Jim: The James Foley Story Page #4

You know, after the family had

kind of settled down,

Jim just went right to business,

right to work.

We had found him a very good

psychologist to talk to,

but he seemed so "well," if you will,

that we didn't push it.

But he was so restless here at home.

He didn't want to be here at home.

[Jim]

Feeling like you survived something,

there's a strange sort of force

that you are drawn back to.

I think that's the absolute reality.

Everything else becomes foreign.

Like, it was strange

coming back to the real world, like

it was weird. It was normal in there.

[Clare] Yeah, if I go to Wal-Mart and

I'm looking at, like literally an entire

aisle full of Tupperware,

it boggles my mind.

There's a deep absurdity

to understanding

the peace that we're lucky

enough to have in this country

and the questions that it raises about

how do we make our money? What is the basis

of our peace, of our economic viability,

of the fact that, you know, I can

look at all of this Tupperware

and someone else, somewhere else is

looking at the ruins of their home?

[Zac] You know, you just start missing like all

the bombs and the fighting and everything.

I just used to love sitting up at

like at night and just listening.

[guns firing at distance]

It's really kind of sick.

But it also... it feels like

super fortunate for being there.

And so you think like, out of 25

million people in your country,

you're the only person who's

got to experience that.

Like f*** man, like how fortunate am I?

Like, you're witnessing history unfolding

and you're just getting this perspective

that is so unique.

I believe that front-line

journalism is important.

Without these photos and videos and

firsthand experience, we can't really...

tell the world how bad it might be.

[singing]

[bomb blasting]

[Reporter] James Foley joins us now live from

inside Northern Syria with more on what he saw.

Tell us more about you were able...

What you were able to witness.

Yes, thank you. You've heard about

indiscriminate shelling, but to see

those bodies left over from a direct

mortar hit was... Was really shocking.

They were civilians and they are

under pretty continuous shelling.

[chanting]

It seemed like he started

thinking about going to Syria

and by the time he mentioned it,

it was like he'd already

kind of made up his mind...

and he said he was going with John

Cantley, who's another colleague,

a British photo journalist that we'd

all met in Libya the year before.

- What's your name?

- Jim.

- John.

- Jim and John.

Johnny, you say I love you, you say.

I don't know.

I really... didn't really...

get into it with Jim. I think

I made it too easy for him.

I mean, it was something

he wanted to do and so...

we were trying to be supportive about

his decision to do that, you know?

You just want to punch him in the face.

You know, in a loving, brotherly way,

you know, but you're like,

"Come on, Jim! Come on!"

[Tom] The last conversation I ever

had with Jim, I said to him, like,

"Jim, man, why do you keep going

back into Syria? Like, I mean,

what's it like?" He's like "It's

crazy, its crazy." I'm like,

"Well, is it more dangerous

than Libya?"

He's like, "Yeah, it's more dangerous than

Libya!" I'm like, "You got captured in Libya!"

You remember, you couldn't

talk him out of it.

[local music playing on radio]

[Jim] You know the thing is,

is there's physical courage, right?

For some reason I have physical courage.

But really, think about it, that's

nothing compared to moral courage.

I can go and get those shots, but if I don't

have the moral courage to challenge authority,

to write about things that are gonna

maybe have reprisals on my career.

If I don't have that moral

courage, we don't have journalism.

Jim chose one story in

particular about this hospital,

The Dar Al Shifaa hospital in Aleppo.

It was actually Jim's idea to

spend a week in that hospital

documenting what the doctors and the

staff there were doing on a daily basis.

[Jim speaking]

From what he and I witnessed, they

were literally shuttling people with

drips and you know, bandages and everything

in these tiny little taxis and cars.

And Jim was the one who came up

with the idea of raising money

to get an ambulance for the hospital.

And he was in touch with everybody

and there was an ambulance

that was like a secondhand

ambulance that was

coming from Austria and Jim and I actually

made one trip in and we saw the ambulance

sitting outside of the hospital.

And that moment of joy on his face

was priceless. He was just like,

"It made it, that's awesome."

[Clare] I would say

the flip side of his willingness

to get out there and do things

is that like, okay, you get

an ambulance into Syria,

some militia is gonna commandeer it and use

it for their own purposes, they're gonna

put an anti aircraft in the back

of it, like go blow sh*t up.

Jim was not focused on that

kind of issue.

Like he would think about what's

the best-case scenario,

not how things could go wrong.

[Nicole]

It becomes very personal because

we have to live amongst

the local population,

and it's such like this brutal,

endless conflict

that you just, you feel so,

kind of alone in the sense that

you can't do anything about it, you

can't do anything for these people.

For the people you've made friends with,

and for the people who took you in

and shared their food with you

and wanted you to play with

their children.

We become the intimate

chroniclers of this conflict.

We don't have bureaus to go back to.

You're there and every moment,

you share with the locals.

And I think there was just this

enormous guilt that rode on Jim's back

that made him feel so compelled

to do much more than just

record video and file it.

There were times where he was

offering up video for free

and I would chastise him for it.

I'd be like, "What are you doing?"

He was like "Nah, you know, whatever,

it's fine, it's all good,"

and "I just want to make sure

the video gets out there."

[Diane] Jim's the kind of guy

who never needed much.

Some of the lifestyle of a

conflict journalist is tough,

but that didn't bother Jim.

The only possessions I think Jim

cared about were books and CDs.

I mean, his camera ultimately.

He'd come home without a toothbrush, just

use whatever toothbrush was available.

Jim could fall asleep anywhere. All he

needed was just a little space on the floor.

He was like a cat.

This is a good one.

[Diane] Over time, you know, he slowly

got rid of his apartment, sold his car.

He just ended up really owning nothing.

So, what he would want for Christmas,

this last time before going to Syria,

he wanted a tough pair of pants.

He really did have less and less

and it didn't bother him at all

because he seemed richer and richer.

[Nicole] There was one day in August,

one Syrian activist

was taking us around this

neighborhood called Bustan Al Kasa,

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