“The voice of a person claiming to be Goto speaks over the image, saying in English that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is to blame for Yukawa’s death.” Of course. Islamic jihadists don’t believe that they are ever to blame for anything. Everything they do is the fault of the Infidels. And all too many Infidels aid them in this impression by swallowing their claims whole and fronting for the assertion that if the Infidels just curtailed the behavior the jihadis disliked, all would be well. In other words, surrender will bring peace.
“ISIS apparently demands release of terrorist to spare Japanese hostage,” by Jethro Mullen and Junko Ogura, CNN, January 26, 2015:
Tokyo (CNN)ISIS appears to have beheaded one of its Japanese hostages and is demanding the release of a convicted terrorist in Jordan to spare the other.
A video file posted online Saturday by a known ISIS supporter shows an image of one hostage, Kenji Goto, holding a photo of what appears to be the corpse of his fellow captive, Haruna Yukawa.
The voice of a person claiming to be Goto speaks over the image, saying in English that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is to blame for Yukawa’s death.
“You were given a deadline,” he says, referring to ISIS’ earlier demand that Japan pay $200 million by Friday to save the lives of the two hostages.
The voice then announces a new ultimatum: the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman facing the death penalty in Jordan for her role in a series of bombings in 2005 that killed dozens of people at hotels in the Arab kingdom.
Al-Bayan Radio, an ISIS-affiliated online station, reported the extremist group’s killing of Yukawa and the prisoner swap demand for Goto in its newscast Sunday. It didn’t identify Goto by name.
‘Outrageous and impermissible’
Abe condemned the apparent killing of Yukawa and called for Goto to be released immediately.
“Such act of terrorism is outrageous and impermissible, which causes me nothing but strong indignation,” he said.
Experts are analyzing the video, which seems “highly credible,” Abe said, an assessment shared by U.S. authorities, who said they had no reason to doubt its authenticity.
But Goto’s stepfather, Yukio Ishido, raised doubts about whether it was his stepson’s voice in the video.
“I get the sense it’s not his voice,” he told reporters. “I’ve heard his English a couple times. I felt it was a bit different.”
Abe declined to comment on how his government would respond to the new demand, which doesn’t appear to have a clear deadline.
“I would be surprised if the Jordanian government or Japan really pushed forward and released this female suicide bomber as ISIS has requested,” said CNN global affairs analyst David Rohde, referring to al-Rishawi, whose explosives failed to go off in the hotel attack in which she participated.
After ISIS released the first video of the hostages Tuesday, Japan set up a crisis center in Jordan and said it was trying to communicate with the militant group through third parties, such as governments in the region and tribal leaders.
Japanese officials declined to explicitly rule out paying a ransom but said they wouldn’t yield to terrorism. They stressed that an aid package Abe had pledged to countries affected by ISIS, cited by the militant group as the reason for the huge ransom demand, was only for humanitarian purposes….
Ayatrollah says
Pbuh was never responsible for anything. So isis and friends are following him when they Blaim others for what they do. Soon they will ask for major hussan to be released. I would if I were them.
EYESOPEN says
Why? Hassan is now a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair, and unable to even dress himself, etc.
Don McKellar says
ISIS must realize by now that they are wasting their time with Japanese hostages.
But then again, they are hopelessly ignorant and arogant inbred moslems…
Jay Boo says
Grievance mongering 101
It all began with Islam’s inventor Muhammad.
He would throw temper tantrums and repeatedly threaten to throw himself off a cliff in suicide until he got to have his way to get his wealthy first wife give in to his constant neediness.
Notice —
In battle though he never offered to (martyr himself) which proves beyond any doubt that his earlier threat to commit suicide were only a pathetic bluff and an excuse to live off the overly generous allowance of a wealthy woman.
Angemon says
Typical mahomedan deflection . So the japanese PM – not the japanese government, the Japanese PM – is to blame because he couldn’t – or wouldn’t – pay the ransom, eh? Too bad they don’t apply that same logic to other situations – for example, the blame for the bombings of islamic state territory by Western nation air forces lies not
with those Western nations but with the islamic state: if they retreated from the land they stole they wouldn’t get a missile to the head.
I feel sorry for the hostage they killed, but the japanese PM did what was best for his country – he refused to give in to terrorists and by doing so he may have prevented other japanese from being abducted for ransom , either by the islamic state itself or by any other islamic organization who might sell them, or give them as tribute, to the IS. The blame for Yukawa’s death lies directly with the islamic state and islamic orthodoxy, and indirectly with any organization and/or person who perpetuates the debunked idea that poverty and political grievances, not religion, are to blame for islamic terrorism.
If anything, the islamic state has just made it more difficult to get ransom money from any given state in the future – they threated to kill both hostages and they ended up killing one and having the other up for trade.
Stuart Smith says
Swap her for the Japanese hostage, but inject her with HIV / AIDS black Death, Plague, Ebola galloping cock rot and anything nasty that spreads throughout these barbarians. No problem.
Isabellathecrusader says
Not a good idea. Jihadists are like gray hairs, you pull one out and five more show up in its place.
Semeru says
Some trivia
The woman in the photo is
Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi s a suicide bomber, took part in the 2005 Amman bombings in Jordan but survived when her explosive belt failed to detonate. She was the wife of Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, who killed 38 people during a wedding party in the bombings at the Amman Radisson hotel, and is reportedly the sister of a former close aide of deceased al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab
She was later captured by Jordanian authorities and confessed on national television. She was shown making a videotaped confession with an apparent suicide bomb device around her and a detonator in hand showing that the device failed to explode, but later retracted her confession.
She was sentenced to death by hanging by a Jordanian military court on 21 September 2006. She appealed against this conviction but her appeal was dismissed in January 2007. As of 4 October 2010, she was in the process of appeal of her sentence
One of the victims was Moustapha Al Akkad was a Syrian American film producer and director, best known for producing the original series of Halloween films and directing Mohammad, Messenger of God and Lion of the Desert. He was killed along with his daughter Rima Al Akkad Monla in 2005 in Amman, Jordan by a suicide bomber
jay says
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Japan was the ‘sleeping giant’ of this world war? And they suddenly just rose up and did what everyone should have done years ago, which of course then would lead others to follow and join? Yeah, fantasy I know, but it’s nice to hope for a country allied with us that isn’t turning into a weak socialist crap hole to stand up, since America was castrated sometime in the 70s and has long dropped the ball. Japan has some impressive imperalistic powers brewing on that island, maybe its time they came back. Might get them breeding again too.
Matthieu Baudin says
Hard as the hostage saga is to stomach, Japan is blessed by the absence of any home grown Jihad movement. It is now the only leading developed country to have escaped the spectre of Islamic fanaticism amongst its own population. Just stop for a moment to reflect upon this wonderful achievement by the Japanese people; not to have to wallow around, forever watching their backs, as the rest of us have to do day in and day out. Perhaps Taiwan and South Korea are also part of this lucky group, maybe also Singapore if their Muslim minority continues to live firmly within the law.