ISIS offered to swap the murdered Foley for 'Lady al Wacko': Terrorists wanted the subhuman species and lower life form pictured below whom the Afghan National Police in Ghazni, Afghanistan caught with plans for 'mass casualty attack' with a dirty bomb, Ebola, and a chemical weapon 'that spared children' (yeah, right, she’s just so humane...)

Editorial note: the Editor has taken the liberty of editing out of the following article certain attempts to humanize this subhuman species and lower life form.

Hunted: Siddiqui, would-be mass killer, was on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list after 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed mentioned her name during his 2003

interrogation Aafia Siddiqui is currently serving 86 years in a Texas jail after being arrested with plans for a 'mass casualty attack' in the US, including infecting people with Ebola and a dirty bomb. She was named by Foley's captors on a 'laundry list' as the person they wanted in a prisoner swap

ROSENBERG, Jane Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison in 2010 after a Manhattan jury found her guilty of attempted murder.

This reminds us of something recent...

• ISIS, ISIL, or whatever the common crazed killers care

to call themselves, sent a 'laundry list' of demands for release of James Foley

• Before ransom rose to $132m, ISIS wanted release of Afia Siddiqui among other prisoners

• Would-be killer was jailed after she was caught with plans for 'mass casualty attack' and details of New York landmarks

• Author describes her as a 'poster girl for jihadists' and her release would have been PR disaster for Obama

• In her handbag was found details for a dirty bomb, Ebola, and a theoretical chemical weapon that did not kill children, her New York trial was told

• Government refused to enter into negotiation with his captors and launched failed rescue attempt instead - in contrast to the Bowe Bergdahl swap

By HMartin Gould For Mailonline In Rochester, New HampshireH

Published: 15:33 EST, 21 August 2014 | Updated: 03:11 EST, 22 August 2014

An MIT-educated terrorist known as 'Lady al Qaeda' was named on a 'laundry list' of demands from ISIS captors holding James Foley named, it was revealed today.

Aafia Siddiqui is currently serving 86 years in a Texas jail after being arrested with plans for a 'mass casualty attack' in the US, including infecting people with Ebola and a dirty bomb.

But President Barack Obama's administration point blank refused to consider releasing Siddiqui, or handing over a $132 million ransom, according to the HNew York TimesH.D

i

Scroll down for video

Karachi-born Siddiqui, 42, attended two New England universities. She gained a PhD from Brandeis and then trained as a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She founded the Institute of Islamic (Hate) Research and Teaching (Torture) while lurking in the U.S.

Siddiqui, the wannabe mass killer, was on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list after 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed mentioned her name during his 2003 interrogation.

Siddiqui, who is divorced from her first husband is now married to Ammar al-Baluchi, one of the 9/11 masterminds, who is currently being held in Guantanamo. He is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Burqa-clad Siddiqui was arrested in Ghanzi, Afghanistan in 2008 after a local saw her poring over a map. He became suspicious as most women in that country are illiterate.

When she was held she had detailed plans on how to kill by spreading Ebola, making a dirty bomb and even a theoretical chemical weapon that somehow spared children while killing adults.

More...

• HRevealed, James Foley was an ISIS 'whipping boy': Jihadists discovered pictures of his U.S. Air Force officer brother on his laptop and tortured him with mock executions and 'crucified him to a wall'

• H'I know ISIS butcher known as John the Jailer': French former hostage says he has a 'rough' idea who masked British jihadi is

• HPlaying golf AGAIN: Obama tees off just 24 hours after being criticized for hitting the course within minutes of solemnly pledging justice for beheaded journalist James Foley

• HThe grubby multi-million dollar trade in hostages fueling the rise of ISIS: How European allies undermine the US and negotiate with terrorists

• HISIS kidnappers demanded $132m ransom for James Foley after Obama's massive 4th of July rescue mission raided wrong terror camp

• HU.S. launches MORE airstrikes on ISIS and considers sending in extra troops to Baghdad despite threat to execute another American hostage

She also had two pounds of highly toxic sodium cyanide hidden in her bag and documents detailing potential New York targets for attack including Wall Street, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and the subway system.

The documents also showed the Plum Island Animal Disease Center on Long Island Sound, New York - which was used for biological weapons testing during the Cold War - as another potential target.

During interrogation the day after her arrest she grabbed a rifle that had been left on a table and started shooting at her questioners. She failed to hit them but she was shot in the stomach as they returned fire.

Author Deborah Scroggins, who wrote a book about Siddiqui, calls her the 'poster child for jihadists around the world.'

'I doesn't surprise me that ISIS should call for her release, even though she is associated with al-Qaeda, because they want to take over al-Qaeda's mantle,' she told MailOnline.

'What better way to establish your bona fides than to exchange a prisoner for the jihadist's icon?'

Scroggins, whose book, Wanted Women: Faith, Lies, and the War on Terror was published in 2012, points out that Siddiqui received an 86-year jail sentence despite never harming anyone, and it has never been fully explained whether her plans were realistic or just in her head.

+4

Demands: Obama refused to negotiate with the terrorists over Foley's release - in stark contrast to suspected deserter Bowe Bergdahl who was released to huge controversy in exchange for five Taliban prisoners

Family pays tribute to US journalist beheaded by ISIS

Siddiqui was only charged with two counts of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of assault. She was brought to the U.S. for trial which lasted for 14 days in January and February 2010.

'She was only tried for firing a gun at U.S. personnel overseas and Congress had just passed a law, going back to the attacks on the embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, that said anyone trying to kill U.S. personnel would get special strict sentencing,' said Scroggins.

During her trial she said she loved both the United States and Islam. Her lawyers pleaded for leniency due to mental issues, but she said: 'I am not paranoid. I do not agree with that.'

'I do not want any bloodshed. I do not want any misunderstanding. I really want to make peace and end the wars,' she said during her trial.

Siddiqui - prisoner number 90279-054 - is currently held in the Federal Medical Center in Carswell, Texas, which specializes in treating inmates with mental health issues. She is not due for release until August 8, 2083.

Scroggins added: 'She is definitely closely involved with the highest levels of al-Qaeda, but the fact is she has never been convicted of killing or injuring anyone, but she has become a cause celebre in the jihadist movement.'

Her 86-year sentence, imposed by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, led to violent protests in her home country of Pakistan. Thousands of protestors burned tires in Lahore, and police had to fire teargas to quell riots in her hometown of Karachi.

+4

Failed rescue: Obama authorized instead a daring mission to snatch back Foley and his fellow captives on July 4. But after a firefight, special forces realized the hostages were not there

Obama says US will be relentless against Islamic State

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called Siddiqui 'the daughter of the nation' and begged U.S. authorities to release her.

While Obama did swap five Taliban prisoners in exchange for suspected deserter Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed on May 31 to huge controversy,Obama authorized a daring rescue mission over the July 4 weekend that failed in the Syrian desert.

At least five ISIS militants were killed and one American soldier was wounded as the raid failed because the terrorists had moved Foley and other hostages including Miami journalist Steven Sotloff away from the base in Syria's northern Raqqa province.

Scroggins said the question of whether Siddiqui's release would be a real threat is doubtful. 'But exchanging her would have been a PR disaster for the Obama administration.'

She pointed out that the prisoners released in exchange for Bergdahl had not been convicted and tried in a U.S. court as Siddiqui was.

Her release would certainly have been perceived as a tremendous victory for the jihadist forces,' said Scroggins.

US says we do not pay ransoms

0B'Lady al Qaeda' sentenced to 86 years in prison By Thomas JoscelynSeptember 24, 2010

"Lady al Qaeda" Aafia Siddiqui, from her wanted poster.

A New York court sentenced Aafia Siddiqui, who has been dubbed "Lady al Qaeda" by the press, to 86 years in prison yesterday. Siddiqui's sentence follows her conviction on charges related to an incident in July 2008, when she tried to kill American personnel in Afghanistan. Siddiqui grabbed a gun and reportedly opened fire on the Americans, who were trying to question her.

Siddiqui was one of the most wanted women in the world prior to her capture. American authorities learned that Siddiqui was intimately involved in al Qaeda's plotting more than five years earlier.

In March 2003, the FBI issued a "Seeking Information Alert" for Siddiqui. The alert was issued after 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed ("KSM" ) identified Siddiqui as a key al Qaeda facilitator during questioning.

KSM was captured on March 1, 2003, and initially resisted questioning, according to the CIA's account. He was then subjected to so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques," including waterboarding, which have been the subject of much

controversy. According to declassified CIA documents, KSM then became the US government's "preeminent source" on al Qaeda.

In a cover story published in June 2003, Newsweek reported, relying on FBI documents, that KSM told his interrogators that Siddiqui was supposed to assist "other AQ operatives as they entered the United States." Among them was an al Qaeda operative named Majid Khan, who attempted to enter the US from Pakistan. Khan had lived in the US with his family for a decade, but his residency had lapsed. In an attempt to dupe immigration authorities into believing that Khan was still an active resident, Siddiqui rented a P.O. box in Khan's name.

Al Qaeda planned to have Khan enter the US and then blow up gas stations on the East Coast. Khan had worked at gas stations owned by his family in the Baltimore area, and KSM figured that Khan could put his knowledge of the facilities to al Qaeda's use. Khan never got a chance to launch the attack, however. He was arrested just a few days after KSM in March 2003.

Siddiqui's involvement in al Qaeda's plotting was directed by her second husband, Ali Abd al Aziz Ali (aka Ammar al Baluchi), who is one of KSM's nephews. Ammar al Baluchi was intimately involved in the 9/11 plot, al Qaeda's attempts to launch a second attack against the US Homeland in 2002 and 2003, and also a plot against the US consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. Al Baluchi and Siddiqui, who was divorced from her first husband in 2002, married shortly before al Baluchi himself was detained in Pakistan in April 2003.

KSM, Ammar al Baluchi, and Majid Khan are all currently detained at Guantanamo. They were among the 14 high-value terrorists transferred to Gitmo from CIA detention facilities in 2006. According to a biography of al Baluchi released by Department of Defense, al Baluchi directed Siddiqui "to travel to the United States to prepare paperwork to ease Majid Khan's deployment to the United States" in 2002.

In March 2003, the same month Siddiqui was identified by KSM and the FBI released its alert, several other members of KSM's network inside the US and elsewhere were identified. Declassified documents produced by the CIA reveal that all of them were identified during KSM's interrogations. Iyman Faris, an Ohio-based truck driver who was really an al Qaeda sleeper agent, was arrested on March 19, 2003. KSM tasked Faris with exploring a number of attacks, including the possibility of cutting the Brooklyn Bridge's cables with gas cutters and derailing commuter trains.

Faris concluded that the Brooklyn Bridge plot would not work, and was exploring other types of attacks at the time of his capture. While in the FBI's custody in 2003, Faris reportedly acted as a double-agent, allowing US authorities to uncover other al Qaeda-trained terrorists. Faris was subsequently convicted of providing material support to al Qaeda and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

On March 20, 2003, the FBI released a "Be on the Lookout" alert for Adnan el Shukrijumah. KSM identified Shukrijumah as a key al Qaeda terrorist who was likely to lead an attack on the US. Shukrijumah had lived in Florida, but may have been outside the US at the time. In any event, authorities failed to locate him. At some point, Shukrijumah made his way to northern Pakistan and today he is part of al Qaeda's external operations wing. That is, he is tasked with plotting attacks against the US Homeland. Shukrijumah was reportedly involved in al Qaeda's plot against New York City commuter trains in 2009. [See LWJ report: HAl Qaeda sleeper agent tied to 2009 NYC subway plot.H]

On March 28, 2003, Uzair Paracha, a native Pakistani, was detained by the FBI in New York City. Uzair worked at an import-export company owned by his father, Saifullah Paracha, in the garment district of Manhattan. KSM told his interrogators that al Qaeda intended to use the Parachas' business to smuggle explosives into the US for Majid Khan and other al Qaeda operatives to use in their attacks.

A key to the P.O. box rented by Siddiqui was found in Uzair's apartment. Uzair Paracha was subsequently convicted of providing material support to al Qaeda and sentenced to 30 years in a US prison. Saifullah was captured in Thailand in July 2003 and eventually transported to Gitmo, where he remains today. Declassified documents produced at Gitmo reveal that Saifullah met and conspired and with senior al Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden. Saifullah allowed al Qaeda to use the services of a media company he owned, and also held onto large sums of cash for KSM. In the months that followed, terrorist cells in Southeast Asia, Pakistan, and elsewhere were broken up based on intelligence supplied by KSM. Siddiqui went on the lam, evading capture until July 17, 2008, when she was arrested by the Afghan National Police in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

According to an indictment prepared by US prosecutors, Siddiqui had "various documents, various chemicals, and a computer thumb drive, among other things" in her possession when she was arrested. Handwritten notes she was carrying referred to a "mass casualty attack" and listed "various locations in the United States, including

Plum Island, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and the Brooklyn Bridge."

In addition, according to the indictment, "certain notes referred to the construction of 'dirty bombs,' chemical and biological weapons, and other explosives." The notes "discussed mortality rates associated with certain of these weapons and explosives."

Still other notes "referred to various ways to attack 'enemies,' including by destroying reconnaissance drones, using underwater bombs, and using gliders."

Siddiqui's computer thumb drive contained contained "correspondence that referred to specific 'cells' and 'attacks' by certain 'cells'," as well as documents discussing "recruitment and training."

The notes and documents in Siddiqui's possession reveal that she was most likely still involved in al Qaeda's plotting against the US Homeland at the time of her capture. She apparently did not give up, even though many of her co-conspirators had been rolled up following KSM's detention.

Prosecutors decided to focus only on Siddiqui's attempted murder of American personnel in Afghanistan in July 2008. While the exact reason is not known, prosecutors have avoided dragging the CIA and its intelligence into the courtroom when possible. It is likely that they determined it was easier to convict Siddiqui of attempted murder. That does not change the fact that Siddiqui was part of KSM's terror network and continued to plot with her fellow al Qaeda members long after her arrest.

1BRaid on Syria Isis camp may have been US rescue attempt By Erika Solomon in Erbil

H©Reuters

An Isis fighter in Raqqa near the camp that was the target of a special forces raid

Long before the US acknowledged that its special forces tried and failed to Hfree American hostages in SyriaH, among them the recently murdered James Foley, Syrian activists in the city of Raqqa were avidly discussing a mysterious night-time raid.

In conversations with the Financial Times last month, they recounted how on the night of July 3 a jet circled continuously over their homes without dropping a single bomb. The lights in the entire city went out, and every fighter was on high alert.

• • • •

2BMore

4BOn this story

• HUS signals escalation in Isis fight • Editorial HBritain’s problem with jihadism • HUse Assad to defeat Isis, says Rifkind • Gautam Malkani HDeranged killers • HKurds hone battlefield skills against Isis

5BOn this topic

• HExtreme violence lies in Isis DNA • HDefeating Isis likely to take years, warn analysts • Editorial HIraq’s elusive political consensus • HIsis claims to behead US journalist

6BIN Iraq

• HIraqi forces fail to retake Tikrit • HKurd fighters retake Mosul dam from Isis • HKurdish forces encircle Mosul dam • HIsis continues to make gains in Syria

“It started somewhere around midnight or 1am,” said one activist, who asked not to be identified. “As for the helicopters, the fighters barely heard them coming, they were so quiet.”

While many could describe what had happened that night, and guessed that US forces were involved, few understood the reason for the raid. The US announcement of the failed attempt to rescue Mr Foley may explain the mystery.

TheH Islamic State of Iraq and the LevantH (known as Isis) had occupied Raqqa for two years but had recently stretched its hold across a third of both Syria and Iraq. The following morning many of its fighters believed they had just experienced their first western attack.

The incident came just before HAbu Bakr al-BaghdadiH, Isis’s “caliph” gave his first public speech just across the border in Iraq.

Independent activists, who cannot be fully identified for their safety, said local Isis leaders imposed a blackout on rumours of what they suspected was a US attack. But

the close ties they had developed with many local fighters meant the news quickly spread.

The raid targeted the Akershi base outside the city, which only a few local activists knew was being used as more than a military facility.

“Very few people knew there was a prison in the Akershi base. Most people thought it was just a training base. It’s not,” one activist, known as Abdelqader, told the Financial Times in an interview at the time. “There’s a secret prison. No one knows who is inside except some of the [Islamic] State’s emirs [commanders].”

The prison inside the Akershi base – which Isis renamed the “Martyr Osama bin Laden Camp” – lies south of the Euphrates river, and just north of a mountain that stretches into miles of desert terrain.

US forces did not drop into the base’s military camp, the activists said. Instead, they landed in one of the five guard sites around its perimeter. One of these holds the secret prison that is likely to have held Mr Foley and many other foreign hostages for months.

Activists say it was one of the first bases taken over by HIsisH and remains one of the biggest in its central Syrian stronghold.

3BHUse Assad to defeat Isis, says senior UK MPH

Allies must be prepared to work with the Syrian regime, says Sir Malcolm Rifkind, defence committe chairman and former foreign secretary

Isis fighters told activists that two helicopters dropped at least 10 commandos on to the site and immediately killed all the guards. Some said dozens of Isis militants were killed in the operation. Others said it was only five. Most insisted that one commando was killed – a Jordanian – and believe Amman may have been involved in the operation.

“No one knows who is inside the prison, except for some of the State’s emirs. The commandos went into the prison and abducted 12 people – no one knows who they were,” Abdelqader said.

No foreigners have been freed from Syria since the operation, so it is unclear if the information was incorrect or if other people were taken.

An Isis commander named “Abu Waleed” was allegedly asked to send reinforcements, but refused, two activists said. “He responded to the request saying, ‘Don’t send more people. We won’t benefit at all, and will lose more souls for nothing,’” Abdelqader said.

If the activists’ accounts are accurate, the raid may have missed its target by a matter of hours.

“The same evening those forces landed, Isis had sent out two big convoys,” the second activist said at the time. “We believe it contained important emirs, even perhaps Mr Baghdadi himself . . . but maybe something else was happening.”

i Before Killing James Foley, ISIS Demanded Ransom From U.S. By RUKMINI CALLIMACHIAUG. 20, 2014

James Foley in 2012 in Aleppo, Syria. Credit Manu Brabo/freejamesfoley.org, via Associated Press

Kneeling in the dirt in a desert somewhere in the Middle East, James Foley lost his life this week at the hands of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Before pulling out the knife used to decapitate him, his masked executioner explained that he was killing the 40-year-old American journalist in retaliation for the recent United States’ airstrikes against the terrorist group in Iraq.

In fact, until recently, ISIS had a very different list of demands for Mr. Foley: The group pressed the United States to provide a multimillion-dollar ransom for his release, according to a representative of his family and a former hostage held alongside him. The United States — unlike several European countries that have funneled millions to the terror group to spare the lives of their citizens — refused to pay.

The issue of how to deal with ISIS, which like many terror groups now routinely trades captives for large cash payments, is acute for the Obama administration because Mr. Foley was not the lone American in its custody. ISIS is threatening to kill at least three others it holds if its demands remain unmet, The New York Times has confirmed through interviews with recently released prisoners, family members of the victims and mediators attempting to win their freedom.

HContinue reading the main storyH

The Life of James Foley

The American journalist was kidnapped in Syria on Nov. 22, 2012.

• Mr. Foley, 40, was the eldest of five children from Rochester, N.H. • He studied history at HMarquette UniversityH and journalism at the HMedill School

at Northwestern.H • He was an early HTeach for America Hcorps member. HThe Associated PressH said

he taught in Arizona, Illinois and Massachusetts before becoming a journalist. • He resigned from HStars and StripesH after admitting to marijuana possession in

Afghanistan in 2011. • He was also Habducted in Libya in 2011H, where he was held for several weeks

after running into troops loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s crumbling government.

• He was a Hfreelance journalistH working for GlobalPost and Agence France-Presse at the time of his abduction.

• His Hlast articleH from Syria detailed the plight of Aleppo’s civilians during the civil war.

• His family waged relentless diplomatic and media campaigns during both his captures.

• Syria has become the most dangerous country in the world for journalists; at least 70 have been killed covering the war, and more than 80 kidnapped, according to the HCommittee to Protect Journalists.H

Sensitive to growing criticism that it had not done enough, the White House on Wednesday revealed that a United States Special Operations team tried and failed to rescue Mr. Foley — a New Hampshire native who disappeared in Syria on Nov. 22, 2012 — as well as the other American hostages during a secret mission this summer. Mr. Obama said the United States would not retreat until it had eliminated the “cancer” of ISIS from the Middle East.

ISIS also appears determined to increase the pressure on Washington. It has now threatened to kill a second hostage, Steven J. Sotloff, a freelance journalist for Time magazine who is being held alongside Mr. Foley.

In a video of the execution of Mr. Foley that was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, the screen goes dark after he is decapitated. Then the ISIS fighter who killed him is seen holding Mr. Sotloff, wearing an orange jumpsuit and his with his hands cuffed behind his back, in the same landscape of barren dunes. “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.”

Along with the three Americans, ISIS is holding citizens of Britain, which like the United States has declined to pay ransoms, former hostages confirmed. The terror group has sent a laundry list of demands for the release of the foreigners, starting with money but also prisoner swaps, including the liberation of Aafia Siddiqui, an M.I.T.-trained Pakistani neuroscientist with ties to Al Qaeda currently incarcerated in Texas. The policy of not making concessions to terrorists and not paying ransoms has put the United States and Britain at odds with other European allies, which have routinely paid significant sums to win the release of their citizens — including four French and three Spanish hostages who were released this year after money was delivered through an intermediary, according to two of the victims and their colleagues.

Kidnapping Europeans has become the main source of revenue for Al Qaeda and its affiliates, which have earned at least $125 million in ransom payments in the past five years alone, according to an investigation by The Times. Although ISIS was recently expelled from Al Qaeda and abides by different rules, recently freed prisoners said that their captors were well aware of what ransoms had been paid on behalf of

European citizens held by Qaeda affiliates as far afield as Africa, indicating that they were hoping to abide by the same business plan.

While government and counterterrorism officials insist that paying ransoms only perpetuates the problem, the policy has meant that captured Americans have little chance of being released. A handful succeeded in running away, and even fewer were rescued in special operations. The rest are either held indefinitely — or else killed.

In an opinion article for Reuters, David Rohde, a columnist for the news service and a former foreign correspondent for The Times who was kidnapped by the Taliban, said that the uneven approach to ransoms may have cost Mr. Foley his life.

Photo

Mr. Foley, center, in Tripoli after having been released by the Libyan government in 2011. Credit Louafi Larbi/Reuters

“The payment of ransoms and abduction of foreigners must emerge from the shadows. It must be publicly debated,” wrote Mr. Rohde, who escaped his seven-

month detention by the Taliban only when he climbed out a window and freed himself. “American and European policy makers should be forced to answer for their actions.”

Mr. Foley, a freelance videographer and reporter for GlobalPost and Agence France-Presse, went missing 21 months ago in a town 25 miles south of the Turkish border. According to Nicole Tung, a close friend and fellow photojournalist, who gave an account of Mr. Foley’s activities before his capture, he had spent weeks in Syria documenting the country’s spiral into civil war, narrowly avoiding a falling tank shell. The normally calm reporter — who had come under fire in Afghanistan and had been kidnapped a year earlier in Libya — was rattled.

As the Thanksgiving holiday approached in 2012, he contacted Ms. Tung, and they made plans to meet for a few days across the border in Turkey. When Mr. Foley did not show up at the hotel at 5 p.m. as planned, Ms. Tung began calling his cellphone, finally reaching his translator.

The man explained that Mr. Foley had stopped at an Internet cafe to file his last images in Binesh, Syria. Soon after, armed men sped up behind his car and forced Mr. Foley out at gunpoint.

“I was sitting on the bed, in this depressing, dark hotel; the fact that the fixer answered the phone — when Jim was not answering his — was the cue that something had gone terribly wrong,” said Ms. Tung, who immediately contacted Mr. Foley’s family and editors.

Across the ocean at his home in Cambridge, Mass., the chief executiveof GlobalPost Mr. Balboni, reached for his Blackberry and had a terrible sense of foreboding: The email informing him of Mr. Foley’s abduction was almost an exact replay of the horror his staff had endured a year earlier, when Mr. Foley was kidnapped with three others by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces in Libya.

“We had joked that we needed to take away his passport,” Mr. Balboni said Wednesday. “I don’t want to say it was déjà vu, but in a way, it was,” he added. “It just turns your life upside down — in one way, I knew what was coming, but I did not know the fullness of it.”

HContinue reading the main storyH Video

Play Video|2:58

Obama’s Statement on James Foley

Obama’s Statement on James Foley

President Obama addressed the beheading of James Foley, an American journalist, by the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Publish Date August 20, 2014. Image CreditKevin Lamarque/Reuters

When he was executed this week, Mr. Foley became the second Western reporter to be killed by Islamic extremists since 2002, when Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was beheaded by a top Qaeda operative. Mr. Pearl’s murder was praised by a leading ideologue in a how-to manual that promoted the tactic of kidnapping foreigners. Since then, the terror network has turned to abducting Westerners to finance itself — seizing more than 50 foreigners in the past five years, almost all of whom were released after their governments paid sizable ransoms, according to a review of the known cases by The Times.

However, in Iraq, where ISIS was founded, commanders grabbed foreigners for the sole purpose of killing them. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, became known as the “Sheikh of the Slaughterers” because he personally decapitated his foreign captives.

He created his own execution style, forcing his victims to don orange jumpsuits — a mocking reference to prisoners held at the United States’ detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. So brutal, frequent and graphic were the killings that the then-No. 2 of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, wrote to Mr. Zarqawi advising him to quit the graphic executions and just shoot the prisoners instead.

Mr. Zarqawi’s Iraq-based fighters regrouped in Syria in 2011, where they eventually rebranded themselves as ISIS. Their tactics proved so brutal that Al Qaeda formally expelled them from the terror network this year.

HContinue reading the main storyH

Recent Comments

F. Van Antwerp

15 hours ago

I feel that we all have an obligation to view the terrible death of James Foley. As hard as it is to view this, it is only harder to have...

Carol B. Russell

15 hours ago

I did write a comment earlier...however it must have gottenlost.Well..this is what I think about James Foley; that is aboutwhat a really...

PT

15 hours ago

There's something particularly despicable and self deluding about saying to someone "DON'T MAKE ME DO IT!" while threatening to do harm to...

• See All Comments

However, in regard to kidnapping, ISIS’s tactics initially appeared to be in line with that of other Qaeda branches.

Before Mr. Foley was killed, his ISIS captors asked for a 100 million euro ransom, approximately $132 million, according to Philip Balboni, the chief executive and co-founder of GlobalPost, the publication where the journalist worked.

(The Foley family has not responded to requests for comment.)

Photo

James Foley's parents, John and Diane Foley, after speaking with President Obama on Wednesday. Credit Jim Cole/Associated Press

Once the United States authorized airstrikes in Iraq this month, it appears that ISIS took a leaf out of the book of its founding father: They forced Mr. Foley to wear the telltale orange jumpsuit, and beheaded him on camera — a horrifying ode to the “Sheikh of the Slaughterers,” who himself was killed by United States forces in Iraq in 2006.

The eldest of five children from Rochester, N.H., Mr. Foley graduated from Marquette University in 1996 with a history degree. He joined Teach for America that year, working at an elementary school in Phoenix, officials with the organization said. In

2008, he earned a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

“He was so clear on what he wanted to do,” said Ellen Shearer, a professor who taught Mr. Foley at Medill.

Unlike most freelancers who often take sizable risks without the safety net of an established news organization, Mr. Foley found a second family at GlobalPost, which paid a security firm millions of dollars to try to find him, Mr. Balboni said.

After his fortuitous release in Libya, GlobalPost brought him back to Boston, where he spent a stint as an editor, but it did not last long.

“When you are touched by being in a war, you can’t get rid of it,” said Mr. Balboni, a veteran reporter as well as a former Vietnam War Army officer.

Mr. Foley was remembered by colleagues for his courage — to some a bravery that he took to its extreme. Yet at the time of his capture, Ms. Tung said, the tank shell explosion in Syria had spooked him, and he was looking for some time off. “It landed close enough to feel like it was time to get out,” she said.

His colleagues point to the remarkable bravery he displays in his final moments as a testament to the man he was: Looking straight at the camera, Mr. Foley’s face is concentrated. When the jihadist lifts the knife to his throat, and pulls his head back, he does not try to pull away.

Correction: August 21, 2014

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the length of time David Rohde was held captive by the Taliban. It was seven months, not a year.

Correction: August 21, 2014

An earlier version of this article misstated the ransom amount demanded by Mr. Foley's captors. It was 100 million euros, not $100 million.

Mitch Smith contributed reporting from Chicago, Michael D. Shear from Edgartown, Mass., and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

Related Coverage

•

U.S. General Says Raiding Syria Is Key to Halting ISIS AUG. 21, 2014

•

Despite ISIS Horror, Congress Is Wary of U.S. Military ExpansionAUG. 21, 2014

•

In Raid to Save Foley and Other Hostages, U.S. Found NoneAUG. 20, 2014

•

Obama, ‘Appalled’ by Beheading, Will Continue AirstrikesAUG. 20, 2014

•

Leaders Express Outrage as Britain Tries to Identify Beheaded Journalist’s Killer AUG. 20, 2014

•

Underwriting Jihad: Paying Ransoms, Europe Bankrolls Qaeda TerrorJULY 29, 2014