ISIS is trying to sell the remains of beheaded journalist James Foley to his parents or the US government for $1 million, according to a new report.
A source who is a middleman contacted by ISIS to broker the deal told BuzzFeed that the terror group is trying to present it as an act of mercy for the family and a “humanity case,” the website said.
The Islamic fundamentalist group, which has overrun large sections of Iraq and Syria, killing thousands of people in the process, had been financing its military by selling oil produced by the wells in the areas it has captured and by collecting ransom from the governments of its non-American hostages.
But with the price of crude oil now plummeting and the United States and Britain standing firmly by their policy to not pay ransoms, ISIS — also known as the Islamic State — devised the plan to sell the corpse.
Photojournalist James Foley talks to reporters from the Associated Press in Boston in 2011.APIt is offering his family a DNA sample to prove that the body it is holding really is his.
“They ask for $1 million, and they will send DNA to Turkey, but they want the money first,” the source told Buzzfeed. “They will not give the DNA without the money.”
The source told the website that he is concerned the United States will stop the deal even if the family wants it, because the government nixed a ransom demand before Foley’s death.
