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ISIS Video Purports to Show Beheading of James Foley ISIS Video Purports to Show Beheading of James Foley
(about 2 hours later)
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria posted a video on Tuesday that it said showed the beheading of James Foley, an American journalist who was kidnapped in Syria nearly two years ago, according to a transcript released by the SITE Intelligence Group.The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria posted a video on Tuesday that it said showed the beheading of James Foley, an American journalist who was kidnapped in Syria nearly two years ago, according to a transcript released by the SITE Intelligence Group.
The authenticity of the video, which was posted on YouTube, could not be immediately verified, and a telephone call placed to Mr. Foley’s family was not immediately returned. YouTube later took down the four-minute, 40-second video. The authenticity of the video, which was also posted on YouTube, could not be verified, and a telephone call placed to Mr. Foley’s family was not immediately returned. YouTube later took down the four-minute, 40-second video.
Titled “A Message to America,” the video shows the journalist kneeling in a deserted landscaped, clad in an orange jumpsuit – an apparent reference to the uniforms worn by prisoners at the American military detention camp in Guantánamo, Cuba. Standing to his left is a masked ISIS fighter, who says that Foley’s execution is in retaliation for the American airstrikes ordered by President Obama against the extremist group in Iraq. Titled “A Message to America,” the video shows the journalist kneeling in a deserted 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 says that Mr. Foley’s execution is in retaliation for the recent American airstrikes ordered by President Obama against the extremist group in Iraq.
“I call on my friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers - the U.S. government — for what will happen to me is only a result of their complacent criminality,” Mr. Foley says in the video, which was uploaded to the online account of the al-Furqan Media Foundation, according to SITE, which follows jihadist groups. “I call on my friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers — the U.S. government — for what will happen to me is only a result of their complacent criminality,” Mr. Foley says in the video, which was uploaded to the online account of the al-Furqan Media Foundation, according to SITE, an organization that follows jihadist groups.
Mr. Foley, 40, a freelance journalist who was working for GlobalPost, an online publication based in Boston, as well as Agence France-Presse, went missing on Nov. 22, 2012 in Syria. He was held alongside several other American prisoners, whose families have insisted on a news blackout. Mr. Foley, 40, a freelance journalist who was working for GlobalPost, an online publication based in Boston, as well as for Agence France-Presse, disappeared in Syria on Nov. 22, 2012. He was held alongside several other American prisoners, whose families have asked for a news blackout.
The video concludes with the fighter threatening to kill Steven Sotloff, another American national who was being held alongside Mr. Foley. The young man is seen kneeling in the same position, in the same landscape and wearing the same, orange-colored jumpsuit. “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision,” says the fighter. The video concludes with the fighter threatening to kill Steven Sotloff, another American national 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.
In Washington, a National Security Council spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden, said in a statement: “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, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist,” she said, using an alternative name for ISIS.
Reached by telephone, Philip Balboni, the chief executive and a founder of GlobalPost, said that the newsroom and Mr. Foley’s family were also trying to establish the veracity of the footage. “We are still evaluating the video at this time,” he said.
Mr. Foley, 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 outside Brega, an oil town 500 miles east of Tripoli.
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.