A former Boston University graduate student who claims he was abducted by an Afghan warlord last month is back in the United States but has been forced to defend himself against questions about the legitimacy of his story.
Clark Bowers, who said he was in the war zone on a humanitarian mission, said he was kidnapped Jan. 9 near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Bowers was reportedly released Jan. 18.
However, Bowers’ report can neither be confirmed nor denied by the U.S. State Department, as Bowers declined to sign a waiver of his privacy rights involving the incident. Christopher Lamora, spokesman for the Department of Consular Affairs for the Secretary of State, said the department met with Bowers at his hotel in Karachi, Pakistan, after he “turned up,” but Bowers refused assistance.
The State Department became alerted to Bowers’ situation from his wife, who told the department Bowers had called her, saying he and his interpreter were kidnapped by an Afghan warlord.
“Mr. Bowers has stated to us that he was indeed kidnapped,” Lamora said.
Lamora said the State Department worked with Pakistani and Afghan authorities during the ordeal to discern Bowers’ whereabouts and offer assistance.
“Our concern was for the well-being of an American citizen who was reportedly kidnapped,” Lamora said. “We met with him to make sure he was OK and offered to help him return.
“He didn’t request any other assistance. He didn’t request assistance getting back to the United States.”
In a statement faxed Sunday to the Associated Press, Bowers declined to identify an Afghan friend he says was abducted with him, who might be the only person who could verify the claim. Bowers did not mention what happened to that friend, saying he wanted to protect “all my Afghan friends and their families” from danger.
According to a report in The Birmingham Times, Bowers said his captors inflicted second- and third-degree burns on his arms with cigarettes, then branded larger burns on top of those with “burning sticks.”
Bowers, who reportedly told his wife his ransom stood at $25,000, said he was released Jan. 18 after paying his captors $5,000. Lamora could not speak about the amount of money transferred.
“We don’t encourage the payment of ransom,” he said. “As a matter of fact, we discourage the payment of ransom.”
Shortly after learning of Bowers’ story, questions were raised over discrepancies in his resume. Bowers, who has traveled across the country as an advocate for various conservative causes, claims in his resume to have worked for Fox News, but a Fox executive producer denied that assertion.
Furthermore, Bowers maintains he was previously employed as a visiting professor at Harvard University. School records, however, indicate only that Bowers was a student in a special program from 1993-96, according to a Harvard spokeswoman.
Bowers currently lives in Harvest, Ala. He had worked on a Ph.D. in the University Professors Program from 1993-96 but never received the degree, according to BU spokesman Bob Zalisk.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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