Foley's Parents on Jihadi John News: US Doesn't Get It

More effort should've gone toward hostages than to 'deranged man,' they say
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 13, 2015 9:18 AM CST
Foley's Parents on Jihadi John News: US Doesn't Get It
In this May 27, 2011, file photo, American journalist James Foley, of Rochester, NH, poses for a photo in Boston.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

We may never have to see "Jihadi John" again thanks to a drone strike that may have taken him out Thursday night. Though reports on Mohammed Emwazi's reported demise have yet to be confirmed, British PM David Cameron noted at a Friday press conference that "I've always said we would do whatever it takes to track him down; we've been working with the United States around the clock," per ABC News. Two people not exactly celebrating the news: John and Diane Foley, parents of slain journalist James Foley, whose beheading was presided over by Jihadi John. "This huge effort to go after this deranged man filled with hate when they can't make half that effort to save the hostages while these young Americans were still alive," they say in a statement to ABC.

"It's unfortunate that the government doesn't get it," the Foleys continue in the statement. "They think it gives us solace, but it doesn't." The families of Foley and Steven Sotloff—another American journalist who, like Foley, was executed in a graphic ISIS video—have been embroiled in a bitter back-and-forth with the US government for more than a year over rescue efforts. The mother of executed Japanese journalist Kenji Goto also spoke out Friday, calling for an end to the violence, per the AP. "I only wish there will be no more conflicts like these ... as my son had hoped to see peace prevail around the world," she told a Japanese broadcaster. (Ex-hostages paint a chilling picture of Emwazi.)

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