Democracy Now!: Possible NBC Cover Up In 2012 Kidnapping Of Richard Engel

Democracy Now!

What is the situation with NBC correspondent Richard Engel’s capture in 2012?

To summarize, Engel said just after his hostage ordeal that he was taken hostage by a Shi’ite militia affiliated with the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, as well as Iran and Hezbollah.

However, it recently emerged that he was taken hostage by Syrian rebels who are possibly associated with the Sunni Free Syrian Army that the U.S. supports.

So he was apparently taken hostage by our allies, not our enemies. The story could have created a shift in foreign policy and public opinion against the Shi’ites of Assad, Iran, and Hezbollah and for the Sunni rebels.

His captivity showed the Sunnis of the Free Syrian Army in a good light and the Shi’ite militias in a bad light, whereas the truth was the opposite.

(Updated article)

I.S. Hostage Kayla Mueller Confirmed Dead; How She Died Not Confirmed

euronews

The United States has confirmed the death of aid worker and ISIL hostage Kayla Mueller.

Her family says they are heartbroken.

It comes four days after her Islamist captors claimed she had been killed by a coalition airstrike by Jordanian fighter jets outside Raqqa, the capital of the extremists’ self-proclaimed caliphate.

President Obama said the U.S. “would find and bring to justice the terrorists who were responsible.”

Was American Hostage Kayla Mueller Killed By Jordanian Airstrikes?

In an online posting Friday, ISIS claimed that American hostage Kayla Mueller died in the group’s de facto capital, Raqqa.

The posting Friday included a picture of a bombed-out building and a claim that hostage Kayla Mueller had been held there. However, the posting did not show a body or provide other proof of death.

Jordanian Government Spokesman Mohammad Al-Momani tells CNN that he thinks the terrorist group ISIS is lying about Mueller’s death.

CNN

Awkward: On Same Day As Sydney Shooting, Mass Shooter Kills Six Near Philadelphia

On the same day as the Sydney hostage crisis, there was a mass shooting at Philadelphia where 6 people were killed.

However, the media seemed to give less coverage to the shooting at Philadelphia – even though more people were killed at Philadelphia.

TYT video.

Algerian Militant Group Related To ISIS Execute French Hostage

Herve Gourdel, a French mountaineer whose life was threatened in a video released by the Caliphate Soldiers, has been killed by the Algerian militant organization. The Caliphate Soldiers have been linked to both al Qaeda and ISIS. Gourdel was 55 and worked as a mountaineering guide, and originally comes from Nice, France.

The Caliphate Soldiers are also known as Jund al-Khilaf.

His friends say Gourdel went to Algeria for a hiking holiday and also to explore a new climbing route.

“I was born in Nice in 1959 and soon discovered the mountain in Mercantour (in the French Alps) with my father and walked the first peaks. So I’ve had one desire: to return as often as possible,” Gourdel once said.

The video was posted on jihadist sites on Wednesday.  The militants said they killed Gourdel because France failed to respond to a 24-hour deadline to stop its military assault on the IS group in Iraq.

Like other ISIS videos, this video does not show the actual execution, though the aftermath is more graphic, and the militants could be described as even more callous.

In the video, the armed men claim to belong to the Islamist militant group Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria, and pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

After Gourdel is killed, the terrorists place his head upon his side, and then put it into a plastic bag and then they hold up the head.

Speaking in New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly meeting, French president Hollande said France would continue its military operations against the IS group in Iraq.

News of the brutal slaying came as the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a US-drafted resolution that compels all countries to adopt laws that would make it a serious crime for their nationals to join jihadist groups such as IS and al Qaeda’s regional branch, the al Nusra Front.

While chairing the UN Security Council session on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama expressed his solidarity with France. Looking at his French counterpart at the table, Obama said, “We stand with you and the French people as you grieve this terrible loss and as you stand up against terror and the defense of liberty.”

France has joined the US in carrying out air strikes against the IS group. On September 19, French fighter jets bombed a fuel and weapons depot outside the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.