07

now it's time for us to see Nicole, because we

26:09

are running out of time. So

26:13

many of the kids in this place have

26:15

grandparents, aunties, uncles who are desperate to bring

26:17

them home, like Charlene, the

26:20

nurse from West London. Her

26:22

grandkids and daughter Nicole have been

26:24

stuck in camps like this since

26:26

2019. When

26:29

I was here a couple of years ago,

26:31

Nicole did a TV interview with me. When

26:33

I first spoke with her,

26:35

her mum Charlene was

26:43

trying to get Nicole and her children back to

26:45

the UK, but the British

26:47

government was against it. They saw

26:49

women who travel to live under IS

26:51

as a security risk. What

26:55

I really remember about that visit though, when are

26:58

Nicole's kids? I

27:00

like learning something new. Like say

27:02

in school they teach us something else to

27:04

do, like a paper. Especially her eldest. And

27:07

I like learning like different

27:10

things like different

27:12

languages. And like

27:15

when you learn more things your brain comes better.

27:19

And all these kind of things. I want to be smart when I grow up.

27:22

She was 12 at the time and

27:24

she wanted a future for herself and

27:27

she was clearly bright. I've

27:29

thought a lot about what kind of life she's going

27:31

to have, what kind of future. Now

27:36

two years on, I still remember the way to

27:38

Nicole's tent. As I approach it, I

27:42

recognise her eldest daughter doing

27:44

housework. She's grown so much and when I ask

27:47

her to find her mum for me, it's clear

27:49

by the way she sighs, she's now a full-on

27:51

teenager. We've

27:55

just gone to Nicole's

27:57

tent. She's not that old.