Journalist James Foley´s captors sent his family a taunting email threatening to kill him, just a week before making public a video of his execution, the American reporter´s employer said yesterday.
GlobalPost said it released the full text of the email from Islamic State (IS) militants “in the interest of transparency and to fully tell Jim´s story.” “We believe the text offers insight into the motivations and tactics of the Islamic State,” it added.
The release comes after the GlobalPost told that Foley´s captors had demanded a ransom of 100 million euros — $132 million — for his release.
The email claims that “other governments” had accepted “cash transactions” for the release of hostages and says that the militants had offered prisoner exchanges for Foley´s freedom, naming Aafia Siddiqui, the scientist jailed for 86 years for attempting to murder US military officers.
IS, which has marauded across large areas of Iraq in recent months, on Tuesday published a video showing one of its members beheading Foley.
Foley, a photojournalist, was reporting from Syria for GlobalPost and other outlets including AFP when he was abducted in November 2012.Prior to disclosing the email, GlobalPost CEO Philip Balboni said the captors made contact with GlobalPost and the Foley family fewer than half a dozen times, and “the kidnappers never really negotiated” over their huge sum, but simply made their demand.
“We never took the 100 million (euro) figure seriously,” Balboni told CNN.
The US government opposes paying such ransoms, arguing that it only encourages more hostage-taking.
“We do not make concessions to terrorists. That includes: We do not pay ransoms,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters yesterday.
Such payouts, she added, would only serve to “fund and finance exactly the groups (whose capabilities) we are trying to degrade.”
After initial messages and the ransom demand, he said, the line of communication with the militants went cold until August 13, when they sent the terrifying message telling the Foleys that their son would be killed.
The Pentagon revealed day before yesterday that US special forces were sent into Syria earlier this year to try to rescue American hostages but they came up empty-handed as the captives were not at the targeted location.
“This operation was a flawless operation, but the hostages were not there,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters.
