No doubt you’ve all seen this image of American journalist James Foley who was beheaded by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) jihadists on August 19, 2014.
James Wright Foley was a freelance photojournalist covering the Syrian Civil War for Agence France-Presse and GlobalPost when he was abducted on November 22, 2012 in northwestern Syria.
The Islamic State (IS), an al-Qaida spinoff that’s better known as ISIS or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), demanded a $132 million ransom from Foley’s family, his employer GlobalPost, and the U.S. government for his release.GlobalPost CEO Philip Balboni stated that the company spent millions on efforts to bring Foley home, including hiring an international security firm that located Foley’s whereabouts in September 2013.
In July 2014, Obama authorized a major rescue operation involving special ops from multiple branches of the U.S. military, including the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and drones. But when U.S. Delta Force commandos landed in the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa where they believed Foley to be located, they were met with gunfire. IS suffered casualties, but the American forces suffered only a single minor injury. Foley and the other hostages were not located. The operation was only revealed after Foley’s death — the first confirmed case of U.S. troops on the ground within Syria during the Syrian Civil War.
On August 12, 2014, Foley’s parents received an email from his captors taking issue with the U.S. government for refusing to pay ransom and to negotiate a prisoner exchange (as Obama did in the case of U.S. Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl, thereby violating Section 1035 of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act). The email said the IS would avenge the U.S. bombings against ISIS in Iraq, beginning with the execution of Foley.
Foley thus became the first confirmed U. S. citizen to be killed by the Islamic State.
Sadly, James Foley was also a useful idiot.
The term “useful idiot” is a descriptive term coined by V.I. Lenin. From Wikipedia:
The term ["useful idiot"] has been used in a similar sense as fellow travellers and other Communism or Soviet Union sympathizers in Western countries during the Cold War. The implication was that, although the people in question naïvely thought of themselves as standing for a benign socialist ideological cause, and as valued allies of the Soviet Union, they were actually held in contempt and were being cynically used by the Communist Party of Soviet Union for subversive activities in their native Western countries. The use of the term in political discourse has since been extended to other propagandists, especially those who are seen to unwittingly support a malignant cause which they naïvely believe to be a force for good.”
Daniel Greenfield writes for Frontpage Magazine, Aug. 19, 2014, that Foley was one of a new breed of activist journalists who didn’t so much report on a story as promoted an agenda. And the agenda was obvious from his Twitter feed.
Here’s a sample of Foley’s tweets and retweets:
1. Foley was a left-winger who saw conservatives as “right-wing extremists” as dangerous as al-Qaeda:
2. Foley was anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian:
Note: The Iron Dome is Israel’s very effective anti-missile shield.
Note: Palestinians are committed to the destruction and elimination of the state of Israel. Article 7 of Hamas’ Charter says: “The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees.”
3. Foley saw Islamic jihadists as righteous, warm and fuzzy:
Note: The Al Nusra Front was an al-Qaeda group that is now part of IS/ISIS.
Though a Catholic, James Foley had no empathy for the Christians who are driven from their homes, tortured and killed by jihadists in Syria and Iraq. He cheered on the jihadists fighting to ethnically “cleanse” Christians from Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. It is reported that jihadists have even crucified Christians (see pic below).
Instead, Foley was a Muslim sympathizer who went to Syria to support the Sunni Islamist “rebels” against the Syrian government. Like the Obama administration, Foley was an advocate of the “rebels”; his Twitter feed was full of urgings to arm the jihadists.
For certain, James Foley didn’t deserve to be killed, especially in such a brutal barbaric fashion as being beheaded. His death, however, should be an object lesson to other useful idiots.
Useful idiots being the idiots they are, I doubt they will recognize or heed the object lesson.
~Eowyn
