BAGHDAD/EDGARTOWN Mass. (Reuters) - U.S.
President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the
beheading of American journalist James Foley by
Islamic State militants "shocked the conscience of
the entire world" and he vowed the United States
would do what it must to protect its citizens.
U.S. officials, meanwhile, said American
warplanes continued to strike IS targets in Iraq.
Islamic State posted a video on Tuesday that
purported to show the beheading of Foley in
revenge for U.S. air strikes in Iraq. It prompted
widespread revulsion that could push Western
powers into further action against the group.
U.S. officials said on Wednesday that intelligence
analysts had concluded that the video, titled "A
Message to America," was authentic. It also
showed images of another U.S. journalist, Steven
Sotloff, whose fate Islamic State said depends on
how the United States acts in Iraq.
The gruesome video presented Obama with bleak
options that could define American involvement in
Iraq and the public reaction to it, potentially
dragging him further into a conflict he built much
of his presidency on ending.
"Jim was taken from us in an act of violence that
shocked the conscience of the entire world,"
Obama said in brief comments to reporters in
Edgartown, Massachusetts, where he has been
vacationing. He said he had spoken with Foley's
family.
"The United States of America will continue to do
what we must do to protect our people. We will
be vigilant and we will be relentless," Obama
said. "When people harm Americans, anywhere,
we do what's necessary to see that justice is
done."
British anti-terrorist police began an investigation
of the video, in which Foley's killer spoke with a
London accent.
Apparently a British national, the killer is just one
of hundreds of European Muslims drawn to join
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and who
authorities say pose a security threat to U.S. and
European interests if they return home from the
Middle East.
The video showed a high level of technical
proficiency and the use of a British voice may
have been intended to make its contents clear to
audiences in the United States, Islamic State's
declared enemy.
Political leaders were swift to react.
British Prime Minister David Cameron interrupted
his holiday to return to London to lead the hunt
to identify the killer.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was
not surprised to hear the British accent and that
large numbers of British nationals were fighting in
Iraq and Syria.
INTELLIGENCE SERVICES
"Our intelligence services will be looking very
carefully on both sides of the Atlantic at this
video to establish its authenticity, to try to
identify the individual concerned and then we will
work together to try to locate him," Hammond
told Sky news.
France said it wanted the permanent members of
the U.N. Security Council and regional countries,
including Arab states and Iran, to coordinate
action against Islamic State.
President Francois Hollande called for an
international conference to discuss how to tackle
the group.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned
"the horrific murder of journalist James Foley, an
abominable crime that underscores the campaign
of terror the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
continues to wage against the people of Iraq and
Syria," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari urged the
world to back his country against Islamic State,
which he described as a threat to the world, not
just to the minority ethnic groups whose
members it has killed in Iraq.
Germany and Italy said they were ready to send
arms to bolster the military capabilities of Iraqi
Kurds fighting Islamic State in northern Iraq.
Sending arms into conflict zones is a major
departure for Germany, which has often shied
away from direct involvement in military conflicts
since World War Two due to its Nazi past.
The video's message was unambiguous, warning
of greater retaliation to come against Americans
following nearly two weeks of U.S. 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.
Foley, 40, was kidnapped on Nov. 22, 2012, in
northern Syria, according to GlobalPost. He had
earlier been kidnapped and released in Libya.
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.
On Facebook, Foley's mother, Diane Foley, said:
"We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He
gave his life trying to expose the world to the
suffering of the Syrian people.
"We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of
the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are
innocents. They have no control over American
government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in
the world."
The video was posted after the United States
resumed air strikes in Iraq this month for the first
time since the end of the U.S. occupation in
2011.
ISLAMIC STATE
Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in
the parts of Iraq and Syria 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 Foley, his head shaven and
dressed in an orange outfit similar to uniforms
worn by prisoners at the U.S. military detention
camp in Guantánamo Bay, 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 U.S. 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."
ISLAMIC ARMY
"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.
University of Virginia political scholar Larry
Sabato said the killing was like the beheading of
American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in
2002. He said it could help bolster a perception
among Americans that the United States will have
to be more aggressive in dealing with Islamic
State militants.
Syria has been the most dangerous country for
journalists for more than two years. At least 69
other journalists have been killed covering the
conflict there and more than 80 journalists have
been kidnapped in Syria.
The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists
estimates that approximately 20 journalists are
currently missing in Syria. Many of them are
believed to be held by Islamic State.
Islamic State also released a video on Tuesday
that gave a strong indication 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 followed a video on Monday warning of attacks
on American targets if Washington strikes its
fighters in Iraq and Syria.
As well as taking territory, Islamic State has
seized a number of oil wells in northern Iraq. The
government in Baghdad said it was troubled by
reports that Islamic State was smuggling oil to
export markets and warned that the purchase of
such supplies could help the group fund its
operations.
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in
Geneva, Oliver Holmes and Tom Perry in Beirut,
Sabine Siebold in Berlin, Costas Pitas and William
James in London, Louis Charbonneau at the
United Nations and John Irish in Paris; Writing by
Giles Elgood and Jim Loney; Editing by David
Stamp and Dan Grebler)
