American freelance photo-journalist James Wright Foley has been beheaded by ISIS in a video message posted online and titled as ‘A Message to America’. Foley, pictured right, has been missing since November 2012, after being taken hostage while reporting from Syria. ISIS posted the extremely graphic video to social media as proof of their barbaric action, pictured center. Foley addresses the camera before he is killed and labels the US government his real killers as a man in black robes armed with a gun stands over him. His executioner spoke with a British accent. A few hours after the video was posted online, Foley’s mother Diane, of Rochester, New Hampshire, pictured left with her husband John, issued a statement online, bravely pleading with the radical Islamic group to free their remaining hostages who ‘have no control over American government policy in Iraq’. She also pays tribute to her ‘extraordinary son’ and says he only worked to publicize the suffering of the Syrian people. In the video, the executioner says they plan to kill another American journalist, Steven Joel Sotloff, who is then shown, pictured inset, if President Obama continues with attacks on the terrorist group pressing into Iraq from Syria.
Executioner ‘with a British accent’ beheads US journalist in the name of ISIS: Mother of slaughtered American calls on Islamist group to cease killing and pays tribute to her ‘extraordinary son’
- Photojournalist James Wright Foley has been beheaded by ISIS forces
- He went missing in Syria in 2012 while working for GlobalPost news agency
- ISIS posted extremely graphic video ‘A Message to America’ to social media
- Foley speaks to camera before his death and labels the US his killers
- Apparently coerced by his captors into speaking against his country
- His parents issued a statement stating their ‘pride’ in their son
- Masked and robed executioner speaks English in apparent London accent
- Video also shows man identified as missing journalist Steven Joel Sotloff
- Militant warns he will be killed next if US airstrikes in Iraq do not cease
A shocking video has emerged showing an ISIS militant who speaks with a British accent brutally executing an American photojournalist who was kidnapped in Syria two years ago. Graphic footage of the execution appeared in an video titled: ‘A Message to the U.S.’, in which an apparently coerced James Wright Foley, 40, describes America as his true killers for using airstrikes to assist Kurdish forces in recapturing the Mosul Dam from ISIS militants. Foley – who went missing in 2012 while working for the Global Post news agency in Syria – is then beheaded by a masked man dressed all in black. The executioner, who speaks directly to the camera in what appears to be a London accent, then warns that a second captured American journalist will be butchered if the US doesn’t halt the airstrikes. Speaking after the video emerged, Foley’s mother Diane issued a statement saying that she and her husband John have ‘never been prouder’ of their son, who they say gave his life to expose the suffering of the Syrian people.
Beheaded: James Wright Foley in a grab taken from YouTube and posted online by ISIS
Terror: Photojournalist James Wright Foley spoke before his beheading to say ”I call on my friends, family members and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the U.S. government.’
At work: James Wright Foley, had been missing since November 2012, after being taken hostage at gunpoint by militants from the pre-ISIS group Jabhat al Nusra while reporting from Taftanaz, northern Syria
Foley, has been missing since November 2012, after being taken hostage at gunpoint by militants from the group Jabhat al Nusra while reporting from Taftanaz, northern Syria, for the GlobalPost. Jabhat al Nusra subsequently joined forces with ISIS – which did not exist in anything like its current form when Foley was taken – which explains how he ended up in their hands. ISIS posted the extremely graphic video shot at an unknown location, titled ‘A Message to America’ to social media as proof of their barbaric actions. In a chilling warning at the end of the grisly film, the executioner parades another American journalist, Steven Joel Sotloff, who went missing in August 2013, saying: ‘The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.’ The sickening video was designed to send a clear signal to the U.S. to halt the airstrikes that have destroyed a significant amount of ISIS’ military equipment in and around the Mosul Dam, and allowed Kurdish Peshmerga to reclaim the strategically important complex. This morning US jets were seen in the air above the dam as the Kurdish troops who now control it were drawn into fighting with ISIS fighters who remain in the area, hoping to retake control.
Frightening: James Wright Foley tenses as his executioner addresses the camera who says this act of revenge is in response to US airstrikes on Iraq
Addressing the camera: James Wright Foley’s executioner holds his knife and unfurls his reasons for taking the American journalists life before he beheads him
In a statement posted on the Free James Foley Facebook page last night, Diane Foley wrote that she and husband John ‘have never been prouder of our son Jim’. Mrs Foley wrote that her son spent his life fighting to expose the suffering of the Syrian people, and pleaded with ISIS to release remaining hostages. Foley was one of 20 journalists currently missing in Syria, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Many of them are thought likely to have passed into ISIS’ hands either because the kidnappers have subsequently sworn allegiance to group’s self-declared caliphate, or because they were sold on. ‘We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world,’ Mrs Foley’s statement read. ‘We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person,’ she added. President Barack Obama was briefed on the video as he was flying back to the White House on Air Force One From his Martha’s Vineyard vacation. White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden says the administration has seen the video. British foreign secretary Phillip Hammond today said the footage ‘appears to be genuine’, which would make it the first time ISIS has killed an American since the conflict broke out in Syria in 2011.
Tragedy: James Wright Foley has been missing since Thanksgiving, 2012 and was beheaded by ISIS forces in a recorded message to President Obama on Tuesday
As the disturbing video unfolds, Foley, dressed in orange and on his knees, is unflinching to the end as he addresses the camera before his death. It appears the journalist has been coerced into blaming the United States by his brutal captors. Foley’s voice is strong, but he often pauses to take deep breaths and appears to struggle at times to swallow as he battles against fear. During his speech Foley brands the U.S. government his real killers, while his soon-to-be killer stands over him dressed in black robes and armed with a small knife and gun. Foley also leaves a haunting message for his brother, John, who he is heard to say is either a past or serving member of the U.S. Air Force. Referring to airstrikes launched nearly two weeks ago in Iraq, Foley says: ‘I died that day, John, when your colleagues dropped that bomb on these people. They signed my death certificate’ Foley goes on to blame the ‘complacency and criminality’ of the U.S. for his impending death. Speaking today British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the video appeared to be genuine, adding it was ‘an appalling example of the brutality of this organization’. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron, who is sure to come under renewed pressure to counter ISIS’ recruitment of young Britons, added: ‘If true, the brutal murder of James Foley is shocking and depraved.’ The UK would oppose the Islamic State ‘with every breath in our body’ and could send British troops to Baghdad to train Iraqi forces to fight the ‘evil organization’, he added.
FULL MESSAGE FROM JAMES WRIGHT FOLEY’S MOTHER:
We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people. We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.
We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person. Please respect our privacy in the days ahead as we mourn and cherish Jim.
We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person. Please respect our privacy in the days ahead as we mourn and cherish Jim.
Two years of hope: James Foley’s parents, John and Diane Foley, pose outside their house where a yellow ribbon hangs in an image taken after they decided to publicize his disappearance
‘I GUESS I WISH I WASN’T AMERICAN': PHOTOJOURNALIST JAMES WRIGHT FOLEY’S FINAL WORDS TO CAMERA BEFORE HIS DEATH
‘I call on my friends family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the US government. For what will happen to me is only a result of their complacency and criminality. ‘My message to my beloved parents: save me some dignity and don’t accept any (unclear, possibly says media) compensation for my death, from the same people who effectively hit the last nail in my coffin with a recent aerial campaign in Iraq. ‘I call on my brother John, who is/was (this part is also unclear) member of the US Air Force, think about what you are doing, think about lives you destroy including those of your own family. ‘I call on you John, think about who made the decision to bomb Iraq recently and kill those people, whoever they may have been. ‘Think John, who did they really kill? Did they think about me, you our family when they made that decision? ‘I died that day John, when your colleagues dropped that bomb on those people – they signed my death certificate. ‘I wish I had more time, I wish I could have the hope of freedom and see my family once again, but that ship has sailed. I guess all in all, I wish I wasn’t American.’
In his final message to the world, no doubt prepared for him word-by-word by his captors, a resigned says he wished he’d been able to see his family again. In a final insult from his vengeful executioners before his brutal beheading – which takes seven minutes thanks to the killer’s use of a small knife – Foley is made to deny his birthright as a citizen of the United States.’I wish I had more time, I wish I could have the hope of freedom and see my family once again, but that ship has sailed. I guess all in all, I wish I wasn’t American,’ he says. Foley then stops speaking and his executioner steps forward. The masked, armed and robe-clad man speaks in perfect English in what sounds like a London or southern English accent. Some experts have since suggested the executioner’s accent also has mild North African intonations, which could well mean he moved to Britain at a young age. ‘This is James Wright Foley, an American citizen of your country. As a government you have been at the forefront of the aggression towards the Islamic State,’ begins the executioner.
Horror: In another chilling warning, the executioner holds another man, on his knees with his hands tied behind his back, by the scruff of the neck. A caption claims it is missing American Steven Joel Soltoff
‘You have plotted against us and gone far out of your way to find reasons to interfere in our affairs. Today, your military airforce is attacking us daily in Iraq,’ the executioner says. ‘Your strikes have caused casualties amongst Muslims. You are no longer fighting an insurgency. ‘We are an Islamic Army and a state that has been accepted by a large number of Muslims worldwide. ‘So effectively, any aggression toward the Islamic State is aggression towards Muslims from all walks of life who have accepted the Islamic Caliphate as their leadership. ‘So any attempt by you, Obama, to deny the Muslims their rights of living in safety under the Islamic Caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your people.’ At this point the executioner slowly beheads Foley, who is kneeling bravely with hands tied behind his back. His prone body is subsequently displayed with the severed head placed mockingly on his back. Then in another chilling warning, the executioner holds another man, on his knees with his hands tied behind his back, by the scruff of the neck. A caption claims it is Steven Joel Soltoff. The executioner says: ‘The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.’
STILL ALIVE: ISIS THREATENS TO KILL AMERICAN JOURNALIST STEVEN JOEL SOTLOFF NEXT
At the end of the disturbing video, the masked ISIS operative issues a threat to kill another American journalist held captive if President Obama continues to order attacks against the group invading Iraq. Freelance journalist Steven Joel Sotloff is paraded in front of the camera, and held by the collar of his shirt as the operatives says: ‘The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision’. Sotloff has been missing since August 2013, when he was kidnapped near Aleppo, Syria. He sent out his last tweet on August 3, talking about his hometown basketball team the Miami Heat. According to his account, he was living in Benghazi, Libya at the time. ABC News foreign editor Jon Williams tweeted today that Sotloff’s family were previously advised not to go public with news of his disappearance. But a family friend wrote about Sotloff last December, saying he went missing August 4 and to pray for his return. Sotloff, a graduate of the University of Central Florida, had been published in TIME, World Affairs, National Interest and the Christian Science Monitor. The last story he filed was on November 26, 2012 titled ‘Libya’s New Crisis’ ‘Steve Sotloff lived in Yemen for years, spoke good Arabic, deeply loved the Islamic world..for this he is threatened with beheading,’ friend Anne Marloe tweeted on Tuesday, following the video’s release. In the video, Sotloff did not speak, and appeared with a shaved head and face.
Sotloff has been missing since the middle of 2013 and last tweeted on August 3rd, 2013 about his hometown basketball team the Miami Heat. According to his Twitter account he was in Libya at the time of his disappearance. It is not immediately clear why Foley would have released an anti-American statement knowing that he was going to die, but it was likely in order to spare the immediate death of another captive. As Sotloff was in the same location and dressed in exactly the same orange robes as Foley – almost certainly a symbolic reference to the Muslim prisoners the U.S. holds on Guantanamo Bay – it may well have been to delay the death of his fellow journalist. Gruesome images of Foley’s brutal death were widely shared on social media – both in sickeningly celebratory tweets by crowing Islamists, and also by those that were shocked and appalled by the developments. Although apparently unconnected, Twitter later released a statement saying it is reconsidering its image policy and may start removing images that show people in the moments before, during and immediately after death.
Support: Rev. Paul Gousse from Our Lady of the Holy Rosary leaves after meeting with the family of American freelance journalist James Foley in Rochester, New Hampshire, Tuesday night
Among those condemning the widespread sharing of images of Foley being beheaded were his sister Kelly, who used Twitter to urge people not to distribute the footage – no matter how shocked and disgusted they were by it. The self-described ‘PR rookie’ also paid tribute to her late brother saying: ‘I love you James Foley. Rest peacefully; you’re free.’ Her messages sparked a trend among young Twitter users who used to hashtag #ISISMediaBlackout to deny militant group the attention it so clearly craves. One young woman using the Twitter handle @LibyaLiberty wrote: ‘Amputate their reach. Pour water on their flame.’ ‘From here on out, I won’t share any photo or video of violence intentionally recorded & released by ISIS for propaganda. #ISISMediaBlackout’ she added. Foley’s beheading comes just one day after ISIS militants threatened to attack U.S. targets ‘in any place’ in a chilling YouTube video showing a blood-spattered American flag and the message in English: ‘We will drown all of you in blood’. Unlike Al Qaeda – who have previously condemned the militant group as too extreme – ISIS has focused on seizing land in Iraq and Syria for its self-proclaimed caliphate, not attacking Western targets.
‘HE WAS AWARE OF THE DANGERS BUT BELIEVED IN WHAT HE WAS DOING': FOLEY HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN KIDNAPPED IN SYRIA, FRIEND REVEALS
James Foley knew his job carried risks but ‘believed in what he was doing’ covering the Syrian conflict, a friend said. The 40-year-old New Englander had been kidnapped before while covering fighting in Libya, but had been eager to get back into action, film-maker Matthew VanDyke told BBC Radio 4’s Today. He said seeing news reports of his friend’s death was ‘a complete nightmare’ and urged other reporters in Syria and Iraq to take care, saying ‘if it can happen to him, it can happen to anybody’. Mr Van Dyke said: ‘He was certainly aware of the dangers, he was very professional… He had been through a rough time in Libya when he was captured and even after that he came home a little bit and then he went right back to Libya to continue reporting on that conflict.’
Mr Van Dyke said his friend went into Syria knowing that his presence amid the conflict was as dangerous, if not more so, than it had been in Libya. ‘[But] he had a love for what he did and he wanted to tell the story of the Syrian people. And nothing was going to stop him from doing that.’ After being captured in Libya, Foley was held by the government alongside a small group of other journalists, but was released and given a one-year suspended sentence on charges of illegally entering the country. In an interview about that experience, Foley said he ‘would love to go back’, but recalled the horror of seeing a colleague killed in a firefight. He also spoke of a love of his profession. ‘Journalism is journalism,’ he said. ‘If I had a choice to do Nashua [New Hampshire] zoning meetings or give up journalism, I’ll do it. I love writing and reporting.’ In an interview the BBC in a 2012 interview that he was ‘drawn to the drama of the conflict and trying to expose untold stories’. He said: ‘There’s extreme violence, but there’s a will to find who these people really are. And I think that’s what’s really inspiring about it.’ News of Foley’s murder came as President Barack Obama announced that Kurdish peshmerga troops, supported by U.S. jets, had recaptured the strategically important Mosul Dam – hailing the offensive as a ‘major step forward’. The dam had given the militants control over power and water supplies, and any breach of the vulnerable structure would have threatened thousands of lives. Meanwhile, as the U.S. air force carried out strikes on ISIS in Iraq, Syrian President Bashar Assad stepped up his own campaign against the group’s strongholds in his country. Although not officially coordinated, the attacks have had the combined effect of hitting ISIS on two fronts – weakening their resistance to both and destroying a significant amount of equipment.
Background: Prior to a career in conflict journalism, James Wright Foley taught reading and writing skills to convicted felons at Cook County Jail in Chicago
The Foley family from Rochester, New Hampshire, had hoped keeping silent could aid his release from Syria, but early last year decided to appeal directly to his kidnappers, as they grew increasingly concerned. A family friend named Holly Rene spoke to the New York Post and said the Foleys are now ‘falling apart with grief.’ ‘I was just so hopeful Jimmy had, if they weren’t going to get any good news, that he would have been dead for a long time now and there was no suffering involved. And to think he went through two years just to have this ending, it’s beyond belief.’ ‘These savages have got to be stopped. It’s coming West,’ the family friend added.
James Wright Foley, has been missing since November 2012, after being taken hostage at gunpoint by militants from the group Jabhat al Nusra while reporting from Taftanaz, northern Syria
James, or Jim as he is known to his family and friends, was the oldest of five children to parents John and Diane Foley. He studied at Marquette University, Milwaukee, and later studied journalism at Northwestern University, in hicago, has also reported on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to a career in journalism, he taught reading and writing skills to convicted felons at Cook County Jail in Chicago. Another American journalist, Austin Tice, is also missing after disappearing somewhere outside Damascus, Syria in August 2012. It is not known whether he is a hostage of ISIS. His parents learned of Foley’s death as they were preparing a vigil to commemorate the two year anniversary of his kidnapping. ‘The last 635 days, we have had to share a horrible nightmare, which has made us close to the Foley family and our heart goes out to them. We pray eternal rest for James’ soul and comfort and peace for his family,’ the Tice family said in a statement.
‘FRIENDLY, COURAGEOUS AND IMPATIENT': REMEMBERING JAMES WRIGHT FOLEY
The friends of photojournalist James Foley are mourning his loss online, following the 40-year-old’s execution by ISIS terrorists. Foley, from Rochester, New Hampshire, was a seasoned reporter who went missing two years ago while covering the Syrian conflict. ‘James Foley was a generous colleague & friend. We had beers in Antakya a week before he was taken. We talked about marriage/kids,’ Buzzfeed’s Middle East correspondent Sheera Frenkel tweeted. Following a video posted online showing Foley’s graphic beheading, his former employer GlobalPost issued a statement. ‘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,’ Philip Balboni, GlobalPost CEO and co-founder, said. Mother Diane Foley talked about her son in a January 2013 interview with a local television station and said her son was ‘passionate about covering the story in Syria, passionate about the people there.’ He is the oldest of five children. According to a bio on the website Free James Foley, the journalist had traveled extensively in the Middle East and North Africa on assignment and had covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Prior to becoming a journalist, Foley helped ‘empower disadvantaged individuals as a teacher and mentor, assisting them in improving their lives,’ the website says. He had been previously held captive while covering the uprising in Libya, and was released by Gaddafi’s forces after six weeks. Foley spoke about the 44 days of captivity in a video for the Boston Globe in May 2011. ‘You don’t want to be defined as that guy who got captured in 2011,’ he said. ‘I believe that front-line journalism is important.’ Journalist Clare Morgana Gillis was also held captive with Foley in Libya, and wrote a 2013 essay in which she said captivity was ‘the state most violently opposite [Foley's] nature.’ She also described him as gentle, friendly, courageous and impatient with ‘anything that slows his forward momentum’. A May article in Vanity Fair about the dangers for journalists in Syria described Foley as ‘affable’ and devil-may-care’. At the time of his disappearance, Foley was working as a freelancer for Agence France-Presse’s Global Post, but he previously contributed to Stars and Stripes and other outlets.
UK jihadists among the ‘most vicious and vociferous fighters’ in the world
British extremists are among the most ‘most vicious and vociferous fighters’ in the Islamic State’s ranks in Syria and Iraq, a jihadism expert has said. Sunni Muslims from the UK are taking part in the conflicts ‘in every way’, according to Shiraz Maher, from King’s College London’s International Center for the Study of Radicalization. That includes acting as suicide bombers and executioners, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme after the video purporting to show James Foley’s beheading by a British IS fighter emerged online. Mr Foley is the second American journalist killed by a Islamist terrorist. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was murdered by British born Omar Saeed Sheikh in Pakistan in 2002. The black-clothed and masked man, who speaks with a London accent, threatened bloodshed in the gruesome video, speaking with confidence of when he accuses America of plotting against Muslims and interfering in their affairs, before taking a knife to his victim’s throat. If it is confirmed, as it appears, that he is British he will be seen as the most extreme example yet of a fighter traveling from the UK to take part in brutal violence as a member of ISIS. Mr Maher, a senior research fellow at ICSR, told Today: ‘Unfortunately the British participation in the conflicts now raging in both Syria and Iraq has been has been one of full participation, one that has seen them at the front lines, taking part in the conflict in every way. ‘So we have seen British fighters out there operating as suicide bombers, we have seen them operating as executioners. ‘Unfortunately they are amongst some of the most vicious and vociferous fighters who are out there. That is unfortunately just a part of their radicalization.’
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