John Cantlie / Lend Me Your Ears – 2015-01-06 00:42:52
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/03/john-cantlie-isis-eighth-video
Note:
“John Cantlie’s Unofficial Channel” on YouTube, which contained “Messages from the British detainee John Cantlie,” contained a total of 11 video reports. The account was up for only five days before Google pulled the content from YouTube, leaving behind nothing but this message:
“This account has been suspended due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, gaming, misleading content, or other Terms of Service violations.”
Cantlie’s November 2014 dispatch has also been removed from YouTube: “Content Warning: This video may be inappropriate for some users. Sign in to confirm your age.”
In John Cantlie’s latest video, there is an interesting anomaly that no other media appear to have noticed. If you look closely, you can see that the note-tablet Cantlie holds in his right hand while quoting various press reports has been “blurred” by a video editor.
Why would this have been done? Did someone at ISIS fear Cantlie might have been using the backside of his notepad to send coded messages to the “outside world”? — EAW Editor.
ISIS Posts Eighth Propaganda Video of John Cantlie
Captive photojournalist gives tour of jihad-held city of Mosul in eight-minute film being studied by Foreign Office
The Guardian Press Association
LONDON (January 3, 2015) — An eighth propaganda video of British hostage John Cantlie giving a tour of the Iraqi city of Mosul has been released by the Islamic State (Isis). The photojournalist presents the documentary-style clip in English, claiming that “life in Mosul is business as usual” and that media reports suggesting the city is “depressed” and “living in fear” are “misleading”.
The country’s second largest city was captured by Isis militants during a blitz in June during which they murdered more than 2,000 Shia prisoners and soldiers, according to Human Rights Watch.
The eight-minute video, which sees 43-year-old Cantlie visit a market, a hospital and a police station, purports to paint life in the bomb-hit city as stable. A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We are aware of the release of another video and are studying its contents.”
In the video, Cantlie tells the camera: “The media likes to paint a picture of life in the Islamic State as depressed, people walking around as subjugated citizens in chains, beaten down by strict, totalitarian rule. “But really, apart from some rather chilly but very sunny December weather, life here in Mosul is business as usual.”
The hostage has been held captive for more than two years by Isis militants. In previous instalments he has delivered his message under duress from behind a desk and wearing an orange jumpsuit.
The last video featuring the photojournalist, released in November, saw him give an account of what he claims was a failed rescue attempt by US forces in July. In it Cantlie said he accepted “long ago” that his fate was “overwhelmingly likely” to be the same as other captives. Other footage released by the group in October purported to show him in the embattled Syrian city of Kobani.
Cantlie’s father Paul, 80, died from complications following pneumonia last year. His sister, Jessica Cantlie, has previously appealed for “direct contact” with the militants holding him.
Since August, Isis has posted online films of the deaths of four western hostages: UK aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines, and American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, who were all beheaded on camera by the jihadi organisation.
John Cantlie Video: Analysis of Latest ISIS Propaganda Video
CBS Evening News
NEW YORK (January 4, 2015) — Hostage John Cantlie appeared in a new video released online by ISIS, this time apparently in Mosul. CBS News national security expert Juan Zarate talks about the meaning behind the propaganda.
From Inside Mosul
John Cantlie
MOSUL (January 4, 2015) — Britain hostage John Cantlie’s new report video for ISIS Propaganda from Mosul, Iraq.
John Cantlie Speaks about Failed US Attempt
To Rescue Hostages in ISIS Video
Shiv Malik / The Guardian
LONDON (November 21, 2014) — Jihadis have released a video of British hostage and journalist John Cantlie speaking about a failed US raid to save him and five fellow captives from months of imprisonment.
Speaking from behind a desk and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, the freelance photojournalist, who has previously explained that he is speaking under duress, blames the British prime minister, David Cameron, for not going far enough to help him.
In the seventh installment released so far in a “series” entitled Lend Me Your Ears, Cantlie says that Islamic State (Isis) militants were put into cars and moved days before a US raid on 4 July to save the hostages.
Speaking to camera, Cantlie who has worked for the Sunday Times, castigates the US government for mounting the raid instead of initiating prisoner release negotiations or paying for his release.
“I will tell you about a failed raid to rescue us and how it feels to be left for dead by your own government. On July 4, Independence Day, the Americans did try to get us out of prison. Not by negotiation or prisoner exchange but by an incredibly complex, risky and expensive rescue attempt that failed,” Cantlie says in the video. He says that two dozen Delta Force commandos, Black Hawk helicopters, drones and fighter jets were involved in the rescue, adding “but we weren’t there”.
“Why would you put all those lives in danger when you could have peacefully negotiated?” Cantlie asks.
In August, the US administration released details of the failed night-time mission in Raqqa which had been authorised by the president. The Cantlie video provides no further details beyond those released at that time.
Over the weekend an Isis militant, thought to be from the UK, was seen standing over the severed head of US aid worker Peter Kassig in a village north of Aleppo. Kassig and four other now dead US and UK hostages are understood to have been held captive alongside Cantlie.
Last month, Cantlie was seen delivering a “report” from the Syrian border town of Kobani showing how Isis militants were “mopping up” and on the verge of defeating Kurdish rebels. This latest release is a return to previous form. Graphics tweeted by Isis propagandists suggest there will be two further videos to come. Cantlie says the UK and US’s policy to not pay for the release of captives has meant that the six hostages were “left to die”.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world being left behind like that,” he says. “To be left behind so cynically by the country you thought you knew — is some kind of ultimate betrayal. You spend your whole life working, paying taxes, not getting into trouble with the police . . . paying your bills and for what? The first time you need your country . . . they turn their back.” He adds he did not want Cameron’s sympathy and would have instead preferred for negotiations to have worked.
Making clear the threat to his life, Cantlie added at the end that he was against intervention. “I will continue to speak out against this military action . . . for as long as the mujahideen allow me to live.”
His father Paul who recently passed away after battling illness and Cantlie’s sister Jessica have made public appeals to Isis to reopen dialogue and ensure his safe return.
John Cantlie in Kobani
(October 28, 2014) — The Islamic State group released a video on Monday that appears to show British hostage John Cantlie in the Syrian border town of Kobani, the SITE Intelligence group announced on its website. The 5-minute video, which is titled “Inside Ayn al-Islam,” shows Cantlie walking in front of destroyed buildings in what appears to be the city of Kobani.
“Now the battle for Kobani is coming to an end,” Cantlie says. “The mujahideen are just mopping up now, street to street, and building to building,” he adds, referring to Islamic State fighters. The video also shows aerial footage of Kobani, which was purportedly shot by an Islamic State drone. Militants of the Islamic State and Kurdish fighters have been battling for control of Kobani, a Kurdish town on the border between Syria and Turkey, for weeks.
Archive: Reporter John Cantlie’s 2012 Telegraph Dispatch from Syria
(September 19, 2014) — A new video has emerged of British journalist John Cantlie held hostage by Isil. Here is an exclusive dispatch he filmed for The Telegraph in 2012 demonstrating his brave journalism in Syria
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
