Jim: The James Foley Story Page #6

"and they put John and Jim

into the back of their van."

So I hung up and I just started

crying. I was like, um...

I didn't know if I was gonna see Jim again and

that was the first thought that came to my head.

It was like almost surreal... Just,

this is a bad dream. It's not...

It's not really happening,

you know, it's not happening.

This can't be, you know, this can't

happen again... We can't do this again.

Yeah, it was... You know,

and I dove in just like before.

I felt like, okay, it's going to be 45 to 100

days of hell and then we'll have him back.

In a matter of a week, you could

tell it was very different.

A lot of misinformation as

opposed to last time in Libya,

after a week went by,

we knew where he was,

who to deal with, so we just concentrated

on routes to get to one person.

Here was a mystery right out of a

crime show or something, right?

Where you're trying to piece

together bits of information.

For the next three weeks, there was

just dead ends and false information

and rumors and people being

scared of talking because

they had a suspicion of who

maybe was responsible,

and they didn't want to get

entangled in it.

[Diane] Phil Balboni offered to stand

up a security team to try to find Jim.

So all these people were trying

so hard to get in place,

but it was a very,

very chaotic, confusing time.

[John Jr.] You're on eggshells,

you're just waiting to hear.

It's exhausting and I know Jim

felt guilty for that

and I'm not trying to make him

feel more guilty,

but it's just... It's just a toll

that's taken by the families.

[Brian] What were the hurdles getting

White House and FBI involved?

It's very tough to get action, and I understand

that, you know, the world is a big place,

and so I actually felt guilty sometimes

trying to not to ask too much of them.

You know, Jim made this

decision, you know, but just,

just give it your best attention

and we'll trust you.

That's kind of where it started,

the relationship.

And then I met the first agent

that came over

and it was just a kid out of school

and his first question to me was,

had I asked the regime for assistance?

Are you f***ing kidding me? I called the

regime and asked them for assistance?

No, I hadn't thought of that, thank you.

Thank you very much for that tip.

They told us... They

advised us to be quiet,

because hopefully they could find

him and get him out and such.

So we didn't say anything, so we

went through Christmas and all that,

you know, not telling anyone, but our

closest family that Jim was missing.

In some ways, it was better because

I didn't have to explain it.

Because at times, it could feel

like accusatory, like,

"Well, he was in Syria."

That's not fair, like,

you don't do that with police or firemen or

something like that, who do dangerous jobs.

You don't say, "Well, you were in a

fire, what did you think would happen?"

My friend doesn't need to

explain why he's a journalist.

[Diane] Come the new year,

I couldn't stand it.

I was frantic.

So we chose to go public.

[John Sr.] I appeal to

the people who have Jim,

to give us some information in

terms of his welfare, his health?

It breaks my heart that the

persons who have captured him

don't understand his goodness.

My personal feeling is that

silence helps two people.

One is the government, it doesn't

push them to do more sooner,

and the captors, it allows

them to do whatever they want.

It's difficult now with all the

talk about the Islamic State,

they've become so famous or infamous,

but the Islamic State, ISIS/ISIL

was on nobody's radar at the time.

With a very high degree of confidence,

we now believe that Jim was abducted

by a pro-government militia

group and was subsequently

turned over to Syrian government forces.

This is the first time we've really

heard anything like this, so,

we are very hopeful like

John says, you know?

Well, it turned out we were

dead wrong about that.

[Michael] All the information

upfront was just a bunch of BS.

No one knew what the heck they were

talking about because we had no access.

That whole year, I don't care what anyone

says, all the efforts, all the leads,

all this and that,

we were in the wrong area of the country. You

know, and Syria is about the size of New England,

maybe, a little smaller.

So here you go, Brian, go into

New England, find Jim.

I think the moment I learned

that he had been kidnapped,

I was just like this is going

to be a really long process.

Um, but I'm gonna do anything that

I can in my power to get him home.

Because, um, I can't stand the thought

of him being in a cell somewhere,

cold and hungry, and I can't sit

here and not try to look for him.

My name is Daniel and I'm

a Danish photojournalist.

I started as a gymnast,

and while I spent all my time in gyms

all around the world

doing gymnastics, I...

got bored when I didn't do anything

else and I started to take pictures.

I only planned to be inside

Syria for two days.

I had one day of work when I walked

around this small, quiet town.

It was spring.

So the weather started to be very better

and people seemed happy and relaxed.

And we were told to go and speak

to some guys in the area.

Very calmly, we're sitting in

sofas, they were offering tea.

Everything was calm and quiet. Even

though I knew that something was...

strange, something was wrong.

And then they just asked me to stand up,

and they took off

my glasses, and they said,

"Don't worry" and "This is

just a procedure."

That was how everything began

so, you know, a quiet Sunday,

beautiful spring morning

became a nightmare for me.

The longer you are a hostage, the easier it

becomes in some way, the better you get at it.

And I had like one and half month by myself.

After I believe, two and a half month,

I was put together with

two other Westerners,

and then we were put together four.

I think we were five together, and then seven

together, then came another one, eight.

Then it just started to evolve.

We were in that cell,

British, Americans...

French, Italian, German, Belgian,

Danish, Russian, Spanish.

We were 19 at one stage.

And one day we had

to sit faces to the wall.

But I could see under my arms.

I could see some mattress were moved

in and there came some guys in

traditional Syrian clothes

and then they closed the door again,

the big metal door, and I looked up

and there was James and John Cantley.

Everybody was like "Yay, welcome,

welcome!" You know, it's two new friends.

You know, I created this, this picture

in my head of this big, like,

war journalist and so I could

only get disappointed in a way,

but he... I remember him

being like,

"Uh, what's happening?"

Yeah and...

So that was-basically

the first time I met him.

But it was real different to be

put together with James and John

because they've been together in prison

for almost a year. When I first saw them,

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