Priorities.
LONDON — Intelligence officials were poring over a video purporting to show the beheading of an American journalist in Syria on Wednesday, urgently seeking confirmation of James Foley’s fate as well as clues about the identity of his executioner.
The graphic video shows Foley reciting threats against America before he is killed by an Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militant. The voice narrating the video speaks fluent English and the U.K.’s foreign secretary suggested he might be British – a troubling but not altogether surprising development. Western officials have been sounding alarm bells for months over the flood of foreign fighters taking up arms in Syria and Iraq.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his summer vacation to return to London and chair urgent meetings on the threat posed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, calling the video “shocking and depraved.” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the video appears to be genuine, adding that intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic were working to identify the voice on the tape.
“We are very concerned by the apparent fact that the murderer in question is British,” Hammond told NBC News partner ITV News. “We are urgently investigating.”
Via The Hill:
President Obama went back to his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard Tuesday evening following less than 48 hours in Washington, leaving people puzzled over why he came back in the first place.
Obama’s two days in Washington were mostly quiet, and concluded with the president receiving his daily national security briefing in the morning, and joining Vice President Biden to huddle with members of his economic team in the afternoon.
Administration officials have insisted for weeks that the president just wanted to return to the White House for a series of meetings, but the explanation was met with a healthy dose of skepticism, since Obama rarely interrupts his vacations.
Judicial Watch estimates the extra roundtrip cost $1.1 million. Only daughter Malia accompanied Obama back to Washington.