A video released
by the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) purporting to show
the beheading of U.S. photojournalist James Foley, who was
kidnapped while reporting in Syria in 2012, was confirmed by
intelligence services, which are
trying to identify the masked killed in the video. In the
United Kingdom MI5 is worried about the strong London accent the
killer had; counterterrorism experts claim British extremists in
Iraq and Syria are among the most “vicious.”
Counterterrorism laws in the United Kingdom could make watching the
ISIS video a crime,
as NBC News reports:
In a statement, the [London Metropolitan] police force said it
was “investigating the contents of the video that was posted online
in relation to the alleged murder of James Foley.” It added: “We
would like to remind the public that viewing, downloading or
disseminating extremist material within the U.K. may constitute an
offence under terrorism legislation.”
Twitter, meanwhile, is
blocking images from the video and suspending accounts that
post it; the company says it does so when family members make such
requests, and that it always “weighs public interest against
privacy concerns.”
In the video, Foley reads a statement blaming the U.S.
airstrikes for killing him. The masked ISIS fighter shown in the
video warns another American journalist in their custody,
Steven Sotloff, would be next, and insists ISIS is not an
insurgent group but a caliphate with dominion over Muslims
worldwide.
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