Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: The Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington said the three soldiers caught trying to cross the border into Canada do not pose a threat. 
  
 Afghan soldiers had freedom to leave base The three Afghan soldiers captured trying to cross the border into Canada had the freedom to leave Camp Edwards without restrictions when they left on Saturday and were last seen at the Cape Cod Mall nearly 20 miles away. More 
  
 Watch Report 
  
 The Afghan soldiers had been participating in a U.S. Central Command Regional Cooperation training exercise at Joint Base Cape Cod, U.S. military officials said. They arrived at Camp Edwards on Sept. 11 and were last seen at the Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis on Saturday night. 
  
 Soldiers had freedom to leave base 
  
 A source told Team 5's Karen Anderson the men were taken into custody at the Rainbow Bridge Canadian/US border crossing near Niagara Falls on Monday. The men told Customs Agents they were refugees, the source said. 
  
 They were identified as Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar. 
  
 "They were here for a multi-national military exercise, which had been scheduled for a long time. They have been here for a couple of weeks. There’s a lot of speculation that within the military they maybe be trying to defect," Gov. Deval Patrick said. 
  
 The three were among 12 members of the Afghanistan National Army participating in a military exercise that focused on tactical strategies, said Lt. Col. James Sahady of the Massachusetts National Guard. 
  
 "We do not believe these men were ever any kind of a threat," Mirwais Nab, the Minister-Counsellor for the Afghanistan Embassy said. 
  
 The Regional Cooperation training exercises have been held annually since 2004 to promote cooperation and interoperability among forces, build functional capacity, practice peacekeeping operations and enhance readiness. 
  
 This year's exercise, which involves more than 200 participants from six nations including the U.S., wraps up Wednesday. 
  
 Last month, Maj. Gen. Harold Greene was killed by an Afghan soldier in an attack in Afghanistan. 
  
 Last weekend, two Afghan policemen in the Washington, D.C., for a DEA training program at Quantico, Virginia, also went missing while on a sightseeing trip to Georgetown, ABC News reported. The DEA said the two men left the group because they did not want to go back to Afghanistan. 
  
 Nab said that two Afghan police officers who left an outing in Georgetown last week while training with the Drug Enforcement Administration are on a plane headed back to Afghanistan. 
  
 "Let that send a message to others who are coming for training that they have a commitment and will complete their service," Nab said. ||||| Three military officers from Afghanistan who disappeared Saturday while taking part in a training conference on Cape Cod were detained Monday at the Canadian border near Niagara Falls, authorities said. 
  
 The Afghan soldiers, last seen at the Cape Cod Mall two days earlier, were taken into custody without incident some 500 miles away while attempting to cross into Canada at the famed Rainbow Bridge checkpoint, according to the Massachusetts National Guard and Massachusetts State Police. Canadian authorities turned over the men to the US Customs and Border Protection agency late Monday afternoon, officials said. 
  
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 Governor Deval Patrick, speaking before the three men were found, said there was speculation within the military that the officers had planned to seek asylum. Authorities said the officers were on a pass for a trip to the mall and were reported missing at 9 p.m. Saturday. 
  
 “The officers were participating in a chaperoned event to introduce them to cultural aspects of American life,’’ the Massachusetts National Guard said in a statement Monday night. 
  
 There was no indication they had committed any crimes, and officials insisted the men had been cleared by the US military to attend the training conference and were not considered security threats. But the mystery surrounding their whereabouts drew national attention and sparked concerns about the men’s motives. 
  
 It was the second such recent disappearance. Two Afghan police officers training with the US Drug Enforcement Administration disappeared while taking a tour of Washington, D.C., and were detained in the Buffalo area Thursday, where authorities believe they were trying to reunite with family. 
  
 In Monday’s incident, the three Afghan officers were detained at about 10 a.m., the National Guard said. The men, thought to be at least initially in the custody of Canadian authorities, were holding visas to stay in the United States through the middle of the week, according to a law enforcement official who was briefed on the case. 
  
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 Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada, and Captain Noorullah Aminyar of the Afghan army had flown to the United States Sept. 11 for the weeklong training exercise at Camp Edwards, a part of Joint Base Cape Cod. The program, which ends Wednesday, brings together 200 military personnel and other participants from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, and Pakistan. 
  
 Fox News Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Noorullah Aminyar, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada. 
  
 The annual conference began in 2004 and has been held in various countries. The conference is intended “to promote cooperation” and help the armed forces from different nations, especially the United States and Central and South Asian countries, to work more closely together, according to the US Central Command, which sponsored the conference. 
  
 Participants receive training in responding to domestic emergencies and in various United Nations peacekeeping operations. The Massachusetts National Guard hosted this year’s event. 
  
 Major Tiffany Collins, also with Central Command, said that the three soldiers were among 14 Afghans participating in the program. Collins said she was unaware of any similar events involving foreign military personnel invited to the United States. 
  
 Hours before the three officers were detained, a spokesman for US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, downplayed concerns about any potential threat to public safety. 
  
 “As long as they are here on a visa, it’s not as if they are breaking any laws,” said spokesman Mark Blackington . “They might get in trouble with their own people, but I’m not really aware of any manhunt going on.” 
  
 The Afghans may have been motivated to remain in the West by the continued political turmoil in their country, including a recently deadlocked election to replace Hamid Karzai with a new president. 
  
 “People are concerned about the uncertainty in the country and the future, particularly young people,” said Ali Amhed Jalali, a former Afghan interior minister. “Many just want a better life. I sense this might be the reason for [the soldiers] to leave the country.” 
  
 The months-long standoff over the election result, followed by a disputed runoff, was finally settled Sunday with an agreement to establish a unity government. 
  
 In recent years there have been many cases of Afghans traveling abroad and then never returning, including “low-level officers but also high-ranking officials,” Jalali said. 
  
 “The violence influences many people. It is not just people who are leaving but people who are taking their money out of the country,” said Jalali, who teaches at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, which is part of the US Department of Defense. 
  
 William Joyce, a Boston immigration lawyer and retired immigration judge, said the men would need to demonstrate a “well-founded fear of persecution” to be granted asylum. Years of war and ongoing political instability would give the men “a fighting chance” to receive political asylum, he said. “I think they are good candidates,” he said. “It’s a Third World country with a lot of discord.” 
  
 The men could live here legally until their case was heard, a process that could take months or even years, he said. 
  
 “They are entitled to pursue a claim like anyone else,” he said. 
  
 Colonel James Sahady, a spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard, said the men had valid visas and passports and were free to come and go from the base. 
  
 Blackington, of the US Central Command, said the men’s backgrounds were carefully vetted before they were cleared to attend the program. “They have to be fairly experienced people to be invited,” he said. 
  
 Ralph A. Vitacco, selectmen chairman in Sandwich, which abuts the military reservation, said he had no major concerns about safety or security after the soldiers went missing over the weekend. Vitacco called the incident “an anomaly’’ and said the town had a great relationship with the base. ||||| Police: Feds questioning Afghan soldiers at Canadian border 
  
 CAMP EDWARDS – The Massachusetts State Police have done what the military, at this hour, still can't. They've confirmed that three Afghanistan soldiers are being questioned by federal authorities at Rainbow Bridge, which connects Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario. 
  
 “We're out of it now,” state police spokesman David Procopio. “We were treating it as missing persons case. They didn't commit any crimes, certainly not any state crimes. We had no cause, no reason to detain them.” 
  
 A high-ranking U.S. official told the Times earlier this afternoon the men had been located, apparently seeking asylum. 
  
 The source has been briefed on the issue, but could not be quoted on the record because he was not authorized to speak. 
  
 U.S. Central Command could not immediately confirm the information. 
  
 The Afghan soldiers went missing Saturday at Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis. 
  
 Massachusetts National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. James Sahady said the three men were reported missing on Saturday night after traveling into Hyannis that day. 
  
 "They didn't report back (to the base)," Sahady said. "There is no indication they pose a threat to the public." 
  
 The three men were identified as Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar. 
  
 There are 200 soldiers and civilians participating in the seven-day event at Camp Edwards on Joint Base Cape Cod. Along with 12 other members of the Afghanistan National Army, the three men were all engaged in the joint exercise that focused on working on collaboration and tactical strategies that involved civilians and officers and senior enlisted personnel, Sahady said. 
  
 There were six nations, including the U.S., participating in the exercise, which is ongoing and is scheduled to wrap up by Wednesday. They were housed on the base and all participants at the exercise were vetted by U.S. Central Command, Sahady said. 
  
 Here's a video from a quiet scene outside the Cape base this morning 
  
  ||||| BOSTON (AP) — Three Afghanistan National Army officers who went missing during a training exercise at a Cape Cod military base were detained Monday at the U.S.-Canadian border, Massachusetts law enforcement officials said. 
  
 Vehicles are stopped by security personnel as they enter a gate Monday, Sept. 22, 2014, to Camp Edwards, Mass., on Cape Cod. Police and military officials were searching Monday for three soldiers from... (Associated Press) 
  
 Massachusetts state police were notified that the three were being questioned by federal authorities at Rainbow Bridge, which connects Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, said spokesman David Procopio, who did not have further details. 
  
 There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon. 
  
 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Niagara Falls said they didn't have the men in custody. Messages left for Canada Border Services Agency weren't immediately returned. 
  
 Military officials said the Afghan soldiers had been participating in a U.S. Central Command Regional Cooperation training exercise at Joint Base Cape Cod. They arrived at Camp Edwards on Sept. 11 and were last seen Saturday at the Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis during an off day. 
  
 The soldiers were reported missing by base security personnel Saturday night. They were identified as Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar. 
  
 Gov. Deval Patrick, who had been briefed over the weekend on the situation, said earlier Monday that the military did not believe the three soldiers posed a danger to the public. 
  
 "They were vetted by the military. They were cleared by the military," Patrick told reporters while he visited a preschool program in Quincy. 
  
 "There is a lot of speculation within the military that they may be trying to defect," he said. 
  
 Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said earlier that 14 Afghans taking part in the Cape Cod military exercise were "thoroughly vetted" prior to coming to the U.S., so officials do not believe they are a threat. 
  
 The Regional Cooperation training exercises have been held annually since 2004 to promote cooperation and interoperability among forces, build functional capacity, practice peacekeeping operations and enhance readiness. 
  
 This year's exercise, which involves more than 200 participants from six nations including the U.S., is scheduled to wrap up Wednesday. Military officials from Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia are also participants. 
  
 Procopio said state police considered it to be a missing persons case, because there was no information that any crimes had been committed. 
  
 ___ 
  
 Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor in Washington also contributed to this report. |||||
Output:
The three Afghan soldiers who vanished from a training exercise in Massachusetts on Saturday were found today near Niagara Falls, apparently trying to gain asylum in Canada, the Cape Cod Times reports. A source tells WCVB that the soldiers told Customs Agents at the Rainbow Bridge crossing that they were refugees. According to several officials, the three missing men—Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada, and Captain Noorullah Aminyar—were just looking for a way to avoid returning to Afghanistan, NBC News reports. They may have been hoping to benefit from Canada's looser asylum policies. All three were detained, but it's not clear who has them or whether they'll be returned to Joint Base Cape Cod or somewhere else. Neither US Customs in Buffalo nor federal authorities are holding the men, according to a customs rep, so the Canadian Border Services Agency may have them, the Boston Globe reports. The soldiers sparked a manhunt when they disappeared during a two-week training exercise that included 200 soldiers and civilians from different countries. (It's been held since 2004 to boost cooperation between forces from around the world, the AP notes.) And such vanishings are nothing new: Just last week, two Afghan policemen disappeared from a Washington-area DEA training program and were later found in New York.