US President Barack Obama has ordered a review of how Washington can rescue US hostages as intelligence agencies investigated the involvement of Western extremists in the beheading of aid worker Peter Kassig.
The announcement of the review came just 24 hours after the release of a video by the Islamic State (IS) claiming the beheading of Kassig.
He was the third American to be killed by the Islamic State group, following the deaths of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
On Monday, the parents of the 26-year-old Kassig paid tribute to their son and said they would try to “forgive” the extremists.
In the letter from Obama, dated Tuesday last week, Christine Wormuth, the US undersecretary of defense for policy, says the review will focus “on examining family engagement, intelligence collection and diplomatic engagement policies.”
“The president recently directed a comprehensive review of the US government policy on overseas terrorist-related hostage cases,” Wormuth said in the note posted on the Daily Beast news Web site.
The move, Wormuth said, comes “as a result of the increased frequency of hostage-taking of Americans overseas, and the recognition of the dynamic threat posed by specific terrorist groups.”
The killing of Kassig and the simultaneous beheadings of at least 18 Syrian military personnel in the video sparked global horror, with Obama calling it “an act of pure evil.”
Kassig’s parents on Monday called for healing and prayer as they mourned their loss.
“Please allow our small family the time and privacy to mourn, cry and, yes, forgive and begin to heal,” Peter’s father Ed said in an emotional address outside his church.
“Please pray for Abdul-Rahman, or Pete if that’s how you knew him, at sunset this evening,” Ed Kassig said. “Pray also for all people in Syria, in Iraq and around the world that are held against their will.”
Peter’s mother Paula said while their world had been torn apart by the death of their son, they would focus on healing.
“Rather than letting the darkness overwhelm him he has chosen to believe in the good, in himself and in others... One person makes a difference,” she said. “Our hearts are battered, but they will mend. The world is broken, but it will be healed in the end.”
In Kassig’s home state of Indiana, Governor Mike Pence called the killing “an unspeakable act of barbarism.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry also used the word “barbarism” to describe the Islamic State, insisting the world would not be intimidated in the battle against it.
It was the latest in a series of atrocities by Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a Sunni Muslim extremist group that has seized control of large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The video showed the Syrian men kneeling on the ground, each before a separate executioner, whose faces were uncovered.
Among the militants shown beheading the Syrian servicemen were some known foreign fighters, including at least one Frenchman and possibly a Briton, an Australian and a Dane.
French authorities identified one of the executioners as Maxime Hauchard, a 22-year-old from a small village in northern France who left for Syria in August last year.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said “circumstantial evidence confirms the involvement of a Frenchman in the decapitation of Syrian prisoners shown in an IS video released on Sunday.”
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS