Mark Frerichs on what his freedom means after being held hostage in Afghanistan for years

Amna Nawaz:

Yesterday, we brought you the story of Mark Frerichs, a 60-year-old American contractor from Lombard, Illinois, who was kidnapped and held in Afghanistan for 32 months.

U.S. officials believe he was taken and held by the Taliban-allied Haqqani group. Mark was released in September of 2022.

Just before the new year, I went to meet Mark in his hometown for his first and only TV interview.

Tonight, in part two, his captivity and his release.

Mark Frerichs, Former Taliban Hostage:

In the complete darkness of the tunnel, I didn't know. I had no way of knowing how many weeks had gone by, I mean, day or night.

Amna Nawaz:

Isolated in captivity, Mark clung desperately to the hope he would one day be freed. He didn't know his government was making a plan to get out of Afghanistan.

In February of 2020, just weeks after Mark was taken, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation under then-President Donald Trump, signed a deal with Taliban leadership in Doha, Qatar.

The deal laid out a timetable for full U.S. troop withdrawal by May of 2021. It did not include Mark's release.

Joe Biden, President of the United States: We are going to continue to work for the release of detained Americans, including Mark Frerichs.

Amna Nawaz:

After taking office, President Biden pledged a September withdrawal. But, by August, Taliban forces had reached Kabul and reclaimed it.

What do you think at that moment, when you realize they are now in control of the country?

Mark Frerichs:

I'm frightened.

Amna Nawaz:

Why?

Mark Frerichs:

What about me? What about America first? Does that include Americans first?

Amna Nawaz:

How do you hang on to hope in a moment like that?

Mark Frerichs:

What other choice do you have? You just hope tomorrow is the day. You know, looking back, I don't know how I made it through.

Amna Nawaz:

Later in his captivity, Mark says his guards would sometimes share news from the outside world, from a deadly virus spreading around the world, to his sister working to free him. He believed nothing.

Mark Frerichs:

First thing I thought was, this guy wouldn't be privy to that information,, a week prior to that, he asked me if I had a sister.

(LAUGHTER)

Amna Nawaz:

But, in fact, 7,000 miles away in Lombard, Mark's sister, Charlene Cakora, was doing everything she could to get her big brother out.

Charlene Cakora, Sister of Mark Frerichs: And this is — he got taken to Khost, and he started out in Kabul

Amna Nawaz:

Charlene went to Washington, lobbied the White House, gave national interviews to call attention to Mark's case.

Charlene Cakora:

I cry every now and then at night. And I just think about — about what he's going through right now. Is he being bathed? Is he being fed? Is he clothed? Is he warm?

Amna Nawaz:

No one in the family has done more than you to lead the fight, to keep his name in the headlines, to talk to everyone you could talk to, to get him free.

What was that like for you for the last couple of years?

Charlene Cakora:

It was just — I just took each day and just did what I needed to do each day.

Amna Nawaz:

She worked with the FBI and Justice Department, which put up a $5 million reward for information on Mark. Soon after, she says, the phone calls started.

Machine Voice:

Sunday 9:53 a.m.

Speaker:

Hello. Can you help me this time, please? We are working for the release of Mr. Mark.

Amna Nawaz:

Numbers from Afghanistan calling at all hours, claiming they could help to free Mark.

Charlene documented everything.

Charlene Cakora:

I have files and files and files of everything, category of who I talked to each day and our conversations. And now I look back, and it's like, wow, I really did a lot. Yes, it was just each day for two-and-a-half years.

(LAUGHTER)

Amna Nawaz:

She tracked every hostage video of her brother that made its way to her, four in all.

Mark Frerichs:

I have been patiently waiting for my release.

Amna Nawaz:

While Charlene was fighting for her brother's release, Mark was fighting to stay alive and sane in captivity.

Mark Frerichs:

I tried keeping track mentally, but one day — when one day merges into the other, it's difficult. And sleeping is intermittent.

It would be two hours, and then up for a while, then two hours. And, sometimes, I would sleep a complete night. But part of the harassment part of it was keeping your sleep broken up.

Amna Nawaz:

He says the guards spent their time tormenting him, taunting him, beating him, and carrying out mock executions.

Mark Frerichs:

They were having fun, like come in, in the middle of the night, just young kids, faces all wrapped up like a mummy, kind of creepy. Just all you see is these two eyes, and coming in to tell me that they're going to kill me, chained up on the ground, blindfold me, and just kind of surround me, like, walking around me, talking, and cycling their weapons and everything.

And I could feel — I could feel the barrel next to the — next to my ear.

Amna Nawaz:

Did you think ever, this is the moment that I die?

Mark Frerichs:

Oh, yes. I mean, I was ready to meet my maker, just — I was kind of like, oh, would they really do it? It's like, you look at their crazy eyes and it's like, I think they would probably do it.

(LAUGHTER)

Amna Nawaz:

Meanwhile, back home, a breakthrough. The Biden administration makes a deal with the Taliban, trading Bashir Noorzai, a convicted Afghan drug lord held in a U.S. prison for 17 years, for Mark.

In September, U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens flew to Kabul to bring Mark home.

What does he say to you?

Mark Frerichs:

"I think you're free now,' or something like that.

I — you know, it was such a surreal moment.

Amna Nawaz:

When you came back and you found out that your sister had been leading the efforts to free you, fighting for you every day of those two-and-a-half years…

Mark Frerichs:

Yes.

Amna Nawaz:

What did you think?

Mark Frerichs:

That was amazing. I couldn't believe it.

Amna Nawaz:

Why not?

Mark Frerichs:

I hadn't seen her in 15 years. She's halfway around the world.

I look at her in a whole different way now, yes. I mean, we're a lot closer.

Charlene Cakora:

"Dear Mark…"

Amna Nawaz:

Charlene has never before shared with Mark the letters she wrote to him while he was held hostage, until today.

Charlene Cakora:

"We will have great tears of joy getting you home on U.S. soil."

Amna Nawaz:

Mark's hometown welcomed him back with open arms. He's reconnected with childhood friends.

Mark Frerichs:

It's been a long time, man.

Amna Nawaz:

Gone out to restaurants and is back to practicing his magic skills.

Oh, very nice.

But he has a long way to go.

You have only been back just over three months, right?

Mark Frerichs:

Yes.

Amna Nawaz:

How are you doing?

Mark Frerichs:

Doing good.

Main thing is keep it — keeping it up physically. I seem to be doing OK. I'm in a relationship, so that is working out good. A lot of support from people knowing what I have been through. And, yes, I'm having intermittent sleep issues. Sometimes, I will just have this — these feelings come across me, of, like, impending danger. But they pass.

Amna Nawaz:

He is starting over in every way, no job, no home, hoping a GoFundMe will help sustain him. His savings and equipment were looted back in Afghanistan.

After 32 months in captivity, he doesn't know what's next. But what he does know is, he's free.

Your day-to-day life now, though, means you can move around freely.

Mark Frerichs:

Yes.

Amna Nawaz:

You can open the door and walk outside. You can look up and see the blue sky above you. It is a world away from your life over the last two-and-a-half years.

Mark Frerichs:

Yes.

Amna Nawaz:

They took two-and-a-half years of your life from you.

Mark Frerichs:

Right.

Amna Nawaz:

There's no anger there?

Mark Frerichs:

If I harbor resentment or carry on continual feeling of anger, then they have won.

Resentment for the past is a waste of spirit. If I don't let this thing go, it's going to just keep festering and festering. I got to just let it out, let it go.