ISIS released a new video today showing a British journalist as its prisoner.
The video, since deleted by YouTube, shows British journalist John Cantlie. Cantlie was previously a photographer for the Sunday Times and went missing in Syria in 2012. He was freed by the Free Syrian Army, but like journalist James Foley, who was beheaded last month by ISIS, Cantlie returned to Syria in 2012.
Cantlie’s video is different than those showing Foley and Steven Sotloff, also murdered by ISIS, kneeling in front of their captors. Instead, Cantlie was sitting behind a desk. Huffington Post reports what Cantlie said.
“I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, he’s only doing this as a prisoner. He’s got a gun at his head, and he’s being forced to do this, right? Well, it’s true. I am a prisoner. That I cannot deny. But, seeing as I’ve been abandoned by my government and my fate now lies in the hands of the Islamic State, I have nothing to lose. Maybe I will live, and maybe I will die. There is time to change this seemingly inevitable sequence of events. But only if you, the public, act now.”
Yesterday, a friend of Steven Sotloff’s told “CBS This Morning” the Sotloff family never believed the Obama administration was doing anything to help them rescue their son. There’s been no response yet from British officials on the Cantlie video.