kidnapped in northern Syria, according to GlobalPost, a Boston-based
online publication….He had
reported in the Middle East for five years….kidnapped and
released in Libya…..Steven Sotloff, who appeared at the end of
the video, went missing in northern Syria while reporting in July 2013……
….
….
It is grim news for those who hope to halt the march of the Islamist menace by controlling immigration or through surveillance of citizens. What would work (in a fantasy world) is a program in reverse brain-washing, but we are not there yet (and we dont want to fantasize about such evil things).
What you have is a greatly disaffected community of Islamists (nihilists??) who are born and raised in the West. They feel utter humiliation and helplessness because the Christian West (as they see it) dominates the world aided by Jewish money.
…..
Claire Hardaker, a lecturer in Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, said: We seem to have definitely southern vowels in there, we’ve got some
interesting pronunciations – he says the word ‘Muslims’, he says it in
quite an interesting way. You kind of use a ‘Muz’ sound and he’s doing
a ‘Mus’ …as in he does an unvoiced ‘s’ when he says it.
We’re definitely looking at a British accent, from the south and probably from London.
…
These young turks also see (often justifiably) oppression of muslim populations everywhere: in South Asia, China, Russia, Indo-China, and Israel, but also (for Sunnis) in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon and ex-Russian-stans. Driven by the
quest for purity they may even consider fence-sitters such as Pakistan
as being insufficiently Islamic.
These folks dream of a Caliphate cockpit, the flight-deck from which to rule the world. They want to create a new global order. They are the new Siegfrieds and all they lack is a…dirty nuclear bomb. Be very afraid.
………..
This will be a brutal fight to the finish and unfortunately the West is falling short of both inclination and ability. You
cant hope to eliminate them, they are too numerous. You cant hope to
contain them, the powerful social-media tools developed by the West will
now be weaponized against the West.
You can only
hope that over a long period of time this fever will slowly pass and
the hate-fires will calm down. In the meantime many non-muslims (and the
wrong type of muslims) will suffer painful, violent deaths. Genocides
and ethnic cleansings will be the new normal in the Middle East and
North Africa (and has been for quite some time now). What a pity.
………………..
Lest we forget, this tactic of be-heading journalists as a propaganda tool started with the murder of Jewish-American Daniel Pearl in 2002 (yes we do believe that his Jewishness was as irresistible to his murderers as his American citizenship).
……
[ref. Wiki] Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was a journalist with American and Israeli citizenship. He was kidnapped by Pakistani militants and later murdered by Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan. Pearl was kidnapped while working as the South Asia Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, based in Mumbai, India. He
had gone to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links
between Richard Reid (the “shoe bomber”) and Al-Qaeda.
……………………
Islamic
State insurgents posted a video on Tuesday purportedly showing the
beheading of US journalist James Foley and images of another US
journalist whose life they said depended on how the United States acts
in Iraq.
The video, titled “A Message To America,” presented
President Barack Obama with bleak options that could define America’s
next phase of involvement in Iraq and the public reaction to it,
potentially deepening his hand in a conflict he built much of his
presidency on ending.
While the video had yet to be verified,
its grisly message was unambiguous, warning of greater retaliation to
come against Americans following nearly two weeks of US air strikes that
have pounded militant positions and halted the advance of Islamic
State, which until this month had captured a third of Iraq with little
resistance.
The video, posted on social media, brought a
chilling and highly personal tone to a conflict that for many Americans
had started to become all too familiar.
Foley, 40, was
kidnapped by armed men on November 22, 2012, in northern Syria while on
his way to the Turkish border, according to GlobalPost, a Boston-based
online publication where Foley had worked as a freelancer. He had
reported in the Middle East for five years and had been kidnapped and
released in Libya.
Steven Sotloff, who appeared at the end of
the video, went missing in northern Syria while reporting in July 2013.
He has written for TIME among other news organizations.
The
video injected an unpredictable element into Obama’s deliberations on
how far to proceed with US air strikes against Islamic State targets in
Iraq, though aides said his vow not to put US combat forces on the
ground in Iraq still held.
“We
have seen a video that purports to be the murder of US citizen James
Foley by ISIL,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman
Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. “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 and we express our deepest condolences to his family
and friends,” she said.
A Twitter account set up by Foley’s
family in Rochester, New Hampshire, to help find him said, “We know that
many of you are looking for confirmation or answers. Please be patient
until we all have more information, and keep the Foleys in your thoughts
and prayers.”
Islamic State had not previously executed
American citizens publicly. The video was posted after the United States
resumed air strikes in Iraq this month for the first time since the end
of the US occupation in 2011.
The Sunni militant group, which has declared a caliphate in parts of
Iraq and Syria in areas it controls, opened the video with a clip of
Obama saying he had authorized strikes in Iraq.
The words
“Obama authorizes military operations against the Islamic State
effectively placing America upon a slippery slope towards a new war
front against Muslims” appeared in English and Arabic on the screen. It showed black and white aerial footage of air strikes with text saying “American aggression against the Islamic State”.
A man identified as James Foley, his head shaven and dressed in an
orange outfit similar to uniforms worn by prisoners at the US military
detention camp in Guantanamo, Cuba, is seen kneeling in the desert next
to a man standing, holding a knife and clad head to toe in black.
“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,” the kneeling man says.
The man next to him, in a black mask, speaks in a British accent and
says, “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.”
“Today your military air force is
attacking us daily in Iraq. 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.”
Following his statement he beheads the kneeling
man. At the end of the video, words on the side of the screen say,
“Steven Joel Sotloff”, as another prisoner in an orange jumpsuit is
shown on screen. “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on
your next decision,” the masked man says.
Islamic State also released a video on Tuesday that gave the strongest
indication yet it might try to strike American targets. The video with
the theme “breaking of the American cross” boasts Islamic State will
emerge victorious over “crusader” America.
It follows a video
posted on Monday, warning of attacks on American targets if Washington
strikes against its fighters in Iraq and Syria.
The latest
footage speaks of a holy war between the al-Qaeda offshoot and the
United States, which occupied Iraq for nearly a decade and faced stiff
resistance from al-Qaida.
Islamic State’s sweep through
northern Iraq, bringing it close to Baghdad and in control of the second
city, Mosul, drew US air strikes that helped Kurdish peshmerga fighters
regain some territory captured by the Sunni militants.
Earlier
on Tuesday, Iraqi forces halted a short-lived offensive on Tuesday to
recapture Tikrit, home town of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, due to
fierce resistance from Islamic State fighters.
Buoyed by an
operation to recapture a strategic dam from the militants after two
months of setbacks, Iraqi army units backed by Shia militias launched
their offensive shortly after dawn on Tikrit, a city 130 km (80 miles)
north of Baghdad which is a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim minority.
But officers in the Iraqi forces’ operations room said by mid-afternoon that the advance had stopped.
South of Tikrit, the government side came under heavy machinegun and
mortar fire from the militants, a group of Arab and foreign fighters
hardened by battle both in Iraq and over the border in Syria’s civil
war, the officers told Reuters.
To the west, landmines and
snipers frustrated efforts to get closer to the city centre in the
latest in a series of attempts to drive out the militants. Residents of
central Tikrit said by telephone that Islamic State fighters were firmly
in control of their positions and patrolling the main streets.
Islamic State has concentrated on taking territory for its
self-proclaimed caliphate both in Syria, where it is also fighting the
forces of President Bashar al-Assad, and in Iraq. Unlike al-Qaida, the
movement from which it split, it has so far steered clear of attacking
Western targets in or outside the region.
Coinciding with the
Kurdish advances, Damascus government forces have stepped up air strikes
on Islamic State positions in and around the city of Raqqa — its
stronghold in eastern Syria.
Analysts believe Assad — who is
firmly in control in the capital more than three years into the civil
war — is seizing the moment to show his potential value to Western
states that backed the uprising against him but are now increasingly
concerned by the Islamic State threat.
Islamic State added new
fighters in Syria at a record rate in July, according to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict. About 6,300
men — 80 percent of them Syrian and the rest foreigners — joined last
month, Rami Abdelrahman, founder of the Observatory, told Reuters.
……
Link (1): reuters.com/us-syria-crisis-beheading
Link (2): iraq-crisis-outrage-over-isis-beheading-of-us-journalist-james-foley-live-updates
…..
regards