ISIS release video showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff

[superbeets]

SIS has released a video that it claims to show the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff.

Sotloff, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, had last been seen in Syrian in August 2013 until he appeared in a video released online last month by the Islamic State group that showed the beheading of fellow American journalist James Foley.
Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against the backdrop of an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the group in Iraq.

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Beheaded: ISIS have released a video showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff


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[superbeets]

In the video distributed Tuesday and entitled "A Second Message to America," Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.
The video appears to show the same British fighter who killed James Foley. He threatens a new hostage, Briton David Haines.

The terrorist says: ‘As your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike necks of your people.’
On Thursday, Sotloff’s mother Shirley Sotloff went on television to make a direct appeal for her son’s life. She addressed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-claimed caliph of ISIS.
'My son is in your hands,' Ms Sotloff said. 'As a mother I ask Your Justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters he has no control over. I ask you to use your authority to spare his life.'

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was taken by surprise when a reporter asked him about the video during a regular Tuesday press briefing. The initial reports had surfaced, President Obama's chief spokesman suggested, while he was already speaking to reporters.

'This may have just happened in the last few minutes while I've been standing up here,' Earnest said.
'This is something that the administration has obviously been watching carefully since this threat against Mr. Sotloff's life was originally made a few weeks ago,' he added.
'I'm not in a position to confirm the authenticity of that video, or reports, obviously,' he cautioned, 'since I just walked out here.'
'But if there is a video that has been released, it is something that will be analyzed very carefully by the U.S. government and our intelligence officials to determine its authenticity.'
Despite hearing about the video release for the first time, Earnest pivoted to expressing the sympathies of the White House.
'Our thoughts and prayers, first and foremost, are with Mr. Sotloff and Mr. Sotloff's family and those who worked with him,' he said. 'The United States, as you know, has dedicated significant time and resources to try and rescue Mr. Sotloff.'

 

[superbeets]

[h=3]MOMENTS BEFORE HIS DEATH STEVEN SOTLOFF'S FINAL BRAVE WORDS: [/h]A Second Message to America:

'I am Steven Joel Sotloff. I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing before you. And now this is the time for my message:

'Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be the preservation of American lives and interests, so why is that I am paying the price of your interference with my life? Am I not an American citizen? We’ve spent billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars and we’ve lost thousands of our troops in our previous fighting against the Islamic State, so what are the people’s interests in reigniting war?

'From what little I know about foreign policy, I remember a time when you could not win an election without promising to bring our troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan and to close down Guantanamo. Here you are now, Obama, nearing the end of your term, and having achieved none of the above and deceivingly marching us the American people in the blazing fire.'



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[superbeets]

[h=1]'I'm back, Obama': ISIS executioner Jihadi John taunts President as he beheads second US journalist, Steven Sotloff . . . and then threatens to kill a Briton next[/h]

• Steven Sotloff, 31, from Miami, was captured in Syria in August 2013
• The video is titled ‘A Second Message to America’
• In the video, Sotloff describes himself as 'paying the price' for the Obama administration’s decision to attack ISIS in Iraq
• His execution follows the beheading of fellow Journalist James Foley last month
• Sotloff freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines
• The White House today said: 'Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr Sotloff and Mr Sotloff's family’

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[superbeets]

ISIS has released a video that shows the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff and says the murder is retaliation for the Obama administration’s continued airstrikes in Iraq.
Sotloff is the second American journalist to be killed by ISIS, and his death comes two weeks after James Foley was executed in a similar video.
In the video entitled 'A Second Message to America,' Sotloff appears in a orange jumpsuit before he is beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.
The executioner appears to be the same man who killed Foley – known as ‘Jihadi John’ - and tells the camera: 'I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State.”

He also threatens to kill a Briton held hostage by the group next.

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Beheaded: ISIS have released a video showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff

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Last week: Shirley Sotloff appealed directly for the return of her son, SteveN Sofloff last week. On Tuesday, ISIS released a video that purported to show the beheading of her son online



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[superbeets]

The executioner points his knife menacingly at the camera as he speaks. Clad in the same black garb he wore during Foley’s execution, the killer has a pistol strapped under his arm in a shoulder holster. The black flag of the Islamic State can be seen waving in the background.

Sotloff calmly read a statement moments before his murder: ‘I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing.;

He tells the camera: ‘Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life?’

While he speaks, a militant calmly holds a knife at his side and stands next to Sotloff.
The man believed to be Jihadi John also says: ‘As your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike necks of your people.’

The chilling threat to execute a UK hostage is a direct challenge to Prime Minister David Cameron and will send shockwaves through the British government.
Tonight Mr Cameron condemned the video and said: ‘It is an absolutely disgusting and despicable act.”
He added he will be making a statement on the video later.
Only last week Mr Cameron warned that ISIS was now a ‘greater threat to our security than we have seen before’.
After the beheading of journalist James Foley, Mr Cameron rushed back from his holiday in Cornwall to condemn ‘the barbaric and brutal act’.
On Friday the Prime Minster warned that the killers were likely to be British.

Foley’s family released a statement after Sotloff’s execution, calling it ‘just horrific,’ according to WHDH-TV.

On Thursday, Sotloff’s mother Shirley Sotloff went on television to make a direct appeal for her son’s life. She addressed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-claimed caliph of ISIS

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Alleged: The British jihadist, Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, known as Jihadi John is suspected of killing US journalist James Foley and Steven Sotloff and is pictured here (left) at his rap studio and (right) with Sotloff on August 19




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[superbeets]

'My son is in your hands,' Ms Sotloff said. 'As a mother I ask Your Justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters he has no control over. I ask you to use your authority to spare his life.'
The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism watchdog, first reported about the video's existence. Unlike Foley's beheading, which was widely shared on Twitter accounts affiliated with the Islamic State group, the video purporting to show Sotloff's killing was not immediately posted online, though several jihadi websites told users to expect it Tuesday.

The fighter who beheads Sotloff in the video called it retribution for Obama's continued airstrikes against the group in Iraq.

Sotloff's mother had pleaded for his release last week in a video directed at the Islamic State group.

Addressing the leader of the Islamic State group by name, Shirley Sotloff said in a video her son was 'an innocent journalist' who shouldn't pay for U.S. government actions in the Middle East over which he has no control.

The White House didn't immediately comment on how and when Obama heard about Sotloff's reported death.

The president was in the White House when news erupted, preparing for a mid-afternoon departure for Estonia and then Wales, where he will attend a NATO summit.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was taken by surprise when a reporter asked him about the video during a regular Tuesday press briefing.

The initial reports had surfaced, President Obama's chief spokesman suggested, while he was already speaking to reporters.

'This may have just happened in the last few minutes while I've been standing up here,' Earnest said.

'This is something that the administration has obviously been watching carefully since this threat against Mr. Sotloff's life was originally made a few weeks ago,' he added.
'I'm not in a position to confirm the authenticity of that video, or reports, obviously,' he cautioned, 'since I just walked out here.'
'But if there is a video that has been released, it is something that will be analyzed very carefully by the U.S. government and our intelligence officials to determine its authenticity.'
Despite hearing about the video release for the first time, Earnest pivoted to expressing the sympathies of the White House.


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[superbeets]

[h=3]'I'M BACK OBAMA': MASKED EXECUTIONERS CHILLING THREAT TO CAMERA[/h]Executioner:

'I’m back Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic state, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings and … on Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings. You Obama, have but to gain from your actions but another American citizen. So just as your missiles continue to strike out people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.

'We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone'


'Our thoughts and prayers, first and foremost, are with Mr. Sotloff and Mr. Sotloff's family and those who worked with him,' he said. 'The United States, as you know, has dedicated significant time and resources to try and rescue Mr. Sotloff.'

The Islamic State group which has taken over a third of Syria and Iraq has terrorized rivals and civilians alike with widely publicized brutality as it seeks to expand a proto-state it has carved out on both sides of the border.

In its rise to prominence over the past year, the extremist group has frequently published graphic photos and gruesome videos of everything from bombings and beheadings to mass killings.


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[KennyB]

The religion of peace strikes again and Barack Hussein Obama has done nothing against ISIS.

 

[ScottL]

MOMENTS BEFORE HIS DEATH STEVEN SOTLOFF'S FINAL BRAVE WORDS:

A Second Message to America:

'I am Steven Joel Sotloff. I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing before you. And now this is the time for my message:

'Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be the preservation of American lives and interests, so why is that I am paying the price of your interference with my life? Am I not an American citizen? We’ve spent billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars and we’ve lost thousands of our troops in our previous fighting against the Islamic State, so what are the people’s interests in reigniting war?

'From what little I know about foreign policy, I remember a time when you could not win an election without promising to bring our troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan and to close down Guantanamo. Here you are now, Obama, nearing the end of your term, and having achieved none of the above and deceivingly marching us the American people in the blazing fire.'

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Superbeets who wrote this exactly? BRAVE words? Brave by whom? Or described as brave by whom?
'Brave' would be spitting in the face of the psychopath you know is about to kill you and telling him to shove his prepared statement up his ass. You're dead anyway. Nobody made him go over there. His own naivety got him killed.

 

[Shub]

Superbeets who wrote this exactly? BRAVE words? Brave by whom? Or described as brave by whom?
'Brave' would be spitting in the face of the psychopath you know is about to kill you and telling him to shove his prepared statement up his ass. You're dead anyway. Nobody made him go over there. His own naivety got him killed.

you couldn't pay me enough to go over there. I would definitely try some last second maneuver before i was told to read that statement. The end result will be the same but you have nothing to lose.

 

[superbeets]

Superbeets who wrote this exactly? BRAVE words? Brave by whom? Or described as brave by whom?
'Brave' would be spitting in the face of the psychopath you know is about to kill you and telling him to shove his prepared statement up his ass. You're dead anyway. Nobody made him go over there. His own naivety got him killed.

They are in my opinion words uttered under great duress. Yes it is difficult to understand what multiple reporting journalists meant by the headlines.

 

[superbeets]

you couldn't pay me enough to go over there. I would definitely try some last second maneuver before i was told to read that statement. The end result will be the same but you have nothing to lose.

Probably they comply with the threat if they don't then their mode of death will be slower and even more barbaric. Could be stabled or shot in many ways to make a very protracted drawn out death. Mediaeval England for example the abdomen was cut open and the gut was pulled out of the abdomen onto the floor and the victim died in absolute protracted agony. So I presumed he cooperated for the lesser of evil deaths that were offered to him .

 

[superbeets]

RIP

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Dedicated; Steven Sotloff pictured on assignment in Libya in 2013


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[superbeets]

Steven Sotloff was the grandson of two Holocaust survivors who was fully aware of the risks of reporting from Middle East - and made it his career anyway.




Friends say he spoke fluent Arabic and had a showed a deep love for the Islamic world before he was captured by ISIS militants in Syria in 2013. He was executed by them on Tuesday.




Sotloff, 31, grew up Miami with his mother Shirley - whose parents were both Holocaust survivors - and father Art before attending the Kimball Union Academy boarding school in New Hampshire from which he graduated in 2002




He then studied at the University of Central Florida.




UCF spokeswoman Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala said school records show Sotloff was a student majoring in journalism from fall 2002 until fall 2004. However, Sotloff did not complete his degree and graduate.




University of Central Florida President John C. Hitt said on learning of his death: 'Our UCF family mourns Steven’s death, and we join millions of people around the world who are outraged at this despicable and unjustifiable act.'




While at Kimball, Sotloff was an avid rugby player and on moving to UFC began working for the student newspaper the Central Florida Future.




He left the paper in 2005 and began to pursue his dreams of journalism full time.




'The guy lit up a room. He was always such a loyal, caring and good friend to us,' said Josh Polsky to the New York Times. Polsky had shared a dormitory suite with Sotloff.

'If you needed to rely on anybody for anything he would drop everything on a dime for you or for anyone else.




While it is not fully known how Sotloff arrived in the Middle East to report as a freelancer, his friends said he was undeterred by the volatile and dangerous situation there.



Sotloff wrote reports from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Turkey and Syria.




'A million people could have told him what he was doing was foolish, it seemed like it to us outsiders looking in, but to him it was what he loved to do and you weren’t going to stop him,' said his friend, Emerson Lotzia.

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'Steve said it was scary over there. It was dangerous. It wasn’t safe to be over there. He knew it. He kept going back.'



Lotzia, now a Florida sports reporter, tweeted his horror after his friend’s execution: ‘Devastated and crushed. Steve was an amazing friend. Lucky to have him in my life. Heart is heavy for his family. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.’




Sotloff wrote about the lawlessness in Libya after the fall of Colonel Gadaffi, and criticized the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi wrote the New York Times.

'With no security organizations to ensure order and an ineffective justice system unable to prosecute suspects, Libyans fear their country is slowly crumbling around them.'



During his time in the Middle East, Sotloff was published in TIME, World Affairs, National Interest and the Christian Science Monitor.




An avid user of social media, he sent out his last tweet on August 3 about his hometown basketball team the Miami Heat.



According to his account, he was living in Benghazi, Libya, at the time.



Sotloff's family had previously been advised not to go public with news of his disappearance.



But a family friend wrote about Sotloff last December, saying he went missing on August 4 and to pray for his return.



'Steve Sotloff lived in Yemen for years, spoke good Arabic, deeply loved the Islamic world.. for this he is threatened with beheading,' friend Anne Marloe tweeted after the release of the first video.



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[superbeets]

The US has confirmed that the video showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff by Islamic State militants is authentic.

 

[superbeets]

[h=1]'Once you lose hope you lose heart... someone tells you ''say this'' and you say it': Australian terror captive says beheading victims would have felt 'compliant' at the end[/h]

• Islamic State militants have murdered two U.S. journalists in the past month
• James Foley and Steven Sotloff condemned America, believed to have been under heavy coercion
  
• Psychologists and an Australian kidnapping victim explains what life is like in captivity after all hope is lost
• 'Nothing really has meaning to you anymore... Someone tells you "say this" and you say it'
  
• 'You just imagine whoever is watching it is smart enough to realise you haven't really got your heart in it'

.Before they were decapitated by Islamist militants, U.S. journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley both stared down the barrel of the camera and condemned America.

Both men had been held in captivity for more than twelve months and were believed to have been placed under extreme duress. But what would they have been thinking at the time?

One Australian who has been in a similar situation is Warren Rodwell, a 56-year-old Brisbane man who spent 472 days held captive by Filipino militant group Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda militant group.

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Australian Warren Rodwell, pictured in a ransom video with his Abu Sayyaf captors in the Philippines. Mr Rodwell has today shed light on what it is like to be a captive who has lost hope. He spent 472 days in captivity. He was never tortured and has previously described his abductors as 'buffoons'

Mr Rodwell, who featured in a number of ransom videos, told Daily Mail Australia he became more compliant after he lost hope.

'Whatever someone wants, you give it to them,' he said. 'You just do what you're told.'

'Nothing really has meaning to you anymore. Someone tells you "say this" and you say it.

'You just imagine whoever is watching it is smart enough to realise you haven't really got your heart in it.

'Once you lose hope you lose heart.'

Psychologists said Mr Foley and Mr Sotloff would have lost all sense of normality while in isolation.

Dr Chris Lennings, a forensic psychologist with more than 30 years experience, said: 'It's unimaginable to me, the amount of psychological pressure that would have been placed on them... particularly given the softening up process that would have taken place.'

'There would have been beatings, threats, sensory deprivation, all sorts of things would have been done to remove any sense of normality, any standard parameters by which they can judge their behaviour.

Psychology professor Mark Creamer, from the University of Melbourne, said the journalists' isolation from the outside world would have taken a heavy toll.

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'These people are being placed in an intolerable situation,' he said. 'They're just entirely dependent on what their captors decide to do.'

Terrorism expert Professor Greg Barton, from the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University, said the execution videos were a recruitment tool.

'The primary purpose of these videos is to bolster their efforts at recruiting fighters in western democracies,' Prof Barton said.

Around 5000 fighters from Europe, the U.K., the U.S. and Australia have joined the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, including former western Sydney residents Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar.

Sharrouf and Elomar caused widespread outrage after posting images on social media of them dangling the decapitated heads of Syrian soldiers.

Reports earlier this week said 40-year-old Australian militant Abu Yahya Ash Shami had even been promoted to a senior military leadership position.

These latest videos show the West appearing weak and Islamist fighters looking strong to encourage vulnerable potential Western recruits to join the Islamic State cause.

'One of IS's major aims is this idea of restoring the dignity to Muslims and the Muslim community.

'Making themselves look strong and making the West look weak feeds into that propaganda.'

The Islamic State has also threatened to kill a Briton held hostage by the group next. Daily Mail Australia is not identifying him at the request of the British government.

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[superbeets]

Barack Obama today called Foley and Sotloff''s executions 'terrible crimes'

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Barack Obama landed in Estonia this morning, ahead of talks with leaders of the Baltic states over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and concerns over the threat posed by Russia for other former Soviet states

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Response: Speaking in Estonia today, Barack Obama said the U.S. will not be intimidated by ISIS after the beheading of Steven Sotloff and will build a coalition to 'degrade and destroy' the group


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