Tag: Steven Sotloff

Barak Barfi, the spokesman for Steven Sotloff's family, is angry at the White House and speaking out about how Soltoff was kidnapped. Here's the gist of his interview yesterday with Anderson Cooper of CNN (video available at link, it's worth watching):

"For the first time, we can say Steven was sold at the border. Steven's name was on a list that he had been responsible for the bombing of a hospital," Barak Barfi said on "Anderson Cooper 360." "This was false, activists spread his name around."

"We believe that these so-called moderate rebels that people want our administration to support, one of them sold him probably for something between $25,000 and $50,000 to ISIS, and that was the reason he was captured," Barfi told Cooper.

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According to the British press, authorities are very close to publicly revealing the identification of the masked executioner in the James Foley and Steven Sotloff videos. Listening to CNN on the car radio earlier today, I heard Senator Chambliss say the same thing, and that they may or may not be the same person.

The British killer behind the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff was known to MI5 as a low-level collector for genuine Arab charities based in London. It is believed he moved on to gathering funds for Islamic State warlords before deciding to fight for the twisted cause.

So who is it? [More...]

ISIS has released a video (no link here please) that shows Steven Sotloff in the beheading position. It says he has been executed, and a British hostage, David Cawthorne Haines, will be next.

Update: I don't think the video was made at the same time as the Foley video. The executioner mentions the continued bombings "at Amerli, Zumar and the Mosul Dam." Amerli and Zumar hadn't happened when Foley was killed. Also, Sotloff had a shaved head and no beard in the Foley video. In today's video, he has hair and a beard.

Truly horrifying. al Furqan Media (aka Furqan Foundation for Media Production) and al Hayat Media Center have just released a video threatening the United States if it continues strikes against ISIS.

In the video, which I won't link to but have watched, U.S. journalist James Wright Foley is beheaded. Here is the FBI notice of Foley's kidnapping in Syria in 2012. In 2011, he was held by Libyan government forces.

Just before Foley is beheaded, the beheader, who speaks in English, says:

Any attempt by you, Obama, to deny the Muslims their right to live in safety under the Islamic Califphate will result in the bloodshed of your people.

After that, the beheader shows U.S. journalist Steven Joel Sotloff in the same position, and says "The life of this American citizen Obama depends on your next decision." [More...]