British journalist, John Cantlie, was abducted six years ago by jihadists in Syria. Recently the British government made a statement that he is believed to still be alive, despite his almost decade long capture. Cantlie was spotted in several propaganda videos released by ISIS, but his last appearance was made over two years ago, leading many to believe that he was killed by the jihadists or died while in captivity. However, Britain’s prime minister for security, Ben Wallace, announced in early February that he is believed to still be alive, though not letting slip as to how British intelligence has knowledge of this. Mr. Cantlie was a freelance photographer who was abducted in 2012 along with American journalist James Foley. The two were in the Syrian city Binesh and heading for the Turkish border, when armed jihadists stopped them and took them hostage. It is known that Mr. Cantlie was moved several times early on in his captivity before being placed in a prison next to an oil installation in the Syrian city of Raqqa. There, he was one of 23 captives who’s fates and identities are unknown. They are thought to be held in two cells, divided by gender, and if Mr. Cantlie is alive and able to be obtained, then he could hopefully shed light on the identities and nature of the other Western hostages who’s families know little about their condition or fates. Most European hostages, such as French and Spanish citizens, have been released on a multi-million euro hostage deal with ISIS, however the United States and Britain are two of the few countries who refuse to pay for hostages on account of their policies against financing terrorists under any circumstances. When this became known to ISIS, they began killing US and British hostages, one of which being Mr. Foley who’s beheading was displayed in a disgusting online video posted by the terrorist organization. Mr. Cantlie was used instead in propaganda videos criticizing western culture and praising the jihadists and their beliefs. It is now hoped that Mr. Cantlie will be able to return to Britain with the Islamic State’s land and finances dwindling. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
British journalist, John Cantlie, was abducted six years ago by jihadists in Syria. Recently the British government made a statement that he is believed to still be alive, despite his almost decade long capture. Cantlie was spotted in several propaganda videos released by ISIS, but his last appearance was made over two years ago, leading many to believe that he… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3130,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions\/3130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}