A video released Tuesday by the militant extremist group Islamic State (IS), depicting the violent execution of a man alleged to be missing American journalist James Foley, has been confirmed as authentic by Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.
Foley, who was kidnapped in Syria last year while working for Agence France-Presse (AFP), was seen in the harrowing footage, which has shocked the global community.
James Foley's father: Jim was courageous to the end pic.twitter.com/MEVWk0o3Eu
— Bernice Freedman (@BerniceNews) August 20, 2014
“Today, the entire world is appalled by the brutal murder of Jim Foley by the terror group ISIL,” President Obama said in a speech from Martha’s Vineyard this afternoon.
“Jim Foley’s life stands in stark contrast to his killers’,” he continued. “No just god would stand for what they did yesterday.”
The President called for the people of Iraq and Syria to support the United States in its fight against IS. “There has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so it does not spread,” he urged.
Foley, who was also captured and imprisoned for six weeks in Libya in 2012, was believed by his family and former employer GlobalPost to have been abducted by a militia group in Syria and turned over to government forces there.
In May, GlobalPost CEO Philip Balboni indicated that Foley was likely being held at a detention center near Damascus.
The gruesome video released by IS features three men: one identified as James Foley, another who appears to be an IS militant speaking with a British accent, and a third identified as Steven Sotloff, another journalist.
Both Foley and the militant state that the execution is in retaliation for the U.S. bombing of ISIS fighters near Irbil, Iraq, which began on August 9.
The video also includes footage of President Obama announcing the airstrikes and what appears to be Pentagon footage of the strikes.
In the video, the man identified as Foley is forced to recite a prepared speech:
“I call on my friends, family, and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the U.S. government. My message to my beloved parents: Save me some dignity and don’t accept any meager compensation for my death from the same people who effectively put the last nail in my coffin. I call on my brother who is in the Air Force. I call on you, John. Think about who made the decision to bomb Iraq. Who did they really kill? Did they think about me, you, and our family when they made that decision? I died that day, John. When your colleagues dropped that bomb, they signed my death certificate. I wish I had more time. I wish I had the hope of seeing my family one more time. I guess all in all, I wish I wasn’t American.”
The IS militant then speaks:
“This is James Foley, an American citizen of your country. As the American government, you have been at the forefront of the Islamic State. You have plotted against us. Today, your military Air Force has attacked us daily in Iraq. You are no longer fighting an insurgency. We are an Islamic army, a state. So effectively, an aggression to the state is an aggression to Muslims of all walks of life who have accepted the Islamic caliphate as their leadership. So any attempts from you, Obama, to deny Muslims their safety of living under the caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your people.”
The video then shows the militant decapitating the man identified as Foley. After a brief blackout, the IS militant brings out a man identified as Steven Sotloff and warns, “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.”
Sotloff, who most recently published for World Affairs Journal from Libya, has been missing in Syria since August 4, 2013, according to a Facebook post by a woman who claimed a connection to him.
World Affairs Journal has not responded to requests for comment.
