A journalist reportedly uttered six final words before his execution by the ISIS killer known as “Jihadi John.” James Foley went missing on November 22, 2012, in Syria near the Turkish border after being abducted by ISIS militants. During his abduction, Foley, who was working for the online news outlet GlobalPost, was captured in a video kneeling next to a black-clad individual and forced to deliver a scripted message blaming the US before his beheading. Prior to his execution, Foley shared with British photojournalist John Cantlie the words: “Great, captured on Thanksgiving Day, killed on my mom’s birthday.” These words, featured in ISIS’ propaganda magazine Dabiq, were likely made under duress. Reports in 2017 suggested that Foley had been killed in an airstrike in Mosul.
Former US President Barack Obama condemned Foley’s execution, stating, “The entire world is appalled. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday or every single day.” Following the release of the video, American forces conducted 14 airstrikes targeting ISIS militants near the Mosul dam in Iraq. The perpetrator of Foley’s murder, Jihadi John (real name Mohammed Emwazi), was eliminated in a drone strike in 2015 in Raqqa after being traced to a kebab shop. In a meeting in 2022, James Foley’s mother, Diane Foley, faced one of the men involved in her son’s killing, Alexanda Kotey, also known as Jihadi George. Kotey is currently serving a life sentence at the ADX Florence supermax prison in Colorado. During their encounter, Diane expressed her wish for Kotey to comprehend the impact of his actions and the loss of goodness caused by his involvement in Syria. She mentioned that Kotey shared a photo of his family and expressed remorse, indicating the toll of following hatred and propaganda on his life.