“I recognised exactly the James I knew: straight and dignified, speaking in a strong voice and facing death with resignation, dignity and strength,” he said.įoley’s family, too, are convinced their son was killed. Hénin has no doubt that the man decapitated on the video was James Foley. US intelligence is attempting to authenticate the video, the council said. Unlike the French, the US and British governments refuse any form of negotiations for hostages. The US National Security Council released a statement saying it was “appalled” and presenting “deepest condolences” to Foley’s family and friends. "The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision," the hooded man says. The freelancer for Time, World Affairs and the Christian Science Monitor was kidnapped near Aleppo a year ago. The executioner then grabs a second kneeling prisoner by the collar of his orange jumpsuit. 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.” “Your strikes have caused casualties amongst Muslims. “Today, your military air force is attacking us daily in Iraq,” the executioner continues. The US has staged some 90 bombing raids on Islamic State targets since August 8th, enabling the Kurdish Peshmerga to retake Iraq’s biggest hydroelectric dam this week. In a British accent, he warns the US to cease its intervention in Iraq. The black-hooded executioner then slashes Foley’s throat and decapitates him. I guess in all, I wish I wasn’t an American.” When your colleagues dropped that bomb on those people, they signed my death certificate. Did they think of me, of you or of our family when they decided to do that?" I ask you John: think of those who recently decided to bomb Iraq. "Think of the lives you're destroying, including those of your own family. "Think about what you are doing," he says. “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,” he says.įoley then addresses his brother John, described as a member of the US air force. With a microphone clipped to his orange jumpsuit, Foley then recites what appears to be a prepared statement. A hooded Islamic State militant, dressed in black, stands beside him in the desert, wielding a knife. The Islamic State video is titled “A Message to America” and shows Foley on his knees, head shaven and hands tied behind his back, in an orange jumpsuit like those worn by the Muslim prisoners of Guantánamo. YouTube removed the Islamic State video after a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #ISISmediablackout urged people not to watch it, suggesting that they instead share photos of Foley before he was kidnapped. “He was exasperated by widespread Islamophobia, and he wanted to build bridges between the Christian and Muslim worlds.” There were times he read it without interruption.”įoley was on assignment for Boston-based website Global Post and the Agence France-Presse when he was taken hostage at a checkpoint in northern Syria in November 2012.ĭialogue between civilisations “He said that when he was free, he would apply to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or commit himself to the dialogue between civilisations,” Hénin continued. “James got hold of a Koran in English and he was fascinated by it. The Islamic State video showing Jame’s Foley’s murder is titled ‘A Message to America’ and shows the journalist on his knees, head shaven and hands tied behind his back, in an orange jumpsuit like those worn by the Muslim prisoners of Guantánamo. “It’s completely ironic,” Hénin said yesterday, hours after the Islamic State posted a five-minute video of the grisly execution of Foley online. The Frenchmen were held with Foley for the last seven months of their imprisonment. Hénin was freed on April 19th with three other French hostages after 10 months in captivity in Raqqa, the Islamic State's stronghold in northern Syria. James Foley, the US photojournalist who has been beheaded by the so-called Islamic State, was an avid reader of the Koran who wanted to promote dialogue between Christians and Muslims, says his former fellow hostage, the French journalist Nicolas Hénin.
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