American journalist Steven Sotloff beheaded by ISIS militants in shocking video
A spokesman said the Sotloff family was grieving after a new video — which may have been released Tuesday by mistake — appeared to show the beheading of the journalist, though the State Department had yet to confirm his identity. The U.S. and British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the beheading, just as a report said British journalist David Haines might have also been killed.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Tuesday, September 2, 2014, 1:19 PM
Updated: Tuesday, September 2, 2014, 5:25 PM
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The barbarians have butchered another American journalist.
The Islamic State released another horrific video Tuesday that appears to show the beheading of 31-year-old Steven Sotloff.
“I’m back, Obama, because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings,” the British-accented executioner says as he holds a knife to Sotloff’s neck. “Our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.”
Then, as the reporter struggles to get off his knees, the killer starts sawing at his neck with a knife.
The final scene shows the murderer threatening to do the same to a captured British citizen named David Cawthorne Haines, who like Sotloff is clad in orange.
ISIS
A still from an Aug. 19 video shows a bald, clean-shaven Sotloff with an ISIS militant.
The man believed to be Sotloff, left, seen in the latest video kneeling next to an ISIS militant appears to have a scruffier appearance than the Aug. 19 video.
“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,” the executioner says.
While U.S. officials did not immediately confirm the beheaded man was Sotloff, a spokesman for his family in south Florida said they had seen the ghastly footage — and that they were in mourning.
“The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately,” family spokesman Barak Barfi said at Sotloff’s home in Pinecrest, Fla.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat who represents the Miami area, called ISIS “a depraved group of brutal extremists who have no respect for human life, international norms or human decency.”
ISIS warned in a video that David Cawthorne Haines, left, would be beheaded, but a new report said he may have already been killed.
The White House weighed in with words of sympathy.
“Our thoughts and prayers foremost are with Mr. Sotloff and his family,” Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
“The United States has dedicated significant time and resources in an attempt to rescue Mr. Sotloff ... The video will be analyzed very carefully by the U.S. government and intelligence officials to determine its authenticity.”
U.S. Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki added, “If the video is genuine, we are sickened by this brutal act.”
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Psaki said officials believed “a few” other Americans had fallen into the clutches of ISIS, but would not give any specifics.
Sotloff, who was captured a year ago while reporting in Syria, was a freelancer who wrote for Time magazine, World Affairs, National Interest and the Christian Science Monitor.
The gruesome 2 minute, 46 second video, first obtained by the SITE Intelligence Group, was a repeat of the savagery visited on 40-year-old James Foley in August.
In both beheadings, the masked killer appeared to be “John,” one of a trio of British-born militants who have been dubbed the Killer Beatles.
But in the Aug. 19 video of Foley’s execution, Sotloff was clean-shaven and bald. In the latest video, Sotloff has a beard and some hair, strongly suggesting the two videos were made at different times.
Also, the executioner said Sotloff was being killed as payback for recent U.S. airstrikes that lifted the ISIS sieges of the dam near Iraqi city Mosul and helped to chase the militants from the town Amirli.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called the Sotloff beheading an “absolutely disgusting, despicable act.” But the British Foreign Office did not reveal any information about Haines or explain how he wound up an ISIS captive.
The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. government sources, said Haines “was likely killed immediately after Mr. Foley in August, and that militants delayed the release to heighten the impact of the video.”
YOUTUBEAmerican war reporter James Wright Foley was beheaded by ISIS.
The latest footage, titled “A Second Message to America,” began with an orange-clad prisoner — his hands bound behind his back, on his knees in the desert — calmly saying, “I am Steven Joel Sotloff.”
“I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now, and why I am appearing before you,” he says. “And now, it is time for my message.”
Then the captive delivers a condemnation of President Obama’s air strikes against ISIS positions in Iraq, asking, “Where is the American people’s interests in reigniting this war?”
In a flat voice, the doomed reporter essentially says his blood is on Obama’s hands and that the President is “marching the American people into a blazing fire.”
Sotloff had been in the Middle East reporting when he was captured by ISIS militants.
“So why is it that I’m having to pay the price for your interference with my life?” he asks. “Am I not an American citizen?”
ISIS has been warning for days that it would do to Sotloff what it did to Foley. And it recently launched a terror campaign on Twitter aimed at bending Obama to its will.
While Obama said he would not negotiate with terrorists, Sotloff’s mother, Shirley, made a televised plea for mercy last week.
“He's an innocent journalist," she said in a videotaped address to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that was broadcast on the Al Arabiya network.
Addressing the murderous ISIS chief as "the caliph of the Islamic State," the Florida mom said, "My son, Steven, is in your hands."
"I ask you to use your authority to spare his life and to set the example of the Prophet Muhammed, who protected 'People of the Book,'" she said, referring to a Muslim term for Jews and Christians. “I want what every mother wants: to live to see her children's children. I plead with you to grant me this.”
It’s not clear why ISIS chose to release the beheading of Sotloff video now. But news website Vocativ, citing chatter on ISIS Web forums, said it was apparently “published by mistake” and started spreading before ISIS could take it down.
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