Yosef Abobaker, Steven Sotloff Guide, Talks to CNN

In an interview with CNN this week, Abobaker provided a detailed account of how he, Sotloff and three armed guards were abducted in Syria by ISIS fighters in August 2013, but since then, never once did U.S. officials try to interview Abobaker about his first-hand experience with ISIS and its captivity of Sotloff.

  CNN

Of course not. The US doesn’t need any real narrative for its messages to its citizens.

"I was very angry, and after that I calmed down and was so, so sorry," Abobaker said in an interview conducted in Turkey. "I put message on Facebook (to) tell his mother I am so sorry.... I did my best to save him.... My feeling is so sorry, like I lost my brother.

"He was nice man and good heart I just wish he can rest in peace now," Abobaker added.

Abobaker blamed a guard on the Turkey-Syria border for possibly betraying Sotloff's whereabouts to an ISIS contact. CNN contacted other journalists who worked with Abobaker, and they said he was an established fixer with a good reputation.

[...]

A Sotloff family representative who kept contact with Abobaker before and after his captivity reiterated the claims, saying U.S. government or security agencies -- who were made aware of the fixer and his connection to Sotloff -- never talked to Abobaker.

"That was one of many mistakes," Sotloff family spokesman Barak Barfi told CNN. He declined to comment further.

Under threatof prosecution? (See James Foley family reports.)

"The FBI is actively investigating the savage murder of Steven Sotloff at the hands of terrorists and will not discuss investigative details at this time. We are committed to bringing the murderers of Steven Sotloff to justice," said FBI spokesman Paul Bresson.

And now CNN is practically forcing them to talk to Abobaker.  Damned unembedded journalists.