Another Example of How All That Surveillance Is Working

[Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State terrorist known as “Jihadi John,” ] was a computer programming graduate of the University of Westminster and lived in Queen’s Park, West London, [and] is thought to have killed American journalist James Foley. The killing was shown in a video released last August.

He is further believed to have featured in the videos of the beheadings of US journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning, and US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter.

[...]

Emwazi was a “person of interest” for MI5 as he was a member of a London based jihadi cell that had been set up to recruit militants.

[...]

Despite clearly being on the radar of the British intelligence services, Emwazi, who was born in Kuwait and travelled to the UK as a child with his family was able to avoid detection and eventually escape to Syria in 2013.

“Given the numbers who appear to have ‘slipped through the net’, it is legitimate to ask, how many more people must die before we start to look more closely at the strategy of our intelligence services?” said the former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, writing in the Guardian on Friday.

  RT

Another case to which the punch line could be: are the Five Eyes intelligence/security agencies incompetent or complicit?

And What Will France Do?

A splinter group that claims links to the militant group Islamic State (Isis) released a video on Monday night of a French tourist abducted on Sunday while on holiday in Algeria. The group has threatened to execute him unless France halts air strikes on Isis positions in Iraq. The French foreign ministry confirmed the authenticity of the video and identified the hostage as 55-year-old Hervé Gourdel.

[...]

“Everything is being done to find our compatriot. All our services are being mobilised to that end, and no theory is ruled out. We are in constant contact with the Algerian authorities, who are cooperating and supporting our inquiry,” said the French foreign ministry.

Hours before the kidnapping, Isis called on its supporters to kill civilians, namely Americans, French, and “their allies”.

Since 2005, about 80 Algerians have been kidnapped in Kabylie by groups demanding a ransom. Most of those who were abducted for extortion were later freed by Algerian security forces.

  Guardian

UPDATE: 9/24 - Gourdel has been beheaded. They didn't give the French much time to respond.

James Foley, et al.

[When IS contacted James Foley’s family to ransom their son], the government told the Foleys that it was a crime for private citizens to pay off terrorists.

More important, in retrospect, was what the F.B.I. did not tell the family: Mr. Foley was being held alongside a dozen Europeans, whose countries have a history of paying ransoms.

[...]

Guided by its strict no-ransom policy, the United States government’s hands-off approach was vastly different from the tack taken by European countries, which quickly negotiated the release of their citizens in exchange for cash.

This greatly frustrated the family of Mr. Foley, 40, a freelance journalist, and the other American hostages, who were desperate for Washington to take stronger action.

[...]

There is little indication that the administration anticipated how Mr. Foley and other American hostages could turn into grisly propaganda by ISIS, increasing pressure on the United States to begin what may become another extended military engagement in the Middle East.

[...]

The United States and Britain are among the only countries that abide by a zero-concession policy, refusing to accede to terrorists’ demands, arguing that doing so encourages more kidnapping.

[...]

“What is hard to prove is how many Americans have not been kidnapped as a result of the fact that the enemy knows they will not get a penny from us,” said Gen. John R. Allen, who recently retired as the top commander in Afghanistan. “In the aftermath of this horrific event it makes it hard to explain this policy. But the fact that there are Americans in the region who were never taken because they knew there was no advantage to doing so needs to be factored in.”

  NYT

And not only were the American families left to their own devices for support while being constantly monitored by the FBI, when the kidnappers asked for money and release of a Pakistani neuroscientist from American prison, they were told by the FBI to stall on the money part of the request and say in no uncertain terms does the US trade hostages. In the meantime, the US traded five Taliban for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. And, as you know, two of the Americans have now been executed.

Two other Americans and two British citizens remain in ISIS custody. At least 15 others held with Mr. Foley, all but one of them European, succeeded in getting out in return for cash.

In an effort to make sure the death of Mr. Foley brings about change, his parents are now working to establish an organization that will advise families of other victims, giving them the information early on that they say they were not given.

Not in time for the family of British Alan Henning.

And, speaking of Bowe Bergdahl…

The Republican-controlled House on Tuesday pushed a resolution condemning President Barack Obama for failing to give 30-day notice to Congress about the exchange in May of American prisoner Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

[...]

Republicans insisted that Obama clearly violated the law, underscored by a Government Accountability Office report last month that reached that conclusion. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, accused Obama of a blatant disregard for the law.

  NY Daily News

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl plans to get out of the Army and pursue a college education once the investigation into his disappearance is completed, his lawyer told CBS News.

[...]

His release from nearly five years in Taliban captivity ended in May, after President Obama decided to swap him for five prisoners held in a Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

[...]

In a phone interview Tuesday, attorney Gene Fidell said that his client feels like he is in a holding pattern and wants to get on with his life.< br/>


  

At least he still has a life to get on with.

And, the Third Man Is Executed by IS

Sincere condolences to the family of David Haines.

Of course, David Cameron has vowed to hunt down and destroy IS.  Just like Obama.  But neither man has any intention of changing their foreign policies so that groups like IS have no reason for being created.  Not to mention, so that IS will stop executing their respective citizens.

And, IS has another man on the block. Alan Henning.  What can I say?

We're All Fodder in One Way or Another

Diane Foley told ABC News today of the three separate warnings she said U.S. officials gave the family about the illegality of paying ransom to the terror group ISIS. “It just made me realize that these people talking to us had no idea what it was like to be the family of someone abducted… I’m sure [the U.S. official] didn’t mean it the way he said it, but we were between a rock and a hard place. We were told we could do nothing… meanwhile our son was being beaten and tortured every day.”

  ABC

But, the officials sure jumped on the chance to use his beheading as their war cry.

Foley’s parents were threatened with prosecution should they raise ransom money to get their son back.

Earlier this week five current and former officials with direct knowledge of the Foley case confirmed the alleged threats were made.

"It was an utterly idiotic thing to do that came across as if [the U.S. official] had the compassion of an anvil," said a former official who has advised the family.

I doubt he had that much.

And, I’d have said, “Go ahead. Prosecute.”

Hey, I'm on Vacation Here!

President Obama’s decision to hit the links and yuk it up with pals immediately after speaking about the beheading of James ¬Foley was no ordinary mistake. Nor was it a simple gaffe.

[...]

Simple decency and respect for Foley’s horrified parents should have been enough to sober him. If that didn’t do it, the realization that the Islamic State had declared war on America in the most gruesome fashion imaginable should have sounded a call of duty in his head.

Instead, Obama continued with his vacation and was photographed looking as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

  NYPost

"There's no doubt that — after having talked to the families, where it was hard for me to hold back tears listening to the pain that they were going through, after the statement that I made, that you know, I should've anticipated the optics" he added.

  The Hill

No kidding. These people live in bubbles don’t they? Otherwise, how did he not realize that he was repeating a Bush mistake? (One of many.) Oh well, he doesn’t need to worry, does he? They may live in bubbles, but nobody ever bursts them. Obama and Bush: twin brothers of different mothers.

"You know, that's part of the job.”

Obama also said “theater” is part of the presidency.

  The Hill

Just part of the job.

Neeeexxxxxxxxxxxt!

You Don't Scare Him

Barack Obama has vowed that the US will not be intimidated by the beheading of the American journalist Steven Sotloff by Islamic State (Isis) and called for a united international, Arab and Muslim response to its "barbarism".

"We will not be intimidated," the president said.

  Guardian

In fact, it positively plays into our hand. Makes the American public irate and ensures more money for blood from Congress.

Lawmakers from both parties on Tuesday exhorted President Obama to broaden the military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) after the group released a second video that appeared to show the beheading of an American journalist.

While the authenticity of the video has not been confirmed, lawmakers said the presumed execution of 31-year-old Time journalist Steven Sotloff demands a forceful American response.

“Let there be no doubt, we must go after ISIS right away because the U.S. is the only one that can put together a coalition to stop this group that’s intent on barbaric cruelty,” said Sen. Bill Nelson ([Kneejerk] D-Fla.) in a statement.

  The Hill

There are a couple problems with the information in those paragraphs (aside from the kneejerk reactions. I’m sure you’ve already spotted them.

So, whoever is next in line, make peace with your life [allegedly David Haines]. It’s about to end.

P.S.

UPDATE: Joe Biden says we'll go to the "Gates of Hell" to get ISIL.

IS Not Prone to Idle Threats

The militant Islamic State group has released a video in which it claims to have beheaded the captured American journalist Steven Sotloff, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

In the video, which lasts for just under three minutes, ISIS murders Sotloff andthreatens the life of David Haines, a British citizen.

Sotloff, 31, was kidnapped in 2013 while reporting on the bloody civil war in Syria.

[...]

The video comes weeks after ISIS released a video in which it beheaded another American journalist, James Foley. In that video, the militants threatened to murder Sotloff next if the US bombing of ISIS targets continued.

  HuffPo

UPDATE: The next man has been executed, and another is on the block.

Syria Frees US Journalist

An American journalist kidnapped nearly two years ago has been freed in Syria following Qatari mediation and handed over to UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights.

Peter Theo Curtis was handed over to UN peacekeepers in the village of al-Rafid, Quneitra, on Sunday.

  alJazeera

"Joe, this Foley killing and reports of our failure to rescue journalists is busting my balls. Get out there and find me one we can get released. We need a mark in the plus column, and we need it now."

Is This Obama's Response to ISI Executioners?

At the end of the video {showing the execution of journalist James Foley], 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.

[...]

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.

  Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama expressed revulsion on Wednesday at the beheading of an American journalist by Islamist militants and vowed the United States would do what it must to protect its citizens as international condemnation of the insurgents grew.

Not long after Obama called Islamic State a "cancer" with a bankrupt ideology, the Pentagon said U.S. aircraft conducted 14 air strikes in the vicinity of Iraq's Mosul Dam, destroying or damaging militants' Humvees, trucks and explosives.

  Reuters

My sincere condolences to the family of about-to-be executed reporter Steven Sotloff.

UPDATE 9/2: Sotloff executed.

Something to Take Your Mind Off Ferguson

ISIS militants released gruesome video footage this afternoon of the beheading of American photojournalist James Wright Foley as a message to the U.S. to stop intervening in Iraq. Foley, a freelancer who contributed to the Global Post, was first captured in Libya in 2012, released, and then kidnapped again around Thanksgiving 2012 by unidentified gunmen in Syria. He was 40 years old.

  Gawker

"As a government, you have been at the forefront of the aggression towards the Islamic State. You have plotted against us and have gone far out of your way to find reasons to interfere in our affairs. Today, your military air force is attacking us daily in Iraq, your strikes have caused casualties among Muslims."

The video also shows another man on his knees who is identified as American journalist Steven Sotloff. The Islamic State member says that Sotloff's future "depends" on President Obama's "next decision."

  HuffPo

First things first.  The man has priorities.

If his goal for a presidential legacy is to out-Bush Bush, he's doing a damned fine job.

I'm sure our attention will be media-directed in this direction now. I'm very sorry for Mr. Foley and his family. I think we can share some of the blame for escalating Middle East violent extremist activity with our policies, but we will be reminded in capital letters what animals the enemy are. The human race will never evolve.

UPDATE:  Saudis behead four for smuggling hashish UPDATE 9/2: Sotloff executed.