Journalist's killing spurs U.S. launch of criminal inquiry

‘Our reach is very wide,’ Holder says

FILE - In this May 27, 2011, file photo shows American Journalist James Foley, of Rochester, N.H., as he poses for a photo in Boston. The beheading of Foley has forced a new debate over how the United States balances its unyielding policy against paying ransom to terrorist groups and saving the lives of Americans being held hostage by some of the worlds most dangerous extremists. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
FILE - In this May 27, 2011, file photo shows American Journalist James Foley, of Rochester, N.H., as he poses for a photo in Boston. The beheading of Foley has forced a new debate over how the United States balances its unyielding policy against paying ransom to terrorist groups and saving the lives of Americans being held hostage by some of the worlds most dangerous extremists. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

WASHINGTON -- The FBI and federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the beheading of American journalist James Foley by militants from the Islamic State extremist group, with Attorney General Eric Holder vowing Thursday that those responsible for the videotaped slaying will be held responsible.

"We have an open criminal investigation," Holder said. "And those who would perpetrate such acts need to understand something. This Justice Department, this Department of Defense, this nation ... we have long memories and our reach is very wide."

U.S. officials have jurisdiction in the case because Foley was an American citizen.

"We will not forget what happened, and people will be held accountable -- one way or the other," Holder said.

Foley was seen in the video wearing orange and kneeling in a desert with a tall masked man in black wielding a knife by his side. The man is believed to be a British citizen, U.S. and British authorities have said.

British newspapers said the executioner ran a squad of other Britons who have been holding foreign captives at the behest of the Islamic State, apparently in the Syrian stronghold of Raqqa. The man called himself "John" and apparently served as a negotiator in releasing other hostages. One who was released later said the hostages called the group "the Beatles" because of their British accents.

Foley's parents said they had been working with the FBI to find and free their son, an effort that helped start what Holder on Thursday called "an open investigation and one that we will be pursuing very vigorously."

The Islamic State militants had for months demanded $132.5 million from Foley's parents and political concessions from Washington.

A senior official in President Barack Obama's administration said Thursday that the Islamic State had made a "range of requests" from the U.S. for Foley's release, including changes in American policy and posture in the Mideast.

At the State Department, deputy spokesman Marie Harf said the militancy -- which controls a swath of land across northern Syria and Iraq -- has collected millions of dollars in ransoms so far this year alone.

"We do not make concessions to terrorists," Harf said. "We do not pay ransoms."

"The United States government believes very strongly that paying ransom to terrorists gives them a tool in the form of financing that helps them propagate what they're doing," she said. "And so we believe very strongly that we don't do that, for that reason."

The group also sent an email demanding $132.5 million in ransom to the news website GlobalPost, its director said Thursday. Foley was working for GlobalPost when he disappeared in Syria in November 2012.

Philip Balboni, president and chief executive of the website, did not comment on how GlobalPost responded to the ransom demand. However, he has said that the demand was forwarded to the proper authorities.

The USAPATRIOT Act prohibits any payment or assistance to terrorist groups that could boost their support. The families of three Americans held by a rebel group in Colombia for five years, for example, were repeatedly advised against sending even medication and sneakers to the hostages to avoid potentially breaking the law.

In addition, the U.S. and Britain secured a United Nations Security Council resolution in January appealing to governments not to pay ransom to terrorist groups. The Group of Eight, a bloc of some of the world's most developed economies, made the same pledge a year ago, also under U.S. and British pressure.

But the policy is being questioned in the wake of Foley's killing.

U.S. special operations forces had tried this summer to rescue hostages held in Syria after the ransom demands were made, but the mission was not successful because the hostages had been moved, White House officials said.

Although the Foley family expressed gratitude to Obama for the efforts to rescue James Foley, his parents hesitated Wednesday when asked whether the U.S. government had done enough to bring him back safely.

"No," his brother Michael then interjected.

More than 80 journalists have been abducted in Syria, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which said that is an unprecedented number going back to the group's founding in 1981. The committee estimates that about 20 journalists, the majority of whom are Syrians, are missing in the country.

The issue of ransom has become increasingly divisive because groups such as the Islamic State are financing their operations through such payments. Earlier this year, the Islamic State released several Spanish and French journalists, reportedly in exchange for large ransoms.

The U.S. policy puts Obama in a difficult situation because the Islamic State also showed on video that it has another missing American journalist, Steven Sotloff.

"The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision," a masked man on the video says, according to SITE Intelligence Group. It was originally thought that that decision meant whether to continue airstrikes in Iraq, but analysts said it could refer to the decision on whether to pay ransom.

Whether to Hit Syria

As the debate over ransoms heated up, the debate over how to stop the spread of the militants in Iraq and Syria continued.

U.S. airstrikes have helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces regain their footing in Iraq, but the well-resourced Islamic State militants can be expected to regroup and stage a new offensive, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.

Speaking alongside Hagel at a Pentagon news conference, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said that although the Islamic State can be contained, it cannot be defeated without attacking it in Syria.

Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this would not necessarily require airstrikes by the U.S., although Hagel appeared to leave open that possibility by saying, "We're looking at all options."

Citing the recapture this week of the Mosul Dam that had been in Islamic State militants' hands, Hagel credited U.S. bombing as well as U.S. arms supplies to Iraqi and Kurdish forces and international humanitarian assistance to the thousands of Iraqis displaced across northern Iraq.

"Overall, these operations have stalled ISIL's momentum and enabled Iraqi and Kurdish forces to regain their footing and take the initiative," Hagel said, using an acronym referring to the Islamic State group, an al-Qaida breakaway group.

Dempsey, who served multiple tours in Iraq during the 2003-11 war, was pointed in his comments about what it would take to ultimately defeat the Islamic State.

"They can be contained, not in perpetuity," Dempsey said. "This is an organization that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision and which will eventually have to be defeated.

"To your question, can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization which resides in Syria? The answer is no. That will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essentially at this point a nonexistent border.

"And that will come when we have a coalition in the region that takes on the task of defeating ISIS over time," Dempsey added, using another acronym for the group. "ISIS will only truly be defeated when it's rejected by the 20 million disenfranchised Sunni that happen to reside between Damascus and Baghdad."

Neither Hagel nor Dempsey gave any indication of an imminent change in the U.S. military approach in Iraq, which Obama has said will include further airstrikes but not the introduction of American ground forces.

The Pentagon on Thursday said U.S. warplanes had launched six airstrikes overnight to help solidify Iraqi and Kurdish forces' efforts to retake and maintain control of the Mosul Dam.

It said the latest strikes destroyed or damaged three Humvees, multiple roadside bombs and another insurgent vehicle. The attacks raised to 90 the number of U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq since Aug. 8. Fifty-seven of the 90 have been in support of Iraqi forces near the Mosul Dam.

Lawmakers Weigh In

After Foley's killing came to light, many Republican lawmakers responded by assailing the Obama administration' s limited airstrikes in Iraq and its refusal to target Islamic State bases in neighboring Syria.

"The president's rhetoric was excellent, but he didn't outline steps to stop the slaughter," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of Obama's harshest foreign policy critics, said in a telephone interview. "The strategy should be to launch all-out air attacks in Iraq and Syria to defeat ISIL," he said.

Other Republicans echoed that message. "The Iraqis have already demonstrated that they cannot stop them on their own," said Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., a House Intelligence Committee member and former Army officer. "The president's current path of action has been far too limited to make a difference."

Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said the U.S. must aggressively arm the Islamic State's opponents. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called Obama's approach "piecemeal."

Some Democrats, too, pushed for expanding U.S. military action into Syria. "Otherwise, they will continue to threaten Americans and the interests of our country," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

Others, however, expressed caution and said the president was reacting appropriately.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and House Intelligence Committee member, said the administration has to be on guard against mission creep after launching operations to protect Americans and provide humanitarian relief. The reasons have since expanded to guarding Iraqi infrastructure and solidifying Iraq's new government, he said.

"The mission already crept a bit," Schiff said in a telephone interview. "The administration would be wise to not get sucked in. That's going to be very hard."

Outside the U.S., reaction to Foley's killing also has been mixed, with nations from the Mideast to Europe expressing anger at the extremists and fears about the flow of foreign fighters joining their ranks, but no consensus about how to deal with the problem.

The international police agency Interpol said Thursday that it wants a globally coordinated push to stem the tide of international fighters joining the Islamic State. Up to now, actions against them have been decided largely at a national level.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Moussawi expressed hope that the international attention could produce a consensus on what to do next.

"The world must unite to eradicate this organization and those alike. It is supported by countries, organizations and individuals and it cannot be eliminated unless we fight this extremism in all possible ways," he said.

Interpol didn't give any specific recommendations but is particularly concerned that a man who appears in a video of Foley's death may be British.

That highlights "the need for a multilateral response against the terror threat posed by radicalized transnational fighters traveling to conflict zones," Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble said.

More than 1,000 radicals from Europe have joined militant fighters in Syria and Iraq, and Interpol has long warned of the threat such fighters pose. European governments worry those radicals could stage attacks when they get home and have introduced new anti-terrorism measures to try to catch them or stop them from leaving in the first place.

Information for this article was contributed by Richard A. Serrano of Tribune Washington Bureau; by Lara Jakes, Ellen Knickmeyer, Josh Lederman, Deb Riechmann, Michael Melia, Greg Keller, Robert Burns, Bradley Klapper, Angela Charlton, Jill Lawless, Juergen Baetz, Vivian Salama, Adam Schreck, Frank Jordans, Ciaran Giles, Elena Becatoros and staff members of The Associated Press; and by John Walcott, Lisa Lerer, David Lerman, Elizabeth Wasserman, Tony Capaccio, Robert Hutton and Christopher Kingdon of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 08/22/2014

Upcoming Events