ISIS hostages faced torture, dashed hopes: Freed cellmates
28 Oct 2014 5:26 AM IST
The hostages were taken out of their cell one by one. In a private room, their captors asked each of them three intimate questions, a standard technique used to obtain proof that a prisoner is still alive in a kidnapping negotiation.
James Foley returned to the cell he shared with nearly two dozen other Western hostages and collapsed in tears of joy. The questions his kidnappers had asked were so personal (‘Who cried at your brother’s wedding?’ ‘Who was the captain of your high school soccer team?’) that he knew they were finally in touch with his family.It was December 2013, and more than a year had passed since Foley vanished on a road in northern Syria. Finally, his worried parents would know he was alive, he told his fellow captives. His government, he believed, would soon negotiate his release.
What appeared to be a turning point was in fact the start of a downward spiral for Foley that ended in August when he was forced to his knees somewhere in the bald hills of Syria and beheaded as a camera rolled.
His videotaped death was a very public end to a hidden ordeal.The story of what happened in the Islamic State’s underground network of prisons in Syria is one of excruciating suffering. Foley and his fellow hostages were routinely beaten and subjected to waterboarding. For months, they were starved and threatened with execution by one group of fighters, only to be handed off to another group that brought them sweets and contemplated freeing them.
The prisoners banded together, playing games to pass the hours, but as conditions grew more desperate, they turned on one another. Some, including Foley, sought comfort in the faith of their captors, embracing Islam. Their captivity coincided with the rise of the group that came to be known as ISIS out of the chaos of the Syrian civil war. It did not exist on the day Foley was abducted, but it slowly grew to become the most powerful and feared rebel movement in the region. By the second year of Foley’s imprisonment, the group had amassed close to two dozen hostages and devised a strategy to trade them for cash.
James Foley returned to the cell he shared with nearly two dozen other Western hostages and collapsed in tears of joy. The questions his kidnappers had asked were so personal (‘Who cried at your brother’s wedding?’ ‘Who was the captain of your high school soccer team?’) that he knew they were finally in touch with his family.It was December 2013, and more than a year had passed since Foley vanished on a road in northern Syria. Finally, his worried parents would know he was alive, he told his fellow captives. His government, he believed, would soon negotiate his release.
What appeared to be a turning point was in fact the start of a downward spiral for Foley that ended in August when he was forced to his knees somewhere in the bald hills of Syria and beheaded as a camera rolled.
His videotaped death was a very public end to a hidden ordeal.The story of what happened in the Islamic State’s underground network of prisons in Syria is one of excruciating suffering. Foley and his fellow hostages were routinely beaten and subjected to waterboarding. For months, they were starved and threatened with execution by one group of fighters, only to be handed off to another group that brought them sweets and contemplated freeing them.
The prisoners banded together, playing games to pass the hours, but as conditions grew more desperate, they turned on one another. Some, including Foley, sought comfort in the faith of their captors, embracing Islam. Their captivity coincided with the rise of the group that came to be known as ISIS out of the chaos of the Syrian civil war. It did not exist on the day Foley was abducted, but it slowly grew to become the most powerful and feared rebel movement in the region. By the second year of Foley’s imprisonment, the group had amassed close to two dozen hostages and devised a strategy to trade them for cash.
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