Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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New York, SANA – Mother of American journalist James Foley who was recently beheaded by the terrorist organization of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) decried the way the U.S. authorities treated her son’s case as “appalling”.
The British Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted Diane Foley as saying to the CNN that her family were treated as an “annoyance” by the US government.
She noted that the “embarrassing” treatment which they received by their government amounted to even being threatened with arrest if they attempted to raise a ransom to try to secure the release of their son, who was kidnapped by terrorists in Syria in November, 2012.
Mrs. Foley noted that members of her family were warned that paying a ransom “was illegal, we might be prosecuted.”
Last month a 5-minute video was posted on a website for extremists in which an ISIS member with a British accent, who apparently slaughtered the American journalist, said the beheading was in retaliation for the airstrikes which the US have recently launched against ISIS positions in Iraq.
“I think our efforts to get Jim freed were an annoyance…It didn’t seem to be in [the US] strategic interest, ” Mrs. Foley told the CNN, as quoted by the Daily Telegraph.
“We were just told to trust that he would be freed somehow, miraculously. And he wasn’t,” she said.
“I really feel that our country let Jim down…Jim was killed in the most horrific way. He was sacrificed because of just a lack of co-ordination, lack of communication, lack of prioritization,” Mrs. Foley lamented.
“I pray that our government will be willing to learn from the mistakes that were made and to acknowledge that there are better ways for American citizens to be treated,” she said.
In the video, which was released late last month, ISIS also threatened to kill another American captive, identified as Steven Joel Sotloff, who appeared down on his knees, while a veiled militant holding his neck from the back, a threat that was actually carried out in early September, as another ISIS video showed.
The extremist organization holds sway over parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria, where its members have been committing abhorrent atrocities against the residents there.
The US has been at the top of a list of countries which have funded, armed and supported terrorists operating in Syria, which has repeatedly warned since the outbreak of the internationally-devised terrorist war against it in 2011 that terrorism will backfire on those countries.
Haifa Said
