http://nypost.com/2014/08/20/jihadists-sent-foleys-boss-an-email-full-of-rage-a-week-before-killing/Jihadists sent Foley’s boss an email ‘full of rage’ a week before killing
By Sophia Rosenbaum
August 20, 2014 | 6:30pm
The jihadists who savagely took the life of an American journalist sent his employer an e-mail a week earlier threatening the execution.
“We received an email from the captors on Wednesday night of last week stating their intention to execute Jim,” Philip Balboni, the founder of the online news service site Global Post, told WCVB Boston. “The email was full of rage.”
The White House knew about the threat against Foley’s life and did not engage in negotiations with the terrorists, Balboni said.
Balboni said he had been working behind the scenes since James Foley’s capture in 2012 to try to free him, spending millions of dollars in search efforts. The Global Post and the Foley family paid for most of it, with some help from the White House, State Department and FBI.
The ISIS militants did not make any demands in the email and would not listen to Balboni’s pleas to spare the innocent reporter’s life.
“It could have been a bluff and we had to believe it was a bluff,” Balboni added. “You know when you kidnap someone and hold them for almost two years, you don’t do it unless you believe there is value in those hostages.”
But Tuesday evening, they exacted their revenge for continued US airstrikes in regions where ISIS is fighting for control.
Balboni learned that the video was authentic Tuesday night and mourned the loss of a “wonderful, warm, funny, gregarious person.”
He believes the US needs to do more to put an end to this kind of violence, with reporter Steven Sotloff’s life currently in danger, as he was seen in the video and an ISIS militant warned that he was next if airstrikes continued.
“”It warrants a stronger response,” Balboni said. “I would leave that to people who know more than I as to what that should be.”
Foley was freelancing for Agence France-Presse in northern Syria when his car was seized by four militants.
