David Haines, British Man, Threatened by ISIS in New Video

By Jack Phillips
David Cawthorne  Haines, a UK man, was threatened by ISIS in a new video, according to reports on Tuesday.
In the same video, it apparently depicts an ISIS fighter beheading journalist Steven Sotloff, according to reports. The move comes just weeks after journalist James Foley was killed in a similar manner.
The ISIS fighter who carried out the beheading of Sotloff threatened Haines next, reported CNN.

ISIS: Brit David Cawthorne Haines would be beheaded if Obama does not bend to its will http://t.co/TRH5DCvENp #tcot pic.twitter.com/105oVwo8l0
— slone (@slone) September 2, 2014

“Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people,” a figure in the video said, speaking to President Obama. When Sotloff was being beheaded, the ISIS fighter also reportedly said, “”I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State.” 

According to the Washington Post, Haines is an aid worker who was abducted in March 2013 near the Atmeh refugee camp near the Turkish border. The paper cited aid workers who have been working to secure his release.
In the video, Haines is shown kneeling wearing the same orange jumpsuit as Sotloff and Foley. The executioner warns: “Governments that enter this evil alliance of America . . . to back off and leave our people alone.”
The New York Times reported that the SITE terrorist monitoring group identified Haines–whose full name is David Cawthorne Haines–as the next beheading victim.
At least two other US citizens are said to be held by ISIS. Sotloff previously had worked with TIME magazine and other publications.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron responded to the Sotloff beheading, saying it was an “absolutely disgusting, despicable act.”
The White House issued a statement right after the incident, and it said that officials can’t verify the authenticity of the video footage. It, however, added that “thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Sotloff and Mr. Sotloff’s family.” 


“It is something that will be analyzed very carefully by the U.S. government and our intelligence officials to determine its authenticity,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington, according to the New York Times.

Here’s a transcript of the video showing Sotloff’s execution, via the Washington Post:

Steven Sotloff: “I am Steven Joel Sotloff. I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing before you. And now this time for my message:
Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for the preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life. Am I not an American citizen? You’ve spent billions of U.S. tax payers dollars and we’ve lost thousands of our troops in our previous fighting against the Islamic State, so where is the people’s interest in reigniting this war?
From what little I know about foreign policy, I remember a time you could not win an election without promising to bring our troops back home from Iraq and Afghanistan and to close down Guantanamo. Here you are now, Obama, nearing the end of your term, and having achieving none of the above, and deceivingly marching us the American people in the blazing fire.”

ISIS fighter who does the killing: “I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings and [unclear] on Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings. You, Obama, have but to gain from your actions but another American citizen. So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people…”
Associated Press update on Sotloff’s death
BEIRUT (AP) — An Internet video posted online Tuesday purported to show the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff by the Islamic State group, which called it retribution for continued U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.
Sotloff, 31, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, had last been seen in Syrian in August 2013 until he appeared in a video released online last month by the Islamic State group that showed the beheading of fellow American journalist James Foley.
Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against the backdrop of an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the group in Iraq.
In the video distributed Tuesday and entitled “A Second Message to America,” Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he was purportedly beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.
The Associated Press could not immediately verify the video’s authenticity. The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism watchdog, first reported about the video’s existence.
The fighter who beheads Sotloff in the video called it retribution for Obama’s continued airstrikes against the group in Iraq.

“I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State … despite our serious warnings,” the fighter said.
At the end of the video, he threatened to kill a third captive, a Briton, David Cathorne Haines.
Sotloff’s mother had pleaded for his release last week in a video directed at the Islamic State group.
Addressing the leader of the Islamic State group by name, Shirley Sotloff said in a video her son was “an innocent journalist” who shouldn’t pay for U.S. government actions in the Middle East over which he has no control.