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ISIS Hostages Endured Torture and Dashed Hopes, Freed Cellmates Say - New York Times
The hostages were taken out of their cell one by one.
In a private room, their captors asked each of them three intimate questions, a standard technique used to obtain proof that a prisoner is still alive in a kidnapping negotiation.
James Foley returned to the cell he shared with nearly two dozen other Western hostages and collapsed in tears of joy. The questions his kidnappers had asked were so personal (“Who cried at your brother’s wedding?” “Who was the captain of your high school soccer team?”) that he knew they were finally in touch with his family....
The story of what happened in the Islamic State’s underground network of prisons in Syria is one of excruciating suffering....
Mr. Foley seemed to sense the end was near. In his letter, amid expressions of love, he slipped in a sentence instructing his family on how to disburse the money in his bank account.
In August, when the militants came for him, they made him slip on a pair of plastic sandals. They drove him to a bare hill outside Raqqa. They made him kneel. He looked straight into the camera, his expression defiant. Then they slit his throat.
Two weeks later, a similar video surfaced on YouTube showing Mr. Sotloff’s death. In September, the militants uploaded Mr. Haines’s execution. In October, they killed Mr. Henning. Only three from the original group of 23 remain: two Americans, Mr. Kassig and a woman who has not been identified, as well as a Briton, Mr. Cantlie.
The militants have announced they will kill Mr. Kassig next.
Across Europe, those who had survived gasped when they saw the footage of their cellmate’s death: The cheap, beige-colored plastic flip-flops splayed next to Mr. Foley’s body were the same pair the prisoners had shared....
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#ISIS Hostage James Foley Campaigned for Barack Obama – But Obama’s Delays Cost Him His Life - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
American journalist and freelance photographer James Foley campaigned for Barack Obama.
But when he was captured and held by ISIS, Obama was not there for him.
The Sunday Times reported in August that President Obama delayed a rescue mission for James Foley and the other prisoners for 30 days. Obama spent that time “fretting over his image”, playing golf and worrying his administration would be “Carterized” if the mission failed....
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