https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6xfpYAT08A
ISIS have released a new video allegedly showing the British war photographer John Cantlie who was captured by the terror group back in 2012.
The video, which was released on Twitter, shows Cantlie mocking the U.S. president, Barack Obama, and is the first time in more than a year that he’s been seen alive, The Guardian reports.
The photojournalist, who’s appeared in a number of videos for ISIS while a hostage, appears thin and sickly as he ridicules America’s attempts to destroy the jihadi group.
you tubeHowever his supporters dismissed the film as propaganda, saying: “His words are not those of a free man.” They also questioned when it was made. Meanwhile the Foreign Office has said that they’re ‘looking at the contents of this latest propaganda video’.
The clip shows the journalist clad in black as he walks around a destroyed building which he claims is in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
Filmed in daylight, Cantlie is shown standing on a busy road as traffic and people go by in the background.
You TubeAddressing the camera as if presenting a television programme, he says:
After 20 months and $5bn, America has successfully destroyed an Islamic State media kiosk. If this is what Obama meant about degrading and ultimately destroying Isis, he’s clearly got a long way to go yet.
And you know what’s really just amazing, given the amount of money that America is spending on this war, it would go to the effort of destroying a small shack like this, in the middle of Mosul.
He suggests that the U.S. targeted the shack, which cost just $50 (£35) to build, was because they’re ‘bankrupt of intelligence’ on Isis targets.
APThe terror group have put Cantlie’s skills as a journalist to good use while he’s been a hostage in an attempt to lend credibility to their propaganda films, including a series titled Lend Me Your Ears, of which the last was released in November 2014.
.4/ Worth remembering that whatever #John_Cantlie says, he is & remains a hostage and that his words are not those of a free man.
— Hala Jaber (@HalaJaber) March 19, 2016
Cantlie’s sister Jessica has previously appealed for ‘direct contact’ with the militants holding him. While his father Paul, 80, unfortunately died from complications following pneumonia back in 2014.
Last month, Mr Cantlie’s supporters set up a petition on Parliament’s website urging the government to ensure his safe release.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.