Jim: The James Foley Story Page #7

they was the most experienced

of us and I started

from the beginning and I think the whole group

started to lean a little bit against them.

[Daniel]

James was very silent most of the time.

He was very good at listening.

He managed to make the room bigger

in a way by being small himself

and that is a very, very

difficult thing to be.

And you really want to scream in the

head of everybody like, "F*** off!"

[Nicolas speaking]

I remember one time James was

asked to stand up the whole night

in the middle of the room.

[Daniel] Late at night,

there was no light at all,

so we were just sitting there in

completely darkness

and that time really, really,

really went slowly.

What we did, James and I,

we started to develop a way of

passing through these hours of darkness

by giving each other, like, massages.

And It sounds a maybe a little bit

strange or gay, or whatever, but...

But there was something, there

was something nice about it.

And James asked me, "Can you teach me

how to give like a real nice massage,

so when I get out, and I meet a

woman, I can really impress her?"

So we started having these

kind of lessons, you know?

Our body had witnessed a lot of trauma

and the fact that somebody is

actually touching you

and it's a nice feeling,

for me, it was a nice way to

feel a little bit human again.

And James, he never learned how to give a proper

massage, it was awful every time, so he really,

he really managed, to get

a good deal out of that one.

I remember one time, we were

given a lot of dates to eat

and at some point we were moved

and you just don't

leave food behind, or destroy it or

whatever, but sometimes you have to do it

because there's no where to put it.

[Nicolas speaking]

James, he just took out his pants and

he took out like two-kilos of dates.

"Don't worry, guys."

He could have taken all the food

by himself later that night

or whatever, but he always took the

things so he could share it around

or give it to the people

who didn't have it.

In the beginning of James' and John's

captivity, they were really starved.

They didn't like to talk about it, they didn't

find it very interesting to talk about,

but one thing I know was that...

That they really, really,

really had a difficult time.

But they managed to get back

on track to gain strength again.

It was very interesting to see what

happened between James and John

because they've been

together for almost a year.

When I first saw them, that

meant they have spoken about

every single thing there

is to talk about.

So I was basically the one starting

to listen to all James' story again.

There was a period of time

in the prison where we

was not interrupted by

the guards very often.

It had meant that we could get a routine,

so we worked out, we did a trivia,

we had lectures and stuff like this.

We managed after, I don't know,

three weeks, one month or so,

to make this Risk game.

[Nicolas speaking]

We had a small bucket that

we received some yogurt in

and we cut out a piece of

cardboard and we made three lines

and we put it in the bottom of the bucket

and then you should hold up a date seed

and let it go,

and it would fall down and

whatever number it landed on,

it would be that number. So

that was our dice for the game.

[Daniel] You know, take like ten journalists,

war, and put them into one room

and make them play the game

about taking control over

the world, you know,

it's basically like putting

gasoline to a bonfire.

[Daniel] We started to

have our own small world

that made everything much easier to survive

in a way. It was much easier to understand.

We didn't have to think about economy, we

didn't have to think about bank loans...

or the prices of gas at the moment.

You adapt into the situation

and then suddenly this whole thing

becomes a part of your life.

This is your life.

When you look back on it, that's what

I remember was our small society,

where we really start

to know each other.

You know who made this fart, you could

smell, this is the fart of you.

[Nicolas speaking]

I remember James' 40th birthday,

it was late at night, it was

completely dark. James said, "Oh,

by the way, I turn 40 today."

I was just like, "What?" So we sang a

song for him and I remember that we said,

"We hope it would be a much

better birthday next year."

Right here.

One, two and three.

Come on! Smile! Please!

Nice! Good!

We've been through a lot together.

Michael has co-signed loans for me.

He has lent me his professional clothes,

his car, his dental plan.

[people laughing]

And I think sometimes we struggle

to understand each other

and where exactly we're coming from

and why we do the things we do.

Michael has entirely

too much common sense...

and sometimes I have entirely

too little common sense.

We've somehow grown

closer despite the differences

and it's, I guess it's about

being brothers.

I'd say the first 100, 150 days I was

all in, but I definitely retracted

pretty strongly after that. I have

a lot of regrets about not, uh,

not continuing full steam,

and... I don't know if it was because

I was trying to protect myself,

or I was just trying to protect

my family, and that you know,

give the kids the attention I have, you

know, I could argue that that's what Jim

would prefer, and I don't know

it was all kinds of, of ex...

Excuses or reasons but I... It's

something I do feel terrible about.

But then, uh, then I got pulled

right back into it very strongly,

and very immediately when the

first e-mail came to me.

"Hello, we have James and want to negotiate

for him. He is safe. He is our friend,

"and we do not want to hurt him. If

you want cooperation we have rules.

"You cannot go to

the media ever about this.

"If you do, we will not negotiate.

We want money fast."

We shared everything we had with

everybody, you know, FBI knew,

security team knew, everyone knew.

They said, "Just keep them

talking" and all that,

"they're just beginning

their negotiations,

we've got time.

Just keep at it."

[Michael] So I, uh, after coordinating

with some officials replied to them.

"We've been concerned about Jim and want

to know that he's okay. Please provide us

"with proof that you have Jim,

and we will be happy to work

things out with you."

[Diane] We still didn't know

who was holding him.

It was obvious that they were

people against the Assad regime,

but they didn't identify themselves any more

than that at all. They were very shrewd.

And their e-mails unfortunately

were totally undetectable.

About a week goes by,

and they responded.

"James Wright Foley is

being detained by us.

"At this stage no video

or picture evidence of his

"well-being will be

provided until

"we see tangible progress in

your efforts to negotiate.

"However you will be able to ask

three questions of a personal nature

"that nobody except James

will know the answers to.

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