The barbaric jihadis holding James Wright Foley hostage sent an email to his family vowing to execute him and continue their murderous rampage “UNTILL WE QUENCH OUR THIRST FOR YOUR BLOOD.”
The typo-filled screed — sent by the Islamic State a week before a video surfaced showing them beheading the American photojournalist — said Foley and other captives “DARED TO ENTER THE LION’S DEN AND WHERE EATEN!”
GlobalPost, the online news outlet for which Foley had worked, posted the entire email on its website.
“Today our swords are unsheathed towards you,” it reads.
“You and your citizens will pay the price of your bombings! The first of which being the blood of the American citizen, James Foley!”
“He will be executed as a DIRECT result of your transgressions towards us!,” it added.
GlobalPost said Foley’s grieving kin had agreed to release the email, and the Boston-based international news site said it decided “to publish it in full in the interest of transparency and to fully tell Jim’s story.”
“In addition to the extreme views it espouses, the email contains factual inaccuracies. For example, the Foley family was not ‘given many chances to negotiate’ for Jim’s release,” GlobalPost said in a report accompanying the text of the email.
The Foleys actually received only one previous email, on Nov. 26, 2013, more than a year after Foley, 40, was kidnapped in Syria, GlobalPost said.
GlobalPost said the Islamic State — also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS — had contacted Foley’s family by email previously and demanded $132 million ransom.
The family worked with the FBI to craft a response to the demand and plead for their son’s return.
“It was an appeal for mercy,” said Phil Balboni, chief executive of GlobalPost. “It was a statement that Jim was an innocent journalist.”
Foley’s family and friends hoped the militants were bluffing and they would negotiate a ransom and free him.
But the terrorists vowed in the latest email to execute more people and demanded money and prisoners in exchange for their captives.
Meanwhile, an international manhunt was under way Thursday to “identify and capture” Foley’s masked executioner, who calls himself John and is one of several Islamic State thugs dubbed “the Beatles” by hostages for their British accents.
Investigators on both sides of the Atlantic scoured the grisly Web video of Foley’s slaying — along with other online recordings, social media and law enforcement databases — for clues to John’s real identity.
Authorities have “all of the tools at our disposal” to find the butcher, who used a small blade to execute Foley after forcing him to make anti-American statements, said a White House spokeswoman.
“Those who would perpetrate such acts need to understand something: This Justice Department, this Department of Defense, this nation, we have long memories, and our reach is very wide,” Attorney General Eric Holder said. “We will not forget what happened, and people will be held accountable one way or the other.”
Judging from his accent, experts believe John is from East London or southeast England.
Today our swords are unsheathed towards you, GOVERNMENT AND CITIZENS ALIKE! AND WE WILL NOT STOP UNTILL WE QUENCH OUR THIRST FOR YOUR BLOOD. You do not spare our weak, elderly, women or children so we will NOT spare yours!
- Islamic State email to Foley's parents
His voice also indicates he is in his 20s and was raised or educated in Britain, with some experts saying he may have emigrated to the UK, reports say.
His pronunciation of the word “Muslims” suggests he speaks some Arabic, and the BBC said he is believed to have traveled to Syria sometime during the past three years.
Experts said his appearance in the execution video means he holds a high rank in the Islamic State.
“This is an official ISIS video, and as such, this is not a random guy,” Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
A reporter for The Guardian told Sky News a hostage released several months ago identified John as “one of three British nationals who were responsible for guarding foreign prisoners in Raqqa,” a city in Syria.
“He was the leader of the pack, someone who was very assertive and was responsible for negotiations with hostage families and certainly had spoken to many mums, dads, wives on Skype,” said the reporter, Martin Chulov.
“The fact that this British national speaks such fluent English — he writes fluent English, as well — he has been given a lot of trust and authority within the jihadist structure in Raqqa.”
Two French journalists who were also being held hostage said Foley had been singled out for special torment — including repeated beatings, mock executions and a posed crucifixion — after his captors learned that his brother served in the US Air Force.
“Because of that, and as he was American, he got extra bad treatment,” French journalist Nicolas Henin, who was imprisoned with Foley and later released, told France’s Express magazine. “He became the whipping boy of the jailers, but he remained unperturbed.”
Right before his beheading, Foley was forced to denounce America and direct messages to his brother John, 35, asking him to think about the militants killed in a recent US airstrike.
“I died that day, John. When your colleagues dropped that bomb on those people, they signed my death certificate,” Foley said.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis called Foley’s parents on Thursday, a Vatican spokesman said. He did not reveal any details about the conversation.
Additional reporting by Marisa Schultz
Email sent Aug. 12 by ISIS to American journalist James Wright Foley’s parents
HOW LONG WILL THE SHEEP FOLLOW THE BLIND SHEPPARD?
A message to the American government and their sheep like citizens:
We have left you alone since your disgraceful defeat in Iraq. We did not interfere in your country or attack your citizens while they were safe in their homes despite our capability to do so!
As for the scum of your society who are held prisoner by us, THEY DARED TO ENTER THE LION’S DEN AND WHERE EATEN!
You were given many chances to negotiate the release of your people via cash transactions as other governments have accepted,
We have also offered prisoner exchanges to free the Muslims currently in your detention like our sister Dr Afia Sidiqqi, however you proved very quickly to us that this is NOT what you are interested in.You have no motivation to deal with the Muslims except with the language of force, a language you were given in “Arabic translation” when you attempted to occupy the land of Iraq!
Now you return to bomb the Muslims of Iraq once again, this time resorting to Arial attacks and “proxy armies”, all the while cowardly shying away from a face-to-face confrontation!Today our swords are unsheathed towards you, GOVERNMENT AND CITIZENS ALIKE! AND WE WILL NOT STOP UNTILL WE QUENCH OUR THIRST FOR YOUR BLOOD.
You do not spare our weak, elderly, women or children so we will NOT spare yours!
You and your citizens will pay the price of your bombings!
The first of which being the blood of the American citizen, James Foley!
He will be executed as a DIRECT result of your transgressions towards us!
