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John Cantlie

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John Cantlie
File:John Cantlie.jpg
John Cantlie at Nangalam base, Pech Valley, Afghanistan, 2012
Born1970/1971
Disappeared22 November 2012[1]
Syria[1]
StatusHostage of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)War photographer and correspondent

John Cantlie (born 1970/1971)[2] is a British war photographer and correspondent who was kidnapped in Syria with James Foley in November 2012 and remains a hostage.[3] He had previously been kidnapped in Syria in July 2012 but rescued a week later.[4]

Family history

Freelance reporter and photographer John Cantlie.
John Cantlie.

John Cantlie is the great grandson of Sir James Cantlie,[5] who in 1896 was instrumental in the protection of the famous Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen who might otherwise have been executed by the Qing dynasty secret service.[6] His grandfather, Colonel Kenneth Cantlie,[5] designed the China Railways KF locomotive, at 260 tons the largest locomotive of post-war China that remained in service until 1972.

Cantlie's father Paul died on 16 October 2014 while Cantlie was still in captivity.[7][8]

First abduction

He was reportedly kidnapped by British Islamic extremists while crossing into Syria from Turkey on 19 July 2012, near Bab al-Hawa.[9] Along with Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans, Cantlie was shot whilst trying to escape their captors. In an interview with The Sun newspaper on 26 August 2012, Cantlie said it was "every Englishman's duty to try and escape if captured."[10] Both photographers claimed they were about to be handed over to a jihad unit affiliated with al-Qaeda for ransom when they were rescued by the Free Syrian Army. Cantlie's apparent kidnapping is the first recorded case of a British journalist being held, shot and then rescued from fellow Britons during the revolutions of the Arab Spring.[citation needed] In an account in The Sunday Times on 5 August 2012, Cantlie described his experience.[11][12]

Oerlemans was shot in the left leg and Cantlie in the left arm during their escape attempt, Cantlie suffering ulnar nerve entrapment (loss of feeling and use to the hand) as a result.[13] In an account of the shooting, Cantlie said some of the British Muslims in the group repeatedly shouted, "die, kafir!"[14] Oerlemans then stated that "the British guys were the most vindictive of them all".[15] They were taken back to the camp where a fighter who claimed to be an NHS doctor stabilized them and treated their wounds.[16] The pair said the doctor gave them information and extra food. Cantlie later wrote in the October 2012 edition of FHM magazine that this was Stockholm Syndrome, in which a hostage befriends one or more of their captors.[citation needed] The pair were threatened with execution.[17] Oerlemans stated that it was unclear who held them, but the group of militants were of multiple ethnicities.[18]

Rescue

On 26 July 2012, one week after being kidnapped, they were rescued by four members of the Free Syrian Army.[19] The rebels came into the camp shooting their weapons and held at least one jihad fighter at gunpoint while Cantlie and Oerlemans were helped into a waiting vehicle. Both photographers had to be assisted as their feet had been seriously injured when they tried to escape and neither could walk. They had lost all their camera equipment, passports and clothes in the incident, and were smuggled back across the border at a crossing used primarily by Syrian refugees. They were initially treated by a medic for The New York Times in Antakya before being debriefed by Turkish and then British intelligence.

On 9 October 2012 an individual suspected of being involved in the kidnap was arrested at Heathrow airport after arriving on a flight from Egypt.[20][21]

This was Cantlie's second visit to Syria. In March 2012, he became the first Western photographer to witness first-hand an incursion by government ground troops into a city when T72 heavy tanks rolled into the city of Saraquib in Idlib province and started shelling indiscriminately. In a feature in the Sunday Telegraph published 31 March, Cantlie wrote: "Then the tanks opened fire. Fist-sized pieces of shrapnel sliced through the air, decapitating one rebel immediately. His rifle clattered to the ground as his friends dragged his headless torso from the line of fire." To illustrate what the Syrian rebels were up against, Cantlie took a photograph looking down the barrel of an advancing T72.[22]

Second abduction

Cantlie had not appeared in print or on social media since late 2012, and the trial against one of his alleged captors collapsed in 2013, when he could not be summoned as a witness[23][24] because, in November 2012,[3] Cantlie was abducted a second time, along with American journalist James Foley. Their taxi driver and Foley's translator were not taken, however.[25][26] They had reportedly been working together on a film about Cantlie’s first abduction.[27] Foley was beheaded in August 2014.[28]

ISIL propaganda

After disappearing for some time following his second abduction in late 2012, Cantlie resurfaced on 18 September 2014 in a propaganda video[29] posted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the first episode of an explicitly multi-part series entitled Lend Me Your Ears. As of January 2015, ISIL has released a total of six videos in the Lend Me Your Ears series, all of which feature Cantlie speaking while sitting at a wooden table and wearing orange prison garb against a black backdrop. In the videos, Cantlie adopts a cynical and critical position toward Western foreign policy, including military actions, political statements, and media coverage. Cantlie is particularly critical of US and British hostage policy, comparing it unfavorably to the policy of other European countries that negotiate and pay for the release of hostages.

ISIL has released two additional videos apart from the Lend Me Your Ears series. Both videos are noteworthy for depicting Cantlie as a Western journalist rather than a Western hostage. In both videos, Cantlie attempts to characterize the facts on the ground in Kobani and Mosul as far more favorable to ISIL than is portrayed in the Western media.

Since Cantlie is a prisoner of ISIL and therefore is necessarily speaking under duress, it is unclear whether and to what degree he actually holds these views. His sister, Jessica Cantlie, has claimed that John Cantlie "believes two-third" of what he says in the videos.[30]

Lend Me Your Ears Series

ISIL has thus far released 6 videos in the "Lend Me Your Ears" series (7, counting the Introduction). It plans to release two more videos as evidenced by the explicitly episodic format of the videos and the denominator "8" used in the titles of the videos online, i.e. "Episode 4/8."

Video Release Date Length URL Comments
1 18 September 2014 3:21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNSCzhXl3k Introduction
2 18 September 2014 5:56 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZETEI5Fk8tU "Episode 1" (which is actually the 2nd video released)
3 30 September 2014 5:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK6KFU6eYWk "Episode 2"
4 12 October 2014 6:54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuVXjbKmrDE "Episode 3"
5 16 October 2014 7:49 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQbV86L_6t4 "Episode 4"
6 12 November 2014 6:31 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPck3qQZXq8 "Episode 5"
7 24 November 2014 8:53 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHpKAkpdhnc "Episode 6"
8 TBD Not released
9 TBD Not released

Other Videos

Inside 'Ayn al Islam (Kobani), published 28 October 2014

Inside Mosul, published 3 January 2015

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Mezzofiore, Gianluca (18 September 2014). "John Cantlie Video: British Photojournalist 'Kidnapped with James Foley'". IBT. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  2. ^ Isis video shows hostage John Cantlie claiming battle for Kobani nearly over The Guardian
  3. ^ a b Seibel, Mark; Prothero, Mitchell (18 September 2014). "British hostage John Cantlie, seized by Islamic State with James Foley, appears in new video". Mcclatchydc.com. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  4. ^ "John Cantlie: Islamic State hostage in fresh video". BBC. 25 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  5. ^ a b Quinn, Ben (21 October 2014). "Father of IS hostage John Cantlie dies". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  6. ^ McGill, Peter McGill (2 November 2014). "Kidnapped British journalist's link to China's founding father". South China Morining Post. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  7. ^ "Paul Cantlie, father of Islamic State hostage, dies". BBC. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  8. ^ Evans, Martin (22 October 2014). "Father of Syrian hostage John Cantlie dies". The Telgraph. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  9. ^ Morse, Felicity (29 July 2012). "Syria: British Journalist John Cantlie Kidnapped With Jeroen Oerlemans Is Released By Free Syrian Army". Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  10. ^ Willetts, David (26 August 2012). "NHS doctor was terror chief". The Sun. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Shubert, Atika; Shoichet, Catherine E. (18 September 2014). "British journalist, now ISIS hostage, sends message from terror group". CNN.com. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  12. ^ "British hostage John Cantlie feared beheading in Syria". BBC News. 5 August 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  13. ^ Meikle, James (3 August 2012). "Photojournalists captured by Islamist militants in Syria feared beheading". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  14. ^ Wood, Paul (2013). Committee to Protect Journalists (ed.). Attacks on the Press: Journalism on the World's Front Lines. John Wiley & Sons. p. 1998. ISBN 9781118611296.
  15. ^ Mezzofiore, Gianluca (18 September 2014). "John Cantlie Video: Who is Photojournalist Held by Isis?". International Business Times. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  16. ^ Evans, Rebecca (26 August 2014). "Find terrorist NHS doctor: MI6 lead hunt for extremist on sabbatical from London hospital who held British journalist captive in Syria". Daily Mail. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  17. ^ Lestch, Corinne (19 September 2014). "ISIS captive John Cantlie described revisiting spot where he was first kidnapped in Syria". New York Daily News. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  18. ^ Chulov, Martin (27 July 2012). "Jihadists in Syria release two journalists captured a week ago". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  19. ^ Guru-Murthy, Krishnan (5 August 2012). "British photographer freed by FSA". Channel 4.
  20. ^ Sengupta, Kim (10 October 2012). "Suspect arrested at Heathrow". The Independent.
  21. ^ Whitehead, Tom (10 August 2012). "Police investigate whether terror suspect is NHS doctor". The Telegraph. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  22. ^ Cantlie, John (31 March 2012). "Syria eyewitness dispatch: 'I watched as Assad's tanks rolled in to destroy a rebel town'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  23. ^ Wagner, Meg (18 September 2014). "Who is John Cantlie? ISIS-held UK journalist once escaped previous kidnapping in Syria". New York Daily News. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  24. ^ "Syria Kidnap Case Against Doctor Dropped by Prosecution". BBC News. 11 November 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  25. ^ http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2014/05/journalists-missing-in-syria
  26. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/world/middleeast/horror-before-the-beheadings-what-isis-hostages-endured-in-syria.html
  27. ^ Culaba, Anna. "VIDEO: Meet ISIS' New Oprah, British Hostage John Cantlie". RYOT.com. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  28. ^ Meek, James Gordon; Schwartz, Rhonda (18 September 2014). "Missing British Hostage John Cantlie Surfaces Alive in New ISIS Video". ABC News. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  29. ^ "Video of British hostage John Cantlie released". BBC News Online. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  30. ^ Hopkins, Steve (19 October 2014). "ISIS hostage John Cantlie 'believes two-thirds' of what he says in propaganda videos, says his sister". DailyMail.co.uk. Retrieved 25 December 2014.

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