The brother of James Foley, the American photojournalist who was beheaded by ISIL, told Yahoo Global News’ Katie Couric Friday morning that the U.S. government could have done more to rescue his brother and other American hostages.
“There’s more that could have been done directly on Jim’s behalf,” Michael Foley said to Couric in the exclusive interview with Michael and his sister Katie Foley. “I really, really hope that Jim’s death pushes us to take another look at our approach to terrorist and hostage negotiation.”
Michael’s older brother had been kidnapped by ISIL/ISIS almost two years ago near the Syria-Turkey border. On Tuesday, the radical Muslim militant group released a shocking video of a militant with a British accent beheading James as a warning to President Obama about further intervention in Iraq. At the end of the video, the militant threatened to kill American journalist Steven Sotloff if America continued its operation.
In addition to other Americans, ISIL has captured French and Spanish journalists, but freed them upon receiving ransoms via intermediaries. The U.S., however, refused to negotiate with the terrorist group. Michael Foley had been emailed by ISIL demanding 100 million euro, which he called a “ridiculous” sum.
Though the Foley family hoped at one point that that they could negotiate through an intermediary for James’s release, the Obama administration’s choice to bomb ISIL earlier this month thwarted that hope. Michael said that on August 12 his parents were sent a “chilling” email saying James would die.
Foley also responded to the Obama administration’s statement this week that they had tried to rescue James and other captured Americans earlier this summer, but the operation failed. “I’d like to think it did happen,” he said, “but I certainly wasn’t aware of it.”
Michael said he and his family believe that James had volunteered to be the first American to be executed. “You can see from the clips from the video that he wasn’t afraid,” he said.
Regarding Sotloff, Michael Foley said he hopes the U.S. is more proactive in attempting to free him, saying he hopes that they might consider a prisoner swap, like the one conducted for Bowe Sgt. Bergdahl. “I just feel strongly that more can be done moving forward,” he said.
Michael said that ultimately ISIL cannot be contained and that the U.S. must recognized them for the threat they really are: “I don't believe ISIL can be contained--containment is not a strategy,” he said. “We need to recognize that they are a threat and we need to deal with them.”
