Journalist James Foley Beheaded By ISIS Fighter In "A Message To America" Video
A video released by ISIS shows the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley and threatens the life of another American if President Barack Obama doesn't end military operations in Iraq. NOTE: There are images in this story that some readers may find distressing.
By Sadho Ram — 20 Aug 2014, 12:40 PM — Updated over 9 years ago
On Tuesday, ISIS released a video showing the beheading of James Foley, a US photojournalist who went missing in Syria in 2012
In an unspeakable act of savagery, an American photojournalist was beheaded in a video released Tuesday by Islamic State terrorists who claimed the killing was retaliation for U.S. air strikes against the group in Iraq.
nydailynews.comIn the four-minute, 40-second video, titled A Message to America, a masked executioner, claiming to be an ISIS fighter, is seen severing James Foley's head with a knife in a sadistic act of revenge
In the video, ISIS called out the US President Obama for authorising air strikes against the activities the Islamic State
The video started off with a clip from President Obama’s August 7 televised address in which the commander-in-chief revealed he'd authorized air strikes to stop the slaughter of tens of thousands of members of the Yazidi religious sect who were trapped on a mountain in northwest Iraq.
nydailynews.comThe video shows the journalist kneeling in a desert landscape, clad in an orange jumpsuit — an apparent reference to the uniforms worn by prisoners at the American military detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Standing to his left is a masked ISIS fighter, who begins speaking in English, with what sounds like an East London accent. Pulling out a knife, he says that Mr. Foley’s execution is in retaliation for the recent American airstrikes ordered by President Obama against the extremist group in Iraq.
nytimes.com
After executing a hand-cuffed Foley by beheading his head, the ISIS fighter then placed the head on his back
US officials confirmed that they had seen the video and were trying to establish its authenticity. President Barack Obama had also been informed, reports BBC.
He has refrained from speaking publicly until the video can be formally authenticated, but the threat of retaliation against Americans is likely to complicate US involvement in Iraq, reports the BBC's Barbara Plett Usher in Washington.
When contacted by Mashable, NSC spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said, “We have seen a video that purports to be the murder of U.S. citizen James Foley by ISIL. The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity. If genuine," she said, "we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will provide more information when it is available.”
mashable.com
While the authenticity of the video is still being verified by the US officials, Foley's mother released a statement via a Find James Foley page praising the journalist for "trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people " and asking for privacy
The video then shows the ISIS fighter now standing behind another man in an orange jumpsuit, identified as Steven Joel Sotloff. The fighter has threatened to kill him too.
Journalist Steven Joel Sotloff, a contributor to TIME, is also held by the same militants who killed Foley.
Image via nydailynews.comThe video concludes with the fighter threatening to kill Steven Sotloff, another American freelance journalist, who was being held alongside Mr. Foley. Mr. Sotloff is seen kneeling in the same position, in the same landscape and wearing the same style of orange-colored jumpsuit. “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision,” the fighter says.
nytimes.com
Foley has reported extensively across the Middle East, working for America's Global Post and other media outlets including the French news agency AFP. GlobalPost CEO Philip Balboni has also released a statement about the video.
"On behalf of John and Diane Foley, and also GlobalPost, we deeply appreciate all of the messages of sympathy and support that have poured in since the news of Jim’s possible execution first broke. We have been informed that the FBI is in the process of evaluating the video posted by the Islamic State to determine if it is authentic," Balboni said.
“Although GlobalPost’s investigation at one point led us to believe that James was being held by the Syrian government, we later were given strong reason to believe he was being held by Islamic rebels in Syria," he added. "We withheld this information at the request of the family and on the advice of authorities cooperating in the effort to protect Jim. GlobalPost, working with a private security company, has amassed an enormous amount of information that has not been made public.”
40-year-old Foley disappeared in Syria on 22 November 2012. He was held alongside several other Americans, whose families have asked for a news blackout.
James Foley, in a photo from the website FreeJamesFoley.org, in Aleppo, Syria, in November 2012, the month he disappeared.
Image via nyt.comFoley, who was last seen in Binesh, Syria, was also abducted in Libya in 2011, where he was held for several weeks after running into troops loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s crumbling government. He was among dozens of journalists — many of them freelancers without the formal backing of a news organization — who disappeared in 2012 and 2013 in Syria.
nytimes.com