OTHER HOSTAGES
Among others held by the Islamic State:
• Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh. The 26-year-old Jordanian pilot is the first foreign military pilot to fall into Islamic State hands since an international coalition began its aerial campaign against the group in September.
• John Cantlie. The British photojournalist has appeared in several Islamic State propaganda videos delivering statements for the group.
• An unidentified American woman. She was captured last year in Syria while working for aid groups. U.S. officials have asked that the woman not be identified out of fears for her safety.
— Associated Press
The other is often described in Japanese news stories as a mentally ill military wannabe who was well-known among moderate Syrian rebels as a war tourist who enjoyed traveling to the front lines.
Tuesday, they became the latest hostages to be threatened with death by the Islamic State in an online video that felt familiar in its brutality and setting — men in orange jumpsuits menaced by a black-garbed, knife-wielding, English-speaking terrorist — but with an important difference: a demand for a $200 million ransom that was both staggering in its size and the first time the Islamic State has openly offered to trade lives for money.
The amount was apparently selected to match a recent pledge by Japan to provide $200 million in aid to countries affected by the Islamic State crisis.
“To the Japanese public, just as how your government has made the foolish decision to pay $200 million to fight the Islamic State, you now have 72 hours to pressure your government into making a wise decision by paying the $200 million to save the lives of your citizens,” said the masked militant, who appeared to be the same English-speaking jihadi implicated in the beheadings of four other hostages: Foley, American freelance journalist Steven Sotloff and British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines. An American aid worker, Peter Kassig, also was executed and his head displayed in another video, but the manner of his death is uncertain.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut short a state trip to Israel to return home to confront the crisis. Before he left Jerusalem, he said Japan would work hard to secure the release of the two hostages but cryptically added that Japan would “never give in to terrorism.”
The $200 million represents one of the largest ransom demands in modern history, and the 72-hour deadline led a private security contractor who is familiar with Islamic State kidnappings to conclude that the demand was not made in good faith.
“That’s not enough time to put together the money and deliver it,” said the contractor, who spoke only anonymously because of his involvement in other hostage cases. “I can only conclude that this is another shock tactic by the group, as they’re killed most of their Western hostages and want to return to reminding the world of their brutality.”
Japan is thought to have paid ransoms before, but it is unclear whether it would be willing to do so this time.
Private security specialists in kidnapping — who refused to be identified, as they often work along the border between Syria and Turkey — confirmed a Japanese news report that the journalist, Kenji Goto, had entered Islamic State territory in October despite heavy news coverage of the executions of Foley, Sotloff and the two British aid workers.
“He thought being Japanese would protect him, and he was trying to get an exclusive interview with members of the group,” said one security contractor familiar with the efforts to win Goto’s release.
The other, Haruna Yukawa, "would just show up with a camera and sometimes a gun and say he was a journalist or a consultant, but it was obvious there was something wrong with the man," said Abu Anas, a onetime fighter with a moderate rebel group that's since disbanded. "A lot of people ended up not wanting him around because he was crazy."
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