Gentle, friendly, courageous


More on James Foley.

The BBC:

The Islamic State militant group has released a video online purporting to show the killing of a US journalist.

The victim was identified by the militants as James Foley, a freelancer who was seized in Syria in late 2012.

The militants said it was in revenge for recent US air strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq.

The video has not been independently verified, but the White House said if it was genuine, the US would be “appalled by the brutal murder”.

Foley’s family wrote on Facebook: “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.”

Foley has reported extensively across the Middle East, working for the Global Post and other news outlets including the French news agency AFP.

From the Guardian:

A friend of Foley’s and his fellow captive in Libya, journalist Clare Morgana Gillis, wrote in a 2013 essay that captivity was “the state most violently opposite his nature.” Gillis described Foley as gentle, friendly, courageous and impatient with “anything that slows his forward momentum.”

In a January 2013 interview with local television news near her Rochester, New Hampshire home, Foley’s mother Diane said her son was “passionate about covering the story in Syria, passionate about the people there.”

A talk that Foley gave in 2011:

Comments

  1. miraxpath says

    Well, you will have some numpties here agreeing with IS that his real killers are the US government (or some zionazi agent), not that brave warrior/aid worker with the British accent. As for beheadings of journalists, my shock wore off with Daniel Pearl. As for beheadings in general, there have been a fair few in here in South Thailand and the Philippines. Even in Malaysia last year when the crazies from the Philippines attempted an invasion of East Malaysia and beheaded malaysian policemen and soldiers. The jihadis love the intimacy of holding their victims to their bosom and severing skin, sinews, arteries … their grievance is so deep, you see.

  2. Katherine Woo says

    Oh, Ophelia, you and your “signature Orientalist” stance against decapitation.

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