A graphic video obtained by NBC News purportedly shows James Wright Foley reciting threats against America before he is executed by an ISIS militant.
James Wright Foley
Journalist James Foley, a 1996 Marquette graduate, speaks about his experiences as a captive in Libya during a speaking engagement at Marquette University Wednesday, December 7, 2011. Foley was kidnapped in Syria six weeks ago, his family reported Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. (Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT)
Jonathan S. Landay, a reporter from McClatchy Washington Bureau wrote an article entitled “Islamic State posts video of beheading of U.S. journalist, warns Obama to halt strikes” which was published in The Miami Herald on August 21, 2014. He explained that on August 20, 2014, the Islamic Caliphate State or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) posted a video showing the beheading of James Foley, an American news photographer, and it threatened to execute a second American captive — a native of Miami identified as Steven Joel Sotloff — if President Obama did not cease the air attacks. The horrible video was posted on YouTube and disseminated on other social media. James Foley, age 40, was a freelance photojournalist from Rochester, New Hampshire, who was taken prisoner in northwest Syria on November 22, 2012. He worked for the Global Post, an online news website.
The video began with a clip of the August 7, 2014 presidential television address in which Obama announced that he had authorized limited U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic Caliphate State, which since June 2014 has overrun about 50% of Iraq and a large territory in eastern Syria. The large territory it control is about the same size of Belgium.
Landay explained that U.S. aircraft fighters, bombers and unmanned drones have conducted more than 60 attacks to save members of the small Yazidi religious faith from jihadists from Islamic Caliphate State assaults, protect the capital of the Kurds and to help Iraqi forces regain control of the nation’s largest dam. Landay reported that flanked by a masked terrorist, who spoke with a British accent, clad in a black uniform Foley kneeled in desert and was forced to read a statement. The black-clad terrorist assassin holding knife in one hand, then warned that more Americans would be killed if there were more U.S. attacks on the Islamic Caliphate.
Jonathan S. Landay wrote that the assassin said in the video that “any attempt by you, Obama, to deny the Muslims their rights to live in safety under the Islamic Caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your people.” He then moved behind Foley’s back, pulled back his head and began sawing his neck with the knife. A separate social media post featured photographs of Foley while he was kneeling and then his decapitated corpse, his blood-covered head sitting on its back.
Landay wrote that in a separate posting on Twitter, a photograph showed a man identified as Sotloff dressed in the same orange clothing and kneeling in a desert. He was flanked by a masked, black-clad fighter holding him by his collar. At the bottom of the picture appeared a statement in Arabic which read “The life of Steven Joel Sotloff depends on Obama’s next move.” Sotloff is from Miami who wrote for Time magazine and the National Interest. He has been missing since August 2012. Foley and Sotloff were among a number of foreign journalists who’ve been missing in Syria. They include Austin Tice, of Houston, a freelancer who reported for McClatchy and The Washington Post, among others. He’s been missing since August 2012.
The British jihadist who killed James Foley
A staff reporter from Al Arabiya News wrote an article entitled “Former ISIS hostage identifies Foley executioner” which was published on August 21,2014.
A former ISIS hostage identified the masked, English speaking executioner who beheaded Foley in the released video.
The reporter from Al Arabiya News wrote that the British jihadist who beheaded James Foley in a gruesome video on August 20, 2014, has been identified as a Londoner named “John,” the British newspaper The Guardian reported on August 20, 2014. A former hostage who been guarded by “John” suggested that Foley’s executioner is one of three British militants responsible for guarding foreign hostages in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, a stronghold for the Islamic Caliphate or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
According to the The Guardian, “John” was allegedly “the main negotiator earlier this year in mediations that led to the release of 11 foreign hostages that were then handed to the Turkish authorities and dispatched to their respective countries, reported the newspaper.”
The Beatles
“John” is described by the London newspaper The Telegraph as an intelligent and well-educated man who is “highly committed” to ISIS. Sources told the newspaper that “John” and his fellow hostage guards have been named “The Beatles,” in reference to the popular English pop band.
Unlike to our weak and ineffective Marxist president, British Prime Minister David Cameron, broke off his vacation after the video’s release, said it was “increasingly likely” that the ISIS militants who appeared in the video are British. Cameron added that United Kingdom police is still trying to identify the killer. Landay wrote that Richard Barrett, the former chief for UK spy agency MI6 told BBC Radio 4 that the jihadist assassin will be identified and the elite Special Air Service (SAS) will be sent to Syria to “bring him to justice.” Barrett, who headed the counter-terrorism division for MI6 at the time of 9/11, said he was sure the murderer would be arrested and taken back to Britain for trial “sooner or later.”
Caliphate grows rich by collecting millions in ransom from European countries
Until recently ISIS had a very different list of demands for James Foley. The Caliphate pressed the United States to provide a multimillion-dollar ransom for his release, according to a representative of his family and a former hostage held alongside him. The United States — unlike several European countries that have paid millions to the terror group to spare the lives of their citizens — refused to pay
Mitchell Prothero wrote an article entitled “More foreigners abducted as U.S. airstrikes continue” which was published in The Miami Herald on August 22, 2014. He explained that while numerous journalists and aid workers have been kidnapped and ransomed by many rebel groups in Syria, ISIS has been the most effective in obtaining ransoms from European nations. It is believed that ISIS has kidnapped dozens of Westerners and has collected tens of millions of dollars for European governments.
Prothero pointed out the following: “In the last six months, French, Spanish, Danish and Italian citizens have been ransomed by the Islamic State, according to multiple negotiators, intelligence officials and media reports. Those governments have denied paying ransoms. The Global Post, the online news site to which Foley was a contributor, said that he had been giving proof that he was alive only three months ago and had received a ransom demand late last year of $135 million.”
Rukmini Callimachi wrote an article entitled “ISIS Pressed for Ransom Before Killing Journalist” which was published in The New York Times on August 20, 2014. The reporter explained that “the issue of how to deal with ISIS, which like many terror groups now routinely trades captives for large cash payments, is acute for the Obama administration because Mr. Foley was not the lone American in its custody.” ISIS is threatening to kill at least three others it holds if its demands remain unmet. The reporter wrote that Syria has become the most dangerous country in the world for journalists; at least 70 have been killed covering the war, and more than 80 kidnapped, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Paying ransom or exchanging prisoners with terrorist organizations is a terrible policy
I believe that refusing to pay ransom or exchanging prisoners is the right policy when dealing with terrorist organizations. If ransom is paid to the jihadists more Americans will be captured. The Europeans are mistaken in paying millions in ransom since that will only strengthen the Caliphate and more of their citizens will be taken prisoners.
President Barack Obama made a very serious mistake, and possibly an impeachment offense, when he exchanged the worst five Taliban terrorists prisoners in Gitmo Naval Base in Cuba for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl who deserted his post in Afghanistan. This prisoner exchange will only encourage terrorist organizations throughout the world to kidnap more Americans to exchange them for either Gitmo prisoners or terrorists convicted and imprisoned in the United States.
Barack Obama, our lawless president, violated two bills passed by Congress and signed into law by him which stated that the president had to notify Congress before releasing any prisoners in Gitmo. Susan A. Poling, the top lawyer for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), stated that the controversial prisoner swap violated the two bills passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama. Poling revealed the price tag of the Taliban terrorist transfers to Qatar was $988,400. The GAO concluded that the Pentagon had spent the money illegally because it did not provide the four Senate and for House of Representatives committees at least 30 days of notice of the Taliban prisoners’ exchange from Gitmo, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act.
It is shameful that Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was given a hero’s welcome and his parents were invited to the White House, instead of charging him with desertion, which is capital offense under the Unified Military Code of Justice. Bowe Bergdahl’s father blessed the White House in the name of Allah and Islam in Arabic language, while President Obama, who was raised as a Muslim in Indonesia and understands Arabic, smiled.
Critics from left and right denounced Obama’s handling the crisis as he promised justice from the podium of the White House and runs to play golf
The White House on August 20 revealed that a United States Special Operations team tried and failed to rescue James Foley as well as the other American hostages during a secret mission this summer. President Obama speaking from the podium of the White House said the United States would not retreat until it had eliminated the “cancer” of ISIS from the Middle East and that justice will prevail. After he threatened the Islamic Caliphate, Obama ran to play golf and resumed his vacation. He was photograph smiling wearing his shorts. Obama callous and shameful behavior will embolden our enemies which see him as a very weak leader and do not fear nor respect him.
After all Obama begged Putin to give him “space” until after his reelection when he would have “flexibity.” Secretary of State John Kerry issued a harsh condemnation and said “ISIL and the wickedness it represents must be destroyed, and those responsible for this heinous, vicious atrocity will be held accountable.”
Unlike President George W. Bush who gave up golf for the balanced of his presidency when the news from the Iraqi war was getting worse, the narcissist, uncaring and cold Obama sees nothing wrong with playing golf as the world is in flames. Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told Fox News that the White House revealing the failed rescue operation was a “stunning breach of security” done for political reasons and it also advertized the weakness of our nation.
Many reporters from the pro-Obama established media criticized Obama for his cold detachment of the growing threat of ISIS and the beheading of James Foley. They questioned his feeling and his coldness for resuming his vacation at a time like this. However, these reporters from the pro-Obama media do not question that Obama’s main objective from the beginning of his presidency was to downgrade the nation, as Obama believed together with his Kenyan father, his preacher of 20 years Jeremiah Wright, his close friend Bill Ayers and his other Marxists and radical Muslim friends, that the United States is the worst country in the world and the most evil.
This is why Obama has been and continues to be the architect of the destruction of the United States! It is unbelievable that Barack Obama and his friends belong to the “Hate the United States crowd.”
Iraqi forces battle the Islamic State Caliphate
Jonathan S. Landay explained that Iraqi forces pushed north on August 19, 2014 in a failed attempt to recapture the central Iraq town of Tikrit from Islamic State terrorists who have been occupying it since June 2014. The move to retake Tikrit, 110 miles north of Baghdad and the former hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, came just a day after a combined force of Iraqi special forces and fighters from the autonomous Kurdish region — backed by heavy U.S. air support — retook the Mosul Dam, a crucial facility that supplies agricultural water and hydroelectricity to much of northern Iraq.
While Obama has said that U.S. combat troops will not return to Iraq, the Pentagon is considering a request from the State Department to send 300 additional U.S. military to Iraq to increased security for U.S. personnel based there. Landay wrote that “Some 749 U.S. troops have been sent to Iraq since the Islamic State overran the northern city of Mosul on June 10 and then advanced south to the outskirts of Baghdad, overrunning roughly one-half of Iraq in cooperation with Sunni Muslim tribes alienated by the sectarian policies of the majority Shiite-dominated government.”
Jonathan S. Landay stated that British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the masked, black-clad Islamic State fighter who killed Foley appeared to be one of up to 400 Britons estimated to have joined the terrorist group. “We have not identified the individual but it looks increasingly likely that it is a British citizen,” Cameron told reporters after breaking from a vacation to return to London to consult with his top aides on the Iraq crisis. “This is deeply shocking. We know that far too many British citizens have traveled to Iraq and traveled to Syria to take part in extremism.”
Landay pointed out that Cameron, who authorized arms deliveries to Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in northern Iraq, decried Foley’s murder as “shocking and depraved,” and he said that his government would double its efforts to prevent more British citizens from leaving the country to join the Islamic State.
Landay reported that French President Francois Hollande told the newspaper Le Monde that he was proposing a meeting of Arab states, Iran and the world’s leading powers to develop an international response to the Islamic State. “We can no longer keep to the traditional debate of intervention or non-intervention,” Hollande said. “We have to come up with a global strategy to fight this group, which is structured, has significant financing, very sophisticated weapons and threatens countries like Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.”
Landay explained that Germany announced that it will begin shipping weapons to the Kurdish Regional Government, breaking a decades-old tradition of non-intervention in active war zones. The announcement came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with her defense and foreign ministers. Angela Merkel said that German aid would be “first and foremost humanitarian,” but added that they would also be shipping firearms, ammunition and anti-tank weapons. Germany will be joining a growing number of European nations, including France, Italy and the United Kingdom, which are helping to arm Iraqi forces against the Islamic State.
Senator John McCain criticized Obama’s foreign policy dealing with ISIS
The article explained Arizona Senator John McCain on August 21, 2014, called President Obama’s remarks on the execution of American journalist James Foley “moving” — but also said his policy on the Islamic State terror group is failing. Senator McCain stated that President Obama had said that the United States need to contain ISIS. Senator McCain, as other European leaders have stated, said the following: “We don’t have to contain ISIS. We have to defeat ISIS, and we have to do whatever is necessary. Failures of policies have consequences, and we’re paying [for] those consequences in enormous cost of human blood. It’s a debacle, and he still doesn’t get it.”
The Fox News article pointed out that Senator McCain said that the growing chaos in Iraq was “predictable” after Obama’s “huge mistake” of not leaving a residual U.S. force behind.”This didn’t have to happen,” he said. “This is an abject failure.”
The Fox News article explained that McCain said he wants to see a “comprehensive strategy” explained to the American people with the goal of defeating ISIS “wherever they are.” Senator McCain said “It’s more than pinprick airstrikes, we’re gonna need more boots on the ground — and that does not mean combat troops — but it does mean a significant increase.” Senator McCain hopes Foley’s death will send a “strong message” to Americans that ISIS could stage an attack on U.S. soil. “They will be coming to America unless we stop them,” he warned.
Conclusion
Once again, Obama is leading from behind and he is placing the security of our nation at great risk for not acting decisively in going after the leaders of the Caliphate who has started killing and imprison Americans. My recent book America in Decline (2014) documents Obama’s failed foreign and domestic policies which has made our beloved America a Superpower in retreat. The United States is not respected or trusted by our allies nor feared by our enemies.
Obama has helped armed al-Qaida-linked terror groups such as ISIS and the Al Nusra front in Syria by sending weapons from Libya to Turkey to Syria. Obama committed treason in Libya by helping the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida-linked terror groups to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, who was at the time our ally in the War on Terror, as I have explained in many of my articles published in bwcwntral.org
United Kingdom disastrous open borders policy allowed tens of thousands of Muslims to move in. Later many Muslims were radicalized in mosques in Britain. Other European countries did the same mistake and now they are faced with millions of radical Muslims demanding Shariah law and joining terror groups. Obama has allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate his government and his failure to seal our borders has allowed terrorists and members of drug cartels and gangs to invade our nation.
Obama acts omnipotent in the United States but abroad is impotent with our enemies. After the November 2014 mid-term election Barack Obama must be impeached for treason, dereliction of duty, criminal negligence, involuntary manslaughter, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and for his multiple violations to the Constitution.
