Were Journalists Spying for the U.S. and Israel?

• Two Americans allegedly executed by IS militants may have been more than just mere journalists.

By Ronald L. Ray —

Videos of two American journalists working in Syria were released recently that purportedly showed their execution by beheading allegedly by members of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. However, several facts suggest that James Wright “Jim” Foley and Steven Joel Sotloff may have been more than just frontline war reporters. They may have been spies for the United States and Israel. 

Foley began work as a photojournalist in 2009 for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on projects in Iraq. He reported subsequently from Afghanistan, and in 2011 from Libya, where he was held for 44 days by militia loyal to former Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi, who was assassinated by U.S.-backed rebels. In November 2012, Foley was reportedly captured by Islamic militia while working in Syria and interned for almost two years prior to his alleged execution.

Strangely, during this period, Foley allegedly was being held by Shabiha militia supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at least part of the time at a Syrian air force base. So how did he end up in the hands of ISIS, his supposed executioners who fought against Assad?

Was suspicion deliberately thrown onto Assad’s government by the U.S. government for propaganda purposes?

Supposedly, there were failed attempts to rescue Foley by U.S. Special Forces. But was the U.S. really always aware that Foley was in ISIS hands, or was there something more bizarre going on?

Shortly before his death, ISIS supposedly released a threat to execute Foley—and there was no surprise from the family over the sudden “change” in captors. What is going on here?

It is long established that journalists are recruited periodically by spy agencies. But few realize that USAID is also an intelligence front. An April 4, 2014 Associated Press (AP) article entitled “U.S. secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest,” reported that this “humanitarian” agency, not the Central Intelligence Agency, covertly invented an online social networking and microblogging service named ZunZuneo, to foment revolution against Cuba’s communist government. USAID categorically denied this in an April 7 post on their website.

Between Foley’s association with USAID and his almost swashbuckling reporting presence at critical moments in countries destabilized by the U.S. and Israel, there is reason to suspect that Foley was a spy. Significantly, ISIS’s top recruiter, Imam Bilal Bosnic, declared his spy status was “widely known” and thus a justification for Foley’s execution.

Likewise, Sotloff, a Florida Jew whose dual Israeli-American citizenship was concealed during his year of captivity by a massive Zionist media conspiracy, seems even more likely to have been involved in espionage—but for the Mossad.

Sotloff lived in Israel from 2005 to 2008, where he graduated in government studies from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC). It is speculated that he served in the Israel Defense Forces.

Less known, however, is that the IDC is home to a major Zionist propaganda institution, the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT). ICT has substantial connections to intelligence agencies, governments, military, police and major corporations worldwide. IDC alumni are placed in important positions across America, so it is reasonable to suppose that Sotloff could have been recruited there.

The American-Israeli journalist knew Arabic well and traveled throughout much of the Middle East with a Yemeni mobile telephone number, sometimes pretending to be a secular Muslim. He had been arrested in 2011 as a possible spy by Qadaffi’s forces in Libya. ISIS also seems to have suspected him of espionage.

During his last captivity, high-level American Zionists and the Israeli government tried to negotiate with ISIS, with Mossad apparently even offering $10 million for Sotloff’s release. Clearly, he was no ordinary Jew to them. What made a mere reporter worth so much money—money ISIS refused?

The U.S. and Israeli governments likely will never admit to any intelligence activities by the two men, but the facts suggest a strong probability of their involvement. Beyond dispute, though, is that the media’s pack mentality is now being manipulated through the men’s deaths to gin up even more hatred and warfare in the Middle East.

Ronald L. Ray is a freelance author and an assistant editor of THE BARNES REVIEW. He is a descendant of several patriots of the American War for Independence.