This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/12/british-hostage-john-cantlie-fourth-isis-video

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
British hostage John Cantlie appears in fourth Isis propaganda video British hostage John Cantlie appears in fourth Isis propaganda video
(about 7 hours later)
Militants from Islamic State (Isis) have released a fourth propaganda video showing the abducted British journalist John Cantlie delivering a message under duress. Militants from Islamic State (Isis) have released a fourth video showing a British journalist held hostage and delivering a message under duress.
In the 6 minute 53 second video, posted online by the group’s Al Furqan media outlet on Sunday, Cantlie, who has been held prisoner for almost two years, said Islamic State was “dug in for the fight”. John Cantlie, who has been held for almost two years, said Isis was “dug in for the fight” in a seven-minute video that emerged on Sunday.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit, Cantlie, 43 warned “what that means is that anyone hoping for a nice neat surgical operation without getting their hands dirty is in for a horrible surprise once it gets underway”. Appearing to offer a scripted argument, he said the western public is being rushed into a war it cannot win, against thousands of armed militants.
The freelance photojournalist, who has worked for various newspapers including the Sunday Times, added that the violent beheading videos released by Isis “were a win win” for the militant group. Wearing an orange jumpsuit akin to prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cantlie, 43, warns “anyone hoping for a nice neat surgical operation without getting their hands dirty is in for a horrible surprise once it gets under way”.
“If these executions force public outcry or a policy change, that is a huge victory. And If they only goad our governments into dropping more bombs and spending millions more dollars, making our countries weaker in the process, that is a victory too.” Cantlie describes the release of gruesome videos of his fellow captives such as journalist Steven Sotloff or aid worker Alan Henning being killed as a “win win” for Isis.
Cantlie said on the video – introduced with the title “Lend Me Your Ears” – that it was conceivable Isis foreign fighters could return to thor home countries and carry out attacks. He said: “If these executions force public outcry or a policy change, that is a huge victory. And if they only goad our governments into dropping more bombs and spending millions more dollars, making our countries weaker in the process, that is a victory too.”
A graphic circulating last week suggested there would be eight instalments of Cantlie’s “programmes”, including the introduction first released on 18 September. Cantlie was kidnapped for a second time 22 months ago after entering the country as a freelance photojournalist. He has worked for various newspapers including the Sunday Times. Last week Cantlie’s father Paul made an emotional plea to Isis from his hospital bed for his captors to release his son.
The series appears to be a polemic against western intervention against Isis – what the videos have previously described as “Gulf War III”. The video’s emergence follows the publication of an English language magazine produced by Isis. The magazine, called Dabiq, claims to confirm that Isis has taken hundreds of Yazidi women and children as slaves. The article says they have been divided among Isis fighters, are being sold on by them, and also suggests they are being used as “concubines”.
Delivering scripted lines, Cantlie previously said: “Not since Vietnam have we witnessed such a potential mess in the making.” In August the imprisonment and rape of the Yazidi population in northern Iraq was condemned as “barbaric” by the UN.
Last week Cantlie’s father, Paul, who recently had throat surgery, made an emotional plea to Isis to release his son. The 56-page colour magazine also purports to publish a longer essay from Cantlie which gives details about his capture.
“This is not how I would imagine spending my 81st year,” he said from his hospital bed. In the article, “Hard Talk – The Real Story Behind My Videos”, the author claims that he has been left in a “dark room with a mattress on the floor” in an absolute information vacuum. “I try to stay very calm, tolerant and accepting of my situation … I am thankful for any comfort I receive and for every plate of food I get.”
Paul Cantlie added that his family had tried to contact Isis “to deliver an important message regarding John” but have had no response from the fundamentalist group which now controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. Taking a similar line of argument as the videos Cantlie has presented, most of the feature lambasts the US and UK governments for not saving his fellow cell-mates – executed in “the most visceral way possible” – by refusing to negotiate. At no point does the 2,100 word article blame Isis for killing the four hostages.
“We’d come all this way, putting one foot in front of the other, supporting one another when it got tough, praying together every day.
“We used to call it the Dead Zone when things got bad, after the area Everest climbers face above 26,000 feet as they approach the summit, when every step is agony, when they hardly have enough strength to carry on.”
It also includes a grim warning that Cantlie may also be murdered; the article reads: “Unless something changes very quickly and very radically, I await my turn.”
The magazine’s website also claims to publish a message from one of the previously beheaded captives, Sotloff, to his mother.
There has as yet been no verification of whether the message was sent to Shirley Sotloff before her son’s death and following her own direct plea to Isis militants in late August.
The purported message is in much the same vein as Cantlie’s video, arguing that his life lay in the hands of Obama and not those who eventually killed him.