The video was titled “A Message to America”.
A person in a black robe with a gun strapped on and a masked hat to cover the face, apart from the eyes, appears in the video next to Foley.
The Epoch Times reports that the Islamic State says that Obama’s authorization of strikes against IS, places United States “upon a slippery slope towards a new war front against Muslims. Any attempt by you, Obama, to deny Muslims liberty & safety under the Islamic caliphate, will result in the bloodshed of your people.”
In the video, Foley also speaks. He said, “call on my friends, family members and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the U.S. government.”
The National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in the first official U.S. reaction to the video, “We have seen a video that purports to be the murder of U.S. citizen James Foley by ISIS. The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity. If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and express our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will provide more information when it is available.”
The White House later said that President Barack Obama was briefed on the video by the Deputy, National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, “The President will continue to receive regular updates.”Last year, Foley’s mother told the AFP that she is hopeful for the safe return of her son. “We’re staying very hopeful. We’re hearing many rumors but no facts at this point. We’ve just a very strong feeling that Jim is alive.”
ISIS is also known as ISIL, or The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. It is a predominantly Sunni jihadist group, that seeks to sow civil unrest in Iraq and the Levant (region spanning from southern Turkey to Egypt and including Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan) with the aim of establishing a caliphate — a single, transnational Islamic state based on sharia.
