British journalist John Cantlie is used by the IS as a spokesperson in their latest video.
On Thursday, the Islamic State released a video of their prisoner: British journalist John Cantlie. The video spans three minutes and twenty-one seconds and features Cantlie in an orange jumpsuit, sitting behind a desk and explaining the “truths” of the Islamic State. No one else is in the scene besides Cantlie.
The video is titled “Lend Me Your Ears” and is directed towards western countries, specifically the United States and Britain. Cantlie addresses the “public” of both Britain and the U.S. to “act now” in order to change the “sequence of events” that will transpire between the Islamic State and the two countries.
Cantlie begins by explaining he is, “a British journalist who used to work for some of the bigger newspapers and magazines in the U.K.” He then mentions his capture by the Islamic State back in 2012 and says, “nearly two years later, many things have changed including the expansion of the Islamic State, to include large areas of eastern Syria and western Iraq. A land mass bigger than Britain and many other nations.”
He attempts to ensure his sincerity. “Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: ‘He’s only doing this because he’s a prisoner. He’s got a gun pointed at his head and he’s being forced to do this.’ Right? Well, it’s true. I am a prisoner, that I cannot deny,” he said.
“But seeing as I’ve been abandoned by my government and my fate now lies in the hands of the Islamic State, I have nothing to lose. Maybe I will live and maybe I will die, but I want to take this opportunity to convey some facts that you can verify. Facts that if you contemplate, might help preserving lives.”
Cantlie then claims that he wants to show the truth. “The western media tries to drag the public back to the abyss of another war with the Islamic State,” he said. “An unwinnable war.”
The focus is later shifted towards the U.S. and Britain. Cantlie explains that these two countries are the only countries that have not paid ransom for the Islamic State’s captives. He states that the European countries (besides Britain) had “negotiated with the Islamic State and got their people home, while the British and Americans were left behind.”
Cantlie says this is the first video in a series of “programs” by the Islamic State.
The release of the video comes at a time when the U.S. is moving towards increased military involvement in Syria to combat the Islamic State. Cantlie is among several U.S. and British captives that were portrayed in IS videos. American journalists James Foley and Steven J. Sotloff, along with British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines, were beheaded in those videos.
