Posted on 08/20/2014 9:53:13 AM PDT by mojito
After 162 days with no information about his whereabouts, GlobalPost announced Friday that James Foley, an American journalist who went missing on November 22 in Syria, is almost certainly being held by the Syrian government in a detention center near the capital city of Damascus....
...GlobalPost CEO and President Philip Balboni said:
"With a very high degree of confidence, we now believe that Jim was most likely abducted by a pro-regime militia group commonly referred to as the Shabiha and subsequently turned over to Syrian government forces. We have obtained multiple independent reports from very credible confidential sources who have both indirect and direct access that confirm our assessment that Jim is now being held by the Syrian government in a detention facility in the Damascus area. We further believe that this facility is under the control of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence service. Based on what we have learned, it is likely Jim is being held with one or more Western journalists, including most likely at least one other American."
In the last few weeks, GlobalPost’s representatives have been meeting in Beirut with the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon to secure his support and assistance in gaining Foley’s freedom....
Foley, a freelance reporter, had been covering the country’s civil war for GlobalPost and Agence France-Presse (AFP), and failed to show up for a rendezvous with a colleague on Thanksgiving Day. That colleague later learned that while en route, Foley had been pulled from the car he was traveling in and abducted at gunpoint.
With no word from Foley’s his captors, GlobalPost hired and international security firm based in Washington, DC and launched exhaustive, ground level investigation in Northern Syria and along the Turkish border to locate him.
(Excerpt) Read more at cjr.org ...
The Shabiha are a Baathist militia loyal to Assad, and mortal enemies of ISIS.
This article (FROM MAY 2013) appears to have been an attempt to deflect blame for his kidnapping from the rebels/terrorists to the Syrian Assad regime.
Well, so much for that lie. Of course they got away with is apparently for over a year.
just shows you how these Arabs manipulate and contort Western media when in fact, the probability is they had no idea where ISIS had him. I wonder how much money was wasted on false information. I suspect most of what we hear as “reliable” fall into this category.
I have another thought.
What if Assad did have him.
But “traded” him for someone.
Journalist James Foley Speaks at Medill (Journalism School) in 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3SKu0M_g_4
You can watch him for an hour. He was captured earlier at Benghazi, but released.
James Foley Went Looking to Support Terrorists in Syria, Instead They Cut Off His Head
Well anything is possible but the most likely explanation of things is usually the simplest. So I think the ISIS elements had him all along.
Assad may be a dictator, but his dictatorship did not try to commit mass murder on different religious elements within Syria. The alternative dictatorship/caliphate that ISIS would set up in Syria on the other hand would add a newly expanded dimension to the definition of MONSTROSITY.
Except for one fact in the story that tells against it. And that is that there were apparently some kind of negotiations going on with Syrian diplomats regarding Foley's release. Now, maybe Assad's people were just playing along. But if they didn't have him, don't you think that at some point they would have just come clean and said “sorry, it wasn't us”?
I guess I'm more inclined now to think that Foley was being used as a “bargaining chip.” It's just that he got bargained away to the really bad guys.
There are about 20 journalists missing in Syria.
“...Except for one fact in the story that tells against it. And that is that there were apparently some kind of negotiations going on with Syrian diplomats regarding Foley’s release. ...”
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I think you need to reread the article with a critical eye and not read anything into what you’re reading. I saw nothing about ongoing “negotiations” with Syrian diplomats. I did see where they said Syrian diplomats agreed to forward their letters to various Syrian government ministries-—that’s not indicative of any sort of “negotiations”.
ISIS is the culprit here—not the Syrian government.
“We have also been in contact with the Syrian government at a high level through both private and diplomatic channels, to appeal to them to acknowledge that they are holding Jim and then to release him so that he can return to his family.”
Wishful thinking, as it turns out, but it sure sounds like some kind of discussions were going on.
“We have obtained multiple independent reports from very credible confidential sources who have both indirect and direct access that confirm our assessment that Jim is now being held by the Syrian government.”
And it sounds like they were pretty confident of his whereabouts.
But then again, as you say, the Assad regime would never lie or manipulate or trade the life of an American journalist who had shown himself sympathetic to the “Sunni militant” side.
But I’m just a terrible cynic who thinks that the Assad people gave Foley just what he thought he wanted - a clearer glimpse of the other side.
“...And it sounds like they were pretty confident of his whereabouts....”
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It sounds to me like the standard BS put out by organizations trying to convince folks they are somehow “if the know”. It’s a standard practice by grifters and folks looking for contracts. With such folks you need to be cautious least you be conned.
Thanks mojito.
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