美遭斬首記者母親指責政府營救不力

The mother of James Foley, the American journalist beheaded by ISIS, spoke tonight of her deep disappointment felt towards the Obama administration for their handling of his time as a prisoner of the terror group, saying, 'I really feel our country let Jim down.'

On the 13th anniversary of 9/11 and the day after President Obama addressed the nation and finally offered a strategy to defeat ISIS, Diane Foley told CNN that 'as an American', she was 'embarrassed and appalled' at the efforts to rescue her son from captivity.

Articulate and thoughtful throughout her interview, Mrs. Foley made the startling claim that US officials threatened her family with prosecution if they tried to raise a ransom for Foley, 40, and said 'Jim was sacrificed because of a lack of communication and prioritization.'

And in a thinly veiled attack on Obama's new strategy to 'degrade and destroy' ISIS she said that meeting violence with more violence may not be the answer and said, 'bombing caused Jim's death.'

'Jim was killed in the most horrific way. He was sacrificed because of just a lack of coordination, lack of communication, lack of prioritization,' said Diane Foley. 'As a family, we had to find our way through this on our own.'

Still grieving, Diane Foley also said US officials told her they would not exchange prisoners or carry out any military action to try and rescue her son.

At times withering in her assessment of the Obama administration's co-ordination with her family, Mrs. Foley poured scorn on the Pentagon's claim they tried to rescue Foley on July 4, only to raid the wrong base.

Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, Mrs. Foley said her family knew where James Foley was being held on two separate occasions in Syria, and that each time he was there for months following his capture on Thanksgiving, 2012.

She bemoaned the fact that a military option took so long to put together and felt the whole disastrous operation, which Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel surprisingly labeled 'Flawless', was in fact 'awful'.

In a damning indictment of the effort at home and abroad to rescue Foley, who was kidnapped in northern Syria while working for GlobalPost, Mrs. Foley said that the FBI were asking her family for information on her eldest son.

'We tended to know everything before the FBI or anyone else. .... Everyone was kind and supportive, but the FBI used us for information,' she said.

Asked why this was, Mrs. Foley said, 'Because we did everything we could.'

Throughout the 20 month ordeal, Mrs. Foley said she came to regard her and her family's efforts to rescue James as 'an annoyance' to the administration and began to feel that their desperation to bring James Foley home did not 'seem to be in the strategic interest, if you will.'

On August 19, ISIS released a gruesome video online which showed the beheading of Foley by a masked ISIS militant, who told the camera in a British accent, that his 'real killer' was the United States.

Exactly two weeks later, another American journalist, Stephen Sotloff, was beheaded, apparently by the same man, who tells the camera, 'I'm back Obama'.

During the efforts to get James home, Mrs. Foley said she met good people, people who wanted to help, but was adamant that she didn't want to single anyone out and lay 'blame'.

Mrs. Foley said it was important to remember that ISIS is the enemy and not the United States. However, ultimately, she 'didn't feel that Jim was a priority.'

'We were just told to trust that he would be freed somehow, miraculously,' said Foley's mother to CNN. 'And he wasn't, was he?'

Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, Diane Foley said that she felt cut off at every avenue by US officials and were threatened with prosecution should they try to pay for her son's return - a move that left her feeling 'horrified'.

Still startled by this aggressive enforcement of official US policy, Mrs. Foley said she couldn't believe it because 'no one has ever been prosecuted for trying to get their child back.'

Mrs. Foley said that of course she had watched the president's address to the nation on Wednesday night, but said that the US needs to reconsider its position on negotiating with terrorists.

'I pray that our government will be willing to learn from the mistakes that were made,' she said to CNN, 'and to acknowledge that there are better ways for American citizens to be treated.'

'This whole strategy to eliminate ISIS and the terror threat is important, obviously, so perhaps part of the strategic way of doing that is to bomb them, and to engage in force. But that only caused Jim's death,' she said.

'I guess all I'm trying to say is that our government needs to be shrewder, smarter, willing to negotiate with these people who hate us, so that we can find better ways to rid ourselves of terror.'

On Wednesday night from the White House, the president said of ISIS, 'They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage. They threatened a religious minority with genocide. In acts of barbarism, they took the lives of two American journalists -- Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff.'

Three weeks after Foley's death, the president finally outlined his strategy to defeat ISIS, after weeks of mixed messages, including admitting at one point that he had 'no strategy' for the militant group.

In response, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said that she felt the Foley family had done an 'amazing bring Jim home safely' and that she 'and others in the US government worked very hard with Diane Foley and her family to try to be supportive, to try to provide what information we could.'

She denied the mission to rescue him was a failure, despite the special forces team assaulting completly the wrong ISIS camp.

'Unfortunately, they were no longer there,' said Rice.

'But I think that effort ... underscores the importance that we attach to doing everything that we possibly can to bring Americans in captivity back home.'據英國《每日郵報》9月11日稱，遭ISIS斬首美國記者詹姆斯·福利（James Foley）的母親9月11日晚稱對奧巴馬政府處理恐怖組織囚禁人質的做法感到非常失望，她稱，“我真的覺得我們的國家讓福利失望了。”

9月10日，美國總統奧巴馬公佈了打擊ISIS的新戰略。9月11日，黛安娜·福利（Diane Foley）告訴美國有線電視新聞網稱，她作爲一個美國人，對美國政府解救她兒子的努力感到很“失望和震驚”。

採訪中，黛安娜驚人表示，美國官員曾威脅她和她的家人，如果她向ISIS支付贖金，美國官員將起訴她們。並表示美國官員稱“詹姆斯·福利犧牲是因爲他沒有跟政府做及時溝通，且他也沒有優先權。”

黛安娜含沙射影地攻擊奧巴馬打擊ISIS的新戰略，她稱以暴制暴並不能打擊ISIS，正是系列空襲造成了詹姆斯的死亡。

“詹姆斯以最可怕的方式遭殺害。他犧牲是因爲沒有溝通協調，況且他沒有優先權。”黛安娜·福利稱。

黛安娜悲傷地稱，美國官員曾告訴她稱不會交換囚犯或是用軍事行動拯救她的兒子。

談及奧巴馬政府與她的家人協調方面時，黛安娜強烈指責美國政府聲稱7月4日要解救福利，結果卻搞錯了基地，突襲了另一個ISIS基地。

福利夫人在接受採訪時表示，她和她的家人都知道，詹姆斯·福利在2012年感恩節被抓後關押在敘利亞兩處地點，輪流在兩處地點關押幾個月。

她哀嘆稱，軍隊尋找到這兩處地點耗時太長，並表示，美國國防部部長查克·哈格爾（Chuck Hagel）認爲的堪稱“天衣無縫”的軍事行動在她看來“十分糟糕”。

詹姆斯·福利是在敘利亞北部爲《環球郵報》工作時遭綁架的。黛安娜強烈控訴奧巴馬政府在國內外解救詹姆斯的行動，她稱美國聯邦調查局曾向她的家人詢問她長子的相關信息。

“我們比聯邦調查局或其他任何人都想知道我兒子福利的消息……每個人都很善良且很支持我們，可是聯邦調查局卻利用我們獲取其它信息。”她稱。

問及爲什麼聯邦政府會這麼做時，福利夫人回答稱，“正是因爲我們在盡我們所能營救福利。”

在經過長達20個月的折磨後，福利夫人稱她漸漸開始感覺她和她家人營救詹姆斯的行爲惱怒了政府，並開始感覺到她們一家人想帶回詹姆斯的迫切心情與國家的戰略利益並不相符。

8月19日，ISIS將詹姆斯·福利的斬首視頻公佈到網上，視頻中一位蒙面，英國口音的ISIS武裝分子對詹姆斯進行斬首。而美國纔是殺死詹姆斯的“真正殺手”。

兩週後，又有一位美國記者斯蒂芬·索特洛夫（Stephen Sotloff）遭斬首，實施斬首的正是殺害詹姆斯的武裝分子，這次他對着鏡頭稱，“奧巴馬，我回來了。”

在營救詹姆斯的過程中，黛安娜稱，她確實遇到了很多好人，真心想要幫助她的人。

黛安娜表示，“一直以來，政府告訴我們，我的兒子詹姆斯會奇蹟般地重獲自由。不過並沒有，難道不是嗎？”

黛安娜稱，她覺得美國官員的各種措施都在阻隔她拯救詹姆斯，官員威脅她如果她支付贖金讓詹姆斯回來就會遭到起訴，這更讓她感到“恐怖”。

美國官方侵略性的政策更讓黛安娜感到害怕，她稱她簡直不敢相信就因爲想要兒子回來能遭到起訴。

黛安娜表示，她看了10晚總統向全國發表的講話，並認爲美國需要重新定位，與恐怖勢力進行協商。

“我祈禱着，希望我們的政府願意從錯誤中吸取教訓，”她稱，“希望政府能意識到有更好的辦法撫慰遭殺害的美國公民。”

她稱，“整個剷除ISIS恐怖主義的戰略是非常重要的，而剷除他們的辦法很可能是戰略轟炸和軍隊。也是這樣的方法導致了詹姆斯的死亡。”

“我的意思是我們的政府需要更精明，更聰明，願意與這些恨我們的人談判協商，這樣我們才能找到擺脫恐怖勢力的好辦法。”

10日（週三）晚，奧巴馬在白宮講話時稱“ISIS奴役強姦女性，甚至是逼迫女性與他們結婚。他們威脅宗教，進行種族滅絕。殘忍地奪去了兩名美國記者——詹姆斯·福利和斯蒂芬·索特洛夫的生命。”

福利遭斬首後三週，總統奧巴馬最終制定了剷除ISIS的新策略，期間他也承認了自己之前對武裝分子並沒有清晰的策略。

美國國家安全顧問蘇珊·賴斯（Susan Rice）迴應稱她覺得福利一家爲拯救詹姆斯·福利做出了驚人的努力，並稱“我和其它美國政府官員都在積極地支持福利一家，給她們提供我們知道的一切信息。”

賴斯否認營救詹姆斯·福利的行動是失敗的，儘管特種部隊完全搞錯了基地襲擊了錯誤的目標。

賴斯稱“很不幸，ISIS武裝並不在那裏。”

“不過我相信我們的努力……也表明我們在盡我們所能把美國公民拯救回國。”