No Beheading Commutation, ISIS Committed to Death
"[Our family is] devastated by the news of Kenji's death".
"While feeling a great personal loss, I remain extremely proud of my husband who reported the plight of people in conflict areas like Iraq, Somalia and Syria."
"It was his passion to highlight the effects on ordinary people, especially through the eyes of children, and to inform the rest of us of the tragedies of war."
Rinko Goto, widow of Kenji Goto, beheaded by Islamic State
Kenji Goto, a Japanese journalist who sought to marry his profession with creating a window for his country to view the dysfunction in conflict zones' effects on ordinary people, has paid the ultimate price for his journalism vision. He must have known he was in great danger, released previously from a similar situation, albeit held by less psychopathic jihadis. This mission, on his return to the conflict in Syria was to help secure the release of another Japanese national held by Islamic State.
The $200-million ransom held out as the only means of securing the lives of the two Japanese men, Mr. Goto and Haruna Yukawa, was to no avail. Japan had offered that sum to in non-lethal aid to countries battling the Islamic State. In the video released on the beheading of Kenji Goto, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is addressed, with the pitiless jihadist laying the gruesome murders at his feet because of Japan's "reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war".
Now, Jordanians have renewed their demands for the return of their Jordanian "son", air force pilot Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, captured in December while taking part in the U.S.-led air mission to destroy Islamic State convoys and installations on the ground. Demands for his release were met with a counter-offer by Islamic State, for the release of a death-row Jordanian prisoner, Sajida al-Rishawi whose suicide belt had failed to ignite, even while her husband's had, leading to the 2005 hotel bombing in Amman, and the death of 60 people.
What appears to elude Jordanians, who have faulted their government and their head of state, King Abdullah, for joining the coalition against ISIS, is the fact that Islamic State has demanded the release of the woman with close ties to the ISIS leadership, but they have not in as many words, promised that her release would effect the counter-release of the Jordanian pilot.
Jordan's request to have proof that Lt. al-Kasasbeh is still alive, before committing to the release of the death-row inmate, has been met with silence.
In all likelihood, Islamic State has long since disposed of the Jordanian pilot in their own inimitable way. There is no one to trade with, now that the two Japanese nationals have been slaughtered.
Labels: Atrocities, Hostages, Islamic State, Japan, Jordan
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, February 01, 2015
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