Missing journalist James Wright Foley is seen being beheaded by an ISIS soldier in a video uploaded to the Internet. Foley went missing in November of 2012 after being taken hostage at gunpoint while reporting from Taftanaz, in northern Syria, for the agency GlobalPost.

The video has been deemed as genuine by the United States National Security Council. Shaved bald and dressed in bright orange, Foley is seen on his knees in a desert landscape with a black-clad, cowled ISIS fighter standing next to him, holding a knife. 

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Before his murder, Foley, who appears to be bound, addresses the camera and blames the recent American bombings of ISIS targets for his death and for future ISIS retaliation on Americans. It is highly likely his last words were coerced.

Struggling to speak, Foley is quoted as saying:

"I call on my friends family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the US government. For what will happen to me is only a result of their complacency and criminality.

"My message to my beloved parents: Save me some dignity and don't accept any [unintelligible] compensation for my death from the same people who effectively hit the last nail in my coffin with a recent aerial campaign in Iraq.

"I call on my brother John, who is/was [unintelligible] member of the US Air Force, think about what you are doing, think about lives you destroy including those of your own family. 

"I call on you, John, think about who made the decision to bomb Iraq recently and kill those people, whoever they may have been. 

"Think John, who did they really kill? Did they think about me, you our family when they made that decision?

"I died that day John, when your colleagues dropped that bomb on those people. They signed my death certificate.

"I wish I had more time. I wish I could have the hope of freedom and see my family once again. But that ship has sailed. I guess all in all, I wish I wasn't American."

Initially posted to YouTube, the video would soon be taken down, but not before world outlets found it and reported the murder. After Foley's "confession," the ISIS executioner rants against the United States in English and in what may be a London accent. He then proceeds to cut Foley's head off, placing the head on top of the body. The video ends a few seconds later.

Forces of the Islamic Caliphate, or ISIS, control a large swath of territory in northern Iraq and western Syria. Continued massacres against religious minorities and the very real threat of the ISIS army taking Baghdad prompted US air strikes that beat back ISIS forces long enough for Iraqi and Kurdish land troops to gain ground, including a strategic damn near the city of Mosul. Unlike other terrorist groups, ISIS has not yet formally targeted Western or American targets.

Foley's parents actively worked for two years to free their son, appealing to both the White House and ISIS itself. Foley was taken captive while covering the uprising in Libya that saw the fall of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

TagsJames Wright Foley, ISIS, beheaded