Also kidnapped in 2012 and 2013 were American journalists Austin Tice and Steven Sotloff, as well as humanitarian aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. After nearly two years of torture and starvation, Jim was publicly beheaded by his ISIS captors in 2014. The deaths in captivity of Steven, Peter and Kayla followed. Austin's whereabouts remain unknown.
Americans are increasingly being targeted while working and traveling abroad. Of the 90 Western hostages murdered since 2001,
41 were American citizens.
Jim was passionate about press freedom and human rights. He understood that true investigative journalism gives voice to those oppressed by war, poverty and inequity -- and that such journalism is essential to our freedom.
Jim aspired to be a man of moral courage. He challenges us daily to aspire to make this a better world.
We call on all Americans to have the moral courage to expect justice for those who seek to destroy the best of America, our free press and our compassion for those not free.
The
James W. Foley Legacy Foundation seeks to make the safe return of our citizens detained or kidnapped abroad a national priority. It also collaborates with other organizations to find ways to protect the vulnerable and increasing numbers of independent conflict journalists and to educate Americans regarding these threats to our freedom.
The Foley Foundation works with our government to urge the return of all Americans in captivity and collaborates with others to create A Culture of Safety alliance, or ACOS. ACOS
is a historical alliance of media companies, press freedom nonprofits and freelance journalists to protect the increasing number of independent conflict journalists.
It has created an online curriculum for schools of journalism that stresses risk assessment, safety training and digital security, and raises awareness of these very real threats to our Western free societies.
We are heartened by the 2015
Presidential Policy Directive-30 that established the White House Hostage Response Group, the
Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell and
Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. These dedicated groups work together to
strategize the freeing of Americans kidnapped abroad.
The Hostage Response Group is led by a special assistant to President Trump and Tom Bossert, senior director for counterterrorism, while the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell is an interagency operational group for the recovery of US national hostages abroad, led by the FBI Special Agent Robert Saale. The Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs senior position remains vacant, though
acting envoy Julia Nesheiwat continues diplomatic outreach.
We applaud the
Trump White House for securing the release of Aya Hijazi from Egypt,
Caitlan Coleman from Pakistan, and Otto Warmbier from North Korea; but urgently request the naming of a special presidential envoy for hostage affairs to augment diplomatic efforts for long-held Americans such as Austin Tice (held since 2012) and Robert Levinson (since 2007).
It has now been three long years since Jim's brutal murder. We await justice for him. We are told to trust that our government is working to bring Jim's captors to justice. Yet no attorney has been named to prioritize the search for justice. On a recent call with our FBI field agent and Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell family engagement person, we were told that despite the freeing of
Raqqa and
Mosul from ISIS control, there is no new information regarding Jim's captors.
Media martyrs: Among those who died while working as journalists in the past 15 years