This story indeed ‘stinks to high heaven’!
There is quite a bit of information in the public domain that he converted to Islam, which is highly likely if he married a very devout Muslim woman, especially one with strong ties to al Qaeda. Co-workers indicated that he took prayer breaks, which also suggests deep devotion. There is quite a bit of research about people from one rather orthodox faith being very likely to adopt another belief system. The propensity for ‘devoutness’ is already part of their personality. In recent years, some perhaps see devout Muslims as martyrs akin to early Christians. There is quite a strong exodus from the Catholic religion due to disillusion with the church hierarchy. If I were him and had been held captive by hostile oppressive jailors under a faith-led organisation, I would quickly get rid of the vestiges of that oppression, such as shaving the beard off. That is very symbolic and one of the first things many of whom were freed under those circumstances tended to immediately do!
They were all supposedly held in the trunk of a car, five of them! Two adults and two kids. How in the name of moronic bullshit can you fit all of them into the boot of a car? Some reports said that they were travelling with a particular Taliban faction and were captured by the Pakistani government forces and actually taken prisoner. However, due to their western origins they eventually were handed over.
He had a very pronounced interest in ‘terrorism’ and went to the lion’s den…
Intelligence officers are playing for time by declaring them ‘naïve innocents’. They will very likely be so closely monitored, that they will even know the consistency of his stool!