Japan, US condemn unverified video claiming IS hostage dead

[webfact]

Japan, US condemn unverified video claiming IS hostage dead
MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press
ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe angrily demanded Sunday that the extremist Islamic State group release a Japanese journalist it is holding hostage after a new online video purported to show that another hostage had been killed.

While the Japanese government and others cast doubt on the authenticity of the video, President Barack Obama issued a statement condemning what he called "the brutal murder" of one of the hostages. His statement did not say how the United States knows that Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer, is dead, and the Japanese government still was trying to verify the video.

Obama said in his statement that the United States will stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Japan and called for the immediate release of the second Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto. Obama's statement was issued at Ramstein Air Base in Germany as the president was en route to India for a visit.

The Japanese government had no immediate comment on Obama's statement. However, a statement issued by Abe in English and Arabic demanded the safe release only of Goto.

The message in the video seen Saturday demanded a prisoner exchange for the 47-year-old Goto. But the post was deleted quickly Saturday, and militants on a website affiliated with the Islamic State group questioned its veracity.

Still, Abe said after a late-night Cabinet meeting: "Such an act of terrorism is outrageous and impermissible and causes me nothing but strong indignation. I resolutely condemn this act."

The Associated Press could not verify the contents of the message, which varied greatly from previous videos released by the Islamic State group, which now holds a third of both Syria and Iraq.

The Islamic State group had threatened on Tuesday to behead the men within 72 hours unless it received a $200 million ransom. Kyodo News agency reported that Saturday's video was emailed to Goto's wife.

Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said U.S. intelligence officials were also working to confirm whether it was authentic.

Abe said the government of Japan will not succumb to terrorism and will continue to cooperate with the international community in the fight against terrorism.

"I strongly demand that Mr. Kenji Goto not be harmed and be immediately released," he said.

Japanese diplomats left Syria as the civil war there escalated, compounding the difficulty of reaching the militants holding the hostages.

Abe spoke by phone with Jordanian King Abdullah II on Saturday, the state-run Petra news agency reported, without elaborating on what they discussed. He also called the two hostages' families.

Goto's mother, Junko Ishido, told Japanese public broadcaster NHK in a televised interview that in the purported message her son, "seemed to be taking seriously what may be happening to him as well."

"I'm petrified," Ishido said. "He has children. I'm praying he will return soon, and that's all I want."

But Ishido also was skeptical about the voice claiming to be Goto. "Kenji's English is very good. He should sound more fluent," she said.

One militant on the Islamic State-affiliated website warned that Saturday's new message was fake, while another said that the message was intended only to go to the Japanese journalist's family.

A third militant on the website noted that the video was not issued by al-Furqan, which is one of the media arms of the Islamic State group and has issued past videos involving hostages and beheadings. Saturday's message did not bear al-Furqan's logo.

The militants on the website post comments using pseudonyms, so their identities could not be independently confirmed by the AP. However, their confusion over the video matched that of Japanese officials and outside observers.

Japanese officials have not directly said whether they are considering paying any ransom. Japan has joined other major industrial nations in opposing ransom payments. U.S. and British officials said they advised against paying.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida expressed sympathy for what Yukawa's family was going through after the release of the video.

"Fully aware of the unbearable pain and sorrow that his family must be feeling, I am at a loss for words," Kishida said.

Kishida said he planned to issue a safety warning to all Japanese citizens traveling outside the country through its embassies around the world.

Nobuo Kimoto, a business adviser to Yukawa, told the Japanese broadcaster NHK: "I was hoping he would be released, or at least that his life would not be taken."

"I wish this was some kind of a mistake," he said.

Yukawa was captured last summer, and Goto is thought to have been seized in late October after going to Syria to try to rescue him.
___

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Kaori Hitomi in Tokyo, and White House Correspondent Julie Pace at Ramstein Air Base, Germany contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-01-25

[OZEMADE]

Obama's comments, echoed Saturday by British Prime Minister David Cameron who condemned the group's "murderous barbarity," suggested that Western intelligence had authenticated the video posted online.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/26088725/japan-scrambles-to-verify-video-claiming-hostage-murder/

[Scott]

Troll posts removed.

[Fat Haggis]

Anyone who is held captive by ISIS are doomed and their fate sealed, they're not interested in "bartering", they don't need any ransom money, what they do need is wiped from the face of the earth, and that POS "English John" captured alive, and then handed over to the Pesh, and his own decapitation aired online!!

[DLock]

"I strongly demand that Mr. Kenji Goto not be harmed and be immediately released," he said.

Yeah, I don't think that treating IS like children is going to work somehow.

These people need to wiped of the face of the planet before they get much larger, kill more people and carry out more terrorist attacks.

[Nemesis7]

These days the media and technology can do what not? whats real and whats fake hard to understand.

[lee b]

Lets hope the world finds away to put to death every single murdering member of ISIS.

[wabothai]

Wipe out the folks who provide or selling or providing Isis with weapons, they are more guilty.

[EyesWideOpen]

Wipe out the folks who provide or selling or providing Isis with weapons, they are more guilty.

Agreed. Put them all back on camels and fighting with swords.

[simple1]

Anyone who is held captive by ISIS are doomed and their fate sealed, they're not interested in "bartering", they don't need any ransom money, what they do need is wiped from the face of the earth, and that POS "English John" captured alive, and then handed over to the Pesh, and his own decapitation aired online!!

Events have proven your claim untrue. It is known, in the public domain, that at a minimum authorities in Turkey, France and Italy have 'bartered' for the release of their nationals.

[neverdie]

DEATH to ISIS !

[Scott]

Conspiracy post and reply removed.

[cookee68]

I don't know why they keep giving this ISIS group all the publicity they crave, why cant they shut down most of their web sites, instead of advertising them for other people to look at,

[Morch]

Agreed. Put them all back on camels and fighting with swords.

Or just let the camels sort it out....

Camel wrestling on Turkey's Aegean coast

The Aegean coast of Turkey is best known for the ruins of Ephesus and Troy, but camel wrestling is just as ancient, and much more colourful

Imagine the crowd at a British music festival, happy despite the rain, cheering, eating overpriced hotdogs, dancing tipsily to the music and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Now imagine this scene taking place near an ancient temple on the coast of Turkey: the air is thick with the smoke of seared camel sausage, Efes beer flows instead of Carling, some wandering Gypsy minstrels have replaced Coldplay and everyone's attention is on the central arena, where two gaudily decorated Arab camels are shuffling around in a mutual headlock.

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/mar/23/turkey-holidays-camel-wrestling-aegean

Do the participants of Turkey's annual Camel Wrestling Festival enjoy it as much as the audience?

On Sunday, more than 20,000 people will gather in Turkey to watch camels do battle in a spectacle that dates back thousands of years. It is, depending on your attachment to the ungainly beasts, a historic cultural institution to be celebrated – or a throwback to an era before animal-rights campaigns when it was OK to starve an animal for three months to make it cross.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/do-the-participants-of-turkeys-annual-camel-wrestling-festival-enjoy-it-as-much-as-the-audience-9065497.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_wrestling

Edited January 26, 2015 by Morch

[Morch]

I don't know why they keep giving this ISIS group all the publicity they crave, why cant they shut down most of their web sites, instead of advertising them for other people to look at,

Maybe because then we'd have topics complaining about silencing the truth, freedom of the press, freedom of speech....

That said, the issue was addressed during the last meeting of coalition members:

But, he said, “we have decided there are things we can do more of,” including beefing up efforts to halt foreign fighters, curb the Islamic State’s finances and publicly counter the group’s social media presence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/british-official-iraq-forces-not-ready-to-face-is-militants/2015/01/22/24562946-a251-11e4-91fc-7dff95a14458_story.html