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Showing posts from August, 2014

THIS IS WAR?

What a horrible, nauseating scene, reminiscent of the dark days of the Iraqi insurgency ten years ago. An American man dressed in an orange jump suit, shaved head, located somewhere in the Syrian desert. Behind him was the menacing figure of a completely black clad jihadist, knife in hand, who spoke with a British accent. The American prisoner read a prepared statement telling the United States to stop bombing targets of the Islamic State, also known as IS or ISIS. After reading the statement, the jihadist took the knife and beheaded the prisoner. The man in question was free-lance journalist, James Foley, age 40. As an ‘Arab Spring journalist,’ Mr. Foley was no stranger to danger. He had spent 44 days in captivity during the 2011 Libyan civil war. Later on , he went to Syria to report on the war there. In November, 2012, he and his translator were kidnapped but the latter was released. No one knew anything about the whereabouts of James Foley until Tuesday, August 19th 2014, w