- ISIS claimed victory for Obama’s shift in allowing negotiations with terrorists.
- “It’s clear that violence is the only message [America] they will respond to.”
- “In a belated response to the executions of my former cellmates last year, America has formally changed its policy on ransoms for hostages,” British photojournalist John Cantlie wrote.
ISIS claimed victory Wednesday for the Obama administration’s summer shift in allowing hostage negotiations with terrorists, posting an article in the radical Islamist group’s online magazine declaring, “it’s clear that violence is the only message they will respond to.”The article, in the new issue of the Islamic State’s “Dabiq” magazine released Wednesday, is attributed to ISIS hostage and British photojournalist John Cantlie. Titled “The Blood of Shame,” it’s illustrated with a picture of President Obama and side-by-side covers of two newspapers: The Daily Telegraph, showing an ISIS executioner slitting a hostage’s throat, and The New York Daily News, showing Obama smiling in a golf cart.Cantlie was kidnapped in Syria in November 2012, along with American journalist James Foley, who was later killed by ISIS. Before killing Foley, ISIS demanded a ransom from his family. U.S. government officials, however, threatened Foley’s family with prosecution if they raised the money to pay the terror group, Foley’s parents, John, and Diane told Fox News in September 2014.“I mean, I don’t want to pay money to jihadist groups or other terrorists that continue their existence, but I sure do want my son home,” John Foley said.
