All language subtitles for BBC.Storyville.2016.Jim.The.James.Foley.Story.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

This programme
contains some strong language,

and some scenes which
some viewers may find upsetting.

I was in my office at work...

..and I got a call,
from an international number.

I always answer...

For the last three years,

when it was an international call,
I would answer it. And, uh...

it was a reporter in Dublin...

..wanted a reaction to the story.

I said, reaction for what?

And they were really caught back
by that question, obviously.

I said, I'll call you back in five
minutes. And so then I went online.

I saw the picture.

It's not the way
you want to find out.

Name the sports newspaper that hit
US newsstands in 1990.

BLEEP
James? The National?

It was.
APPLAUSE

Ladies and gentlemen, please
help me welcome Mr James Foley.

APPLAUSE

Thanks for that generous,

overly generous...
LAUGHTER

..introduction.

I'm definitely not a hero,
or noble, or anything.

I'm just...

trying to do my work.

And...got into a little bit
of trouble.

I arrived in Benghazi, mid-March.

And the night I arrived, I heard
nothing but bombs and gunfire.

I wondered, what's going on?

Another journalist said,
the bombs, that is Gelatina,

that's how they fish.

LAUGHTER

Blow the fish up!

And the gunfire, no,
that's celebratory gunfire.

HEAVY MACHINE GUN FIRE

I think in some ways
Libya WAS a turning point for Jim.

You know, I was starting to see his
trying to figure out where

he belonged in the world.

And he wanted to write,
and he loved people,

and liked to interact,

tell people's stories.

So when Jim decided he wanted to go
into journalism from teaching,

at first we thought,
that would be good,

maybe that'll be a better fit, Jim.

But when he decided to do
conflict journalism...

SHE SIGHS

..you know, that was
a whole different deal.

He didn't exactly tell us.

HE CHUCKLES

He graduated from Medill,

and we said,
Jim, what are you going to do?

And he said, well, I'm...
I'm working on it.

He came back to my house,
and he told me. He was like...

"Hey, John, I'm thinking about
going to Libya."

Jim, that's a horrible idea.

Absolutely a horrible idea.

If you go over there...

..no-one's coming for you.

Why would you put your life
in danger?

We're dropping bombs over there.

And God forbid, if you go over
there, and...

HE CHUCKLES
..we accidentally kill you!

I mean...why?

Why?

Libya was very exciting as
a journalist because you had this

chance to talk directly to people,
to see exactly what was going on.

But it was also extremely dangerous.

I was actually talking
to one of my buddies,

boasting about my brother, Jim,

and how he is this journalist

and is like super crazy,

but like badass at the same time.
You know?

I was like, yeah,
my brother's a badass.

You know, he's crazy, he's awesome.

I also was very naive myself,

I didn't know exactly
what that would mean,

I didn't know he was actually

going to be immersed

in actual, like, crossfire.

There's snipers in this building...

EXPLOSIONS

We have decided to go in.

It's heavy fighting.

This is Jim Foley,
reporting from downtown Benghazi,

Revolutionary Square, Global Post.

Jim was there at the early stage of
this movement

of there being more freelancers

in conflict areas.

The world has changed so much
in terms of digital publishing,

and newspapers
started to eliminate things

that they didn't see
as essential.

International coverage
dwindled down to very little.

So we saw an opportunity
to fill that void,

and we needed to work
with freelancers.

Freelancers decide to work together
just on the basis of

this initial quick-read chemistry.

I saw this new guy,

who I hadn't met before,

he looked friendly enough,
so I said, hey, what's up?

He said, oh, not much,
going to the front line.

And he'd heard a lot about Libya,

and the fact that it was
very cheap to work,

rebels and protesters were eager to
show us their side of the story,

you know, they driving us all over
for free,

they were translating for us
for free.

I'd seen Jim talking
to a few other journalists,

and he was just really friendly
with everybody.

It was unusual,
in a place like that.

There's still an edge of
competitiveness in that environment

whereas Jim, was just,

like, yeah, whatever.

He gave off
a really good first impression.

And, you know, it helps that
he's like a super good-looking guy,

and I was just, who is this guy?!

Who are you?!
LAUGHTER

HE GROANS

Jim had
a high tolerance for danger.

EXPLOSION

Shit!

I mean, sure, he was drawn to that.
All of us are, in a way.

The fact that he stayed so calm
made it easy to feel calm

in that situation.

But of course, sometimes I was
just like, well, that's crazy,

I'm not going there with you!

It was one of those mornings

where we decided we were going to
get out there early,

we wanted to get a fresh look
at the front lines.

It was myself, Clare Gillis,
Manu Brabo and Anton Hammerl,

a South African photojournalist.

This was something common
that some reporters did,

freelancers like myself that didn't
have big budgets.

We jump in with the rebels.

And it was at your own risk
if you wanted to go further or not.

Got to the point where we saw
another group of rebels saying,

Gaddafi forces, 300 metres away.

And myself, looking at Clare,
like, pfft, that's impossible.

And I remember Anton turning to me
and saying, hey, this isn't safe.

But we didn't turn around.

And we said, well,
let's get off the road, anyways.

Well, that was
the exact wrong thing to do.

Two heavily armed Gaddafi pick-up
trucks came over that rise, firing.

MACHINE GUNS ROARING

I remember so clearly
the sound of it, the volume of it,

the sound of something eating metal.

And I remember hoping against hope

that there would be some kind of out
out of this,

there would be some kind
of trap door...in time.

I crawled back to the sand dune,

Anton was at the other sand dune
in front of me.

I heard him call for help.

It appeared he was cut across
the midsection with AK fire,

and it was a serious amount
of blood.

He had already lost consciousness,
and probably already died.

A group of young soldiers
approached me,

and we were thrown
in the back of a truck.

I remember getting photographed
with a cellphone.

And thinking, this is where
they find all these photographs

that are evidence
of war crimes someday.

And realising, this is me now.

I was with my mother.

We were out to lunch,
and I received a phone call.

And...

that's how we first heard,
you know?

I think I was in denial about how
dangerous this really was, Brian.

I was furious.

Just furious.

Scared for him. Furious.

Hate to revisit, but just, like,
I told you, Jim!

I think we all went through
the stages of total shock,

you know, and then...

just...

what are we going to do?

And then anger...

After all, we're family, you know?

You're so humble,
you lost everything.

Your freedom.

Your control.

Your ability to talk to anybody,
and tell anybody you're OK.

Thinking one minute, oh, yeah,
I'm a foreign correspondent!

And the next minute,
somebody who you respect,

killed,

and you have nothing.

Jim was concerned that
his own competitiveness

with Manu, with Anton, with himself,

his own sort of
macho aggressiveness,

had driven him to make decisions
that were not the best decisions.

Every day I have to deal with
the fact that

Anton is not going to ever
see his three kids any more.

And I was part of that
decision-making process...

..that took him away, that took him
away from his kids and his wife.

And I had a lot of time
to play over those moments,

especially that one day
when we were captured.

I tried to question myself.
What are you reporting on?

What is this all about?

It was quickly apparent
that this was about

being what you think is an
authentic conflict correspondent,

seeing the front line,

and it not being enough to just
see it from a distance,

but to push it to the next level.

You were basically
waiting to get shelled,

and the question is...why?

You know...
why are you doing this?

It's a nightmare,
each day becomes harder,

you know,
with the lacking information.

We know he's in Tripoli, we believe
he's in a detention centre,

we really don't know much more
beyond that.

We organised this huge group
of Jimmy's friends,

we called them FOJs,
Friends Of Jim.

We had a lot of outside help,

but Michael was sort of the CEO
of the group.

His statement was, you know,
there are no measurables

other than getting Jim home.

Our biggest fear is that
it becomes yesterday's story,

and people forget about it.

We love Jim and we miss him.
We want him home.

After successful
diplomatic negotiations,

two American journalists
and a Spanish journalist

are finally going home

after being kidnapped and detained
by the Libyan government forces

for 44 days.

KATIE: All the family and friends
were all together, waiting for them.

And all of a sudden, we see these
blue lights just rushing at us.

SIREN APPROACHING

We're like, oh, my God, this is Jim,
he's, like, actually here.

I don't know, it was like a movie.

He was just so happy
to see everybody!

You have a close call.

That's pure luck
that you didn't get killed, there.

It is not worth seeing
your mother, father bawling,

and worrying about
your grandmother dying,

because you're in prison,
it's not worth these things.

And outside, in my parents' home,

in, you know, a comfortable house in
New Hampshire,

I sort of had to start processing.

I was horrified to learn how much
my friends and family had done

to help me.
I was inspired and I was horrified.

It was a weird feeling of like
going to your own funeral, you know?

There's no going back
from something like this.

Some of the things I'll never
be able to change,

but I wish, I wish that I could.

What are we going to do?

That's Jim's blazer from when he
spoke at Marquette. This brown one.

We'll just have to go through.

Yeah, so Jim lived with us for what,
three months?

Summer, summer after
he was released from Libya.

That was his bed, right there.

He would always...

crash out there.

It was cool having Jim here,

especially after him

having been gone in Libya,

because...

I think when he came back...

You know, like, you just
wanted to touch him a lot,

because, I don't know, for me,
it was like, poke him,

just make sure he's real,
and it was almost...

You're just more appreciative
of him. Right.

And especially with the kids,
you know,

getting to have him here,
because he was always on the go.

BURBLING AND LAUGHING

When Jim came
back from Libya,

I offered him a full-time job,

here, as an editor...

..while he sorted out
what he would do next,

and he sat right outside my office.

He was grateful to have the job,

but...working in an office was
clearly not what he...

what he liked the most.

He was quiet.

I don't want to say
he was withdrawn,

but he was quiet.

And I just remember, like,
Brad, my fiance, and Jim

were in the basement,

and Brad doesn't even remember
a time when Jim was sleeping.

You know, after the family
had kind of settled down,

Jim just went right to business,
right to work.

We had found him
a very good psychologist to talk to.

But he seemed so well,
if you will...

that we didn't push it.

But he was so restless here at home,
he didn't want to be at home.

Feeling like you survived something,

there's a strange sort of force
that you are drawn back to.

I think that's the absolute reality.

I believe that front line
journalism is important.

Without these photos and videos
and first-hand experience,

we can't really...tell the world

how bad it might be.

SHE SINGS SWEETLY

HUGE BOOM

CLATTERING OF DEBRIS

SILENCE

James Foley joins us now live

from inside northern Syria,

with more on what he saw.

Tell us more about what
you were able to witness.

Yes, thank you.

You've heard about
indiscriminate shelling,

but to see those bodies left over
from a direct mortar hit

was really shocking.

It seemed like he started thinking
about going to Syria

and by the time he mentioned it,

it was like he'd already kind of
made up his mind.

And he said he was going with
John Cantlie,

who's another colleague,
British photojournalist,

that we'd all met in Libya
the year before.

What's your name?

Jim.
John.

Jim and John!

Johnny! You say, I love you!
You say.

LAUGHTER

I don't know, I really didn't...
REALLY get into it with Jim.

I think I made it too easy for him.

I mean...

You know, it was something
he wanted to do.

And so we were trying
to be supportive

about his decision to do that.
You know?

The last conversation I ever had
with Jim, I said to him,

like, Jim, man, why do you keep
going back into Syria?

Like, I mean,
what's it like?

And he's like,
it's crazy, it's crazy.

I'm like, well,

is it more
dangerous than Libya?

He was, like, yeah
it's more dangerous than Libya!

I'm like, you got captured in Libya!

You couldn't talk him out of it.

Jim chose one story in particular
about this hospital,

the Dar Al Shifa hospital in Aleppo.

It was actually Jim's idea to spend
a week in that hospital

documenting what the doctors
and the staff there

were doing on a daily basis.

We become the intimate chroniclers
of this conflict,

we don't have bureaus to go back to,

you're there and every moment of it,

you share with the locals.

And I think there was just this
enormous guilt

that rode on Jim's back

that made him feel so compelled
to do much more than

just...record video and file it.

There were times where
he was offering up video for free.

And I would chastise him for it,
I'd be like, what are you doing?

He was, like, nah, you know,
whatever, it's fine, it's all good,

I just want to make sure
the video gets out there.

There was one day in August

when a Syrian activist was taking us
around this neighbourhood

called Bustan Al Kasa.

SHOUTING

And this fighter jet just started
circling above

and just swooped right down,

and hit a building that was a couple
of hundred feet from us.

MACHINE GUNS ROAR

DULL BOOM

We started seeing
the civilians coming out...

SHOUTING

..and just clutching nothing,
really, just, you know, ashen faces.

There was rubble everywhere.

It was chaos.

HE SHOUTS PLAINTIVELY

And the plane came round again,

dropped another bomb,
really close by,

and actually we were right
across the building.

And we looked up and we could see
the rubble start coming down.

That bomb had hit
a family...of...seven.

Who was killed?

Who?

It was horrific in the scale of it,

but also, just...

I think nothing prepares you for
seeing kids being killed and maimed

in that way.

And I know that Jim really loves
kids, so, you know, we were both...

We didn't say anything,

until we got to the field hospital
where they were bringing the bodies,

and we were both in this mode of...

just needing to get
the pictures out.

I think when we were finished
that night, though,

we kind of like sat down,
and lit a cigarette, and...

..we just started talking about it.

Really there wasn't very much
to say, though. You know, like...

What is there to talk about when
you witness something like that?

So we just sort of sat in silence.

The shine was starting to come off,
in a way.

There was a period of time where
journalists

were welcomed with open arms,

because they had seen
what had happened in Libya,

and when that didn't come about,
after a year,

after a year and a half,

after two years...

it's just like, OK,
what are you guys doing?

I mean, I had a doctor tell me
at the hospital,

he was like, look, you guys are in
and out of here since one year

and it's the same exact thing,
except it's worse.

I don't want to talk to you!

If the populace on the ground
whose side you're documenting

is...getting more uneasy with you,

or less willing to help...

You're very dependent on

the goodwill of the people
you're around.

They warned journalists,
they were like, Al-Qaeda's coming,

maybe even worse
than Al-Qaeda's coming,

and nobody is going to help us
against the Assad regime,

except for...these guys.

So...it was all there.

One of the main things I noticed
the last time when he came out,

he looked really hollow,
and he was quite...

quite silent.

You know, he had that amazing
room-brightening smile,

even if he had seen terrible things,

as one does.

It was disheartening to see.

I guess if I had any regrets, Brian,
that I...

regret that I found it difficult
to communicate with Jim.

I don't know if it's a male thing,
you know, whatever it is,

but I just wish I was able to
share more of who I was with Jimmy,

and get him to share
who he was with me,

which might have been
just as difficult. You know?

He was home, end of October,
right before he went back to Syria,

that last time.

And he was going...

I remember, he was leaving here,

and he was going to New York
to get a helmet from somebody.

Which was good, we were like...

Getting safety equipment,
we like this.

Yeah, I remember, we left him, we
dropped him off at a train station.

And, you know, we were going
to see him in December,

he was supposed to come... That's
right, you have a good memory.

He was supposed to
come home mid-December.

And, you know, we were like,
be safe! You know? See you soon.

And...unfortunately,
that didn't... Yep.

Yep.

SHE SNIFFS
Sorry.

It's OK. I think that's enough.

CRUNCHING OF FOOTSTEPS

NICOLE: We'd spent the beginning
of November in Aleppo again,

with Jim, John Cantlie,
and Mustapha, our translator,

who's become a friend of ours.

I had had some issues
with my camera that week.

So...I was like, Jim, I've got to
go back to Istanbul.

I'll see you guys in a week.

You know, the moment
when I said bye to Jim,

I had this feeling of reluctance
to leave.

I think in a way,

it maybe did upset the balance that
he and I had shared for so long.

There are superstitions
when you're in a war zone.

SHE CHUCKLES

There was like this one thing that
he and I shared,

which was our lucky lighter.

It's very common in the Middle East,
it's, like, the evil eye,

to ward off evil spirits, you know?

We used it for everything,

and for some reason it never ran out
of lighter fluid.

It's just like this stupid idea,

you put your hopes into one object,

to make it feel safe.

I think about it a lot, afterwards,

that he didn't have it with him.

Maybe if I just gave him
the lucky lighter

everything would have turned out OK,
I don't know.

That day, I was in Reyhanli,
which is the border town,

and I would have seen him
at about five.

So I checked in, and I told Jim,
I'm like, hey, you know, I'm here.

So text me when you get in.

You know, five o'clock rolls by,
and I start to worry.

Seven o'clock, eight o'clock
rolls around,

and I'm like,
something is really wrong.

So I called Mustapha,

and the first thing he said to me
was, "Nicole, I'm so sorry."

"I didn't...
I couldn't do anything."

I was like, what are you talking
about? What happened?

He was like, "You know,
we were coming. We were in the taxi.

"We were coming to Turkey
to meet you,

"and this van with these four guys
with guns,

"they stopped us on the road.

"And they told us to get out,

"and they were pointing
their guns at us and screaming.

"And the gunmen made
Mustapha tie up their hands,

"and they put John and Jim
into the back of their van."

So I hung up, and I just
started crying. I was like...

I didn't know if I was going
to see Jim again.

And that was the first thought
that came to my head.

JOHN SENIOR: It's like,
almost surreal.

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

It's not really happening, you know.
It's not happening.

This can't be.
This can't happen.

We can't do this again.

HE SIGHS

Yeah, it was...

You know, and I dove in
just like before,

like, OK, 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
the routes to get to one person.

Here was a mystery right out
of a crime show or something,

where you're trying to piece
together bits of information.

For the next three weeks,
there was just dead ends

and false information,

and rumours,
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.

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 the toll
that's taken by the families.

BRIAN, DIRECTOR:
What were the hurdles

getting the White House
and FBI involved?

MICHAEL: It was very tough
to get action.

And I understand that, you know,
the world's a big place.

So I actually felt guilty sometimes,
trying not to ask too much of them.

You know, Jim made this decision,
but, you know,

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...just a kid, out of school.

And his first question to me was,

had I asked the regime
for assistance?

Are you fucking kidding me?

Have I called the regime
and ask 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, you know, 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.

Cos at times it could feel like...

accusatory, like,
"Well, he WAS in Syria."

That's not fair.

You don't do that with police,
or firemen, or someone 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.

MC: 4...3...2...

Come the New Year,

I couldn't stand it.

I was frantic.

MC: Happy New Year!

So WE chose to go public.

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 have hope, as 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,
cos 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's about the size
of New England, maybe,

a little smaller.

So, here you go, Brian,
go in to New England.

Find Jim.

I think the moment I'd learned
that he'd been kidnapped,

I was just like, this is going to be
a really long process.

But I'm going to do anything that
I can in my power to get him home,

because...

..because 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

during 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.

Yeah, it was spring.

So the weather started
to get better,

and people seemed happy and relaxed.

And we were told to go
and speak to some guys in the area.

Very calmly,
we were sitting on 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're just, don't worry, Dan,

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 hostage,
the easier it becomes in some way.

The better you get at it.

I had, I think, like, one,
one and a half months by myself.

And after, I believe,
two and a half months,

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,

and then came another one, eight.

Then it just started to evolve.

DIDIER: We were in that cell,

British,

Americans,

French,

Italian,

German,

Danish,

Russian,

Spanish.

We were 19 at one stage.

And one day, we had to sit faces
to the wall, so...

but I could see,
like, under my arms.

I could see
some mattresses was moved in,

and there came some guys
in traditional Syrian clothes.

And then they closed the door again,

boom, the big metal door.

And I looked up, and there
was James and John Cantlie.

And everybody was like, yay,
welcome, welcome, welcome!

You know, it's two new friends.

You know, I created this picture
in my head

of this big, like, war journalist.

And so I could only get disappointed
in a way when he...

I remember him being like... Er...

"What's happening?"

That was basically the first time
I met him.

But it was really 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.

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.

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, fuck off!

I remember, one time, James was
asked to stand up the whole night...

..in the middle of the room.

Late at night,

there was no light at all.

So we was just sitting there
in complete 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 maybe a little bit,
you know...

..strange, or gay,
or whatever, but...

But there was something...
there was something nice about it.

And James asked,

"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 nowhere to put it.

Then James just took out his pants,

and he took out like
two kilos of dates!

You know, "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 that
they have spoken about

every single thing
there is to talk about.

So I was basically the one starting
to listen to

all of James's story again.

There was a period of time
in the prison

where we was not interrupted
by the guards very often.

And that meant that
we could get a routine,

so we worked out,

we did trivias.

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.

We had a small bucket
that we received some yoghurt 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.

Plop. Let it fall down.

And whatever it landed on,
it would be that number.

So that was our dice for the game.

You know, take, like,
ten journalists, war.

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.

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.

And this is your life.

When you look back on it, that's
what I remember, our small society,

where we really started
to know each other.

You know who made this fart,

you can smell,
this is the fart of you.

I remember
James's 40-year-old birthday.

It was late at night,
it was completely dark.

James just... "Oh."

"By the way...I turned 40 today."

I was just, like, what?!

So we sang a song for him,

and I remember that we said we hope
it will be a much better birthday

next year.

HE LAUGHS

CHATTERING AND LAUGHTER

Right here!

One, two and three.

Come on, smile! Please!

Nine, good.

We've been through a lot together.

Michael has co-signed loans for me.

LAUGHTER

He's lent me
his professional clothes.

LAUGHTER

His car.

His dental plan.

LAUGHTER

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.

CHUCKLING

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...

not continuing full steam.

I don't know if it was because
I was trying to protect myself,

or I was just trying to protect
my family and, 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, there's
all kinds of...excuses or reasons,

but it's something
I do feel terrible about.

But 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's 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 have with everybody.

You know, FBI knew,
security team knew, everyone knew.

They said just keep them talking
and all that.

"They're just beginning
the negotiations, we've got time,

"just keep at it."

So I, after coordinating with
some officials, replied to them.

"Please provide us with proof
that you have Jim,

"and we will be happy
to work things out with you."

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 wellbeing

"will be provided
until we see tangible progress

"in your efforts to negotiate.

"However, you will be
allowed to ask

"three questions
of a personal nature

"that nobody except James
will know the answers to.

"Our primary demand is that you use
your influence to pressure

"your government to release our
Muslim prisoners,

"who they have imprisoned
whether innocent

"or, 'guilty'
according to 'your laws'.

"If this fails to bear any fruits,

"then our secondary demand is the
sum of 100 million euros."

FBI seemed to have their hands tied,

because all they were able to do
was OK our family e-mails.

And...they really were unable
to help us much with strategy.

They just told us to be yourselves,
be family.

Tell them the truth is
we can't release any prisoners.

We certainly don't have
100 million euro.

Michael came up with some questions
I didn't know the answers to.

But we sent those back
to the captors.

Then there was some brief comment.

"It says, James was detained whilst
operating as a 'journalist'".

HE READS:

But I was never in the air force.

That was John.

My brother Jim...

..said that
Mike was the air force officer.

It may have been a typo,
it may not have been,

but I believe it was, you know,
my big brother...

trying to protect me.

You know,

you know you love
your brothers, but...

HE SWALLOWS TEARS

But for him to put...be willing to
put his life on the line,

or his body on the line...

SHAKY: ..for my protection,
is significant.

I mean, it's...it's...

I think they came in
with the proof of life for John.

And then everybody else got
their proof of lifes.

Everybody came in like, yes!

And were happy, and...

But James didn't get
his proof of life.

Until one day that they came in
and they asked James to follow.

And when he came back, you know,

he came with his arms
over his head and...

..he said that this was
the best day of his life.

And then him and John, they...

they hugged each other and they were
dancing around

like they just won
the big lottery.

DIANE: That was early December
of 2013.

All the answers came back right on.

We knew they had Jim.

But by the end of December,
they e-mailed us back and said,

this is the last e-mail
you'll get from us.

And cut off communication.

I mean, the first year,

we just trusted that the government
would have this in hand,

and that despite
our lack of information, et cetera,

they had been through this before
and they knew what to do.

And, you know,
we were in good hands.

At the end of that year, we realised
that nothing was being done,

and that...

we were really going to have to
do something on our own.

Diane was great about meeting
with ambassadors in Washington

from other countries that might
have some influence.

It turned out that
no-one had any influence,

because the group that had him
didn't listen to anybody.

But we didn't know that.

It's kind of come as a surprise to
a lot of us, this group, Isis,

a group that we hadn't really heard
much about. Who exactly are they?

Well, it's a criminal,
marauding gang.

They come out of the original,

very brutal Iraqi terror group.

They're the worst.
They're the worst of the worst.

CHUCKLING: Washington doesn't know
how to deal with it.

How's this family in New England
going to figure that out, right?!

I mean, you're dealing with...
pure evil.

But a capable and organised group.

They were very tough
towards me also,

but, no matter what,

they meant freedom for me...

because they were the ones
negotiating for me.

But James and John were destroyed
by the Beatles in the beginning.

PIERRE: He had this ability
to escape the situation,

to enjoy, you know, the sound of
children playing outside.

Or enjoy the view of just some sun
entering through the window.

James converted in the beginning
of his captivity.

And I know that was
at the same period as

he was getting really bad treatment.

It gave a good routine.

Normally we have a tradition
of going into church every Sunday,

but if you cannot do that,

you need another way of feeling

that you are doing something
with your faith.

And you can call it
a surviving skills,

you can call it just a way of
being interested in another culture.

What James used to say to me was
that for him, God is the same.

We had such great Christmases
when the kids were little.

Oh! Just wonderful,
wonderful Christmases.

And, you know, as they get older,

and Jim's siblings married,

they weren't always able to be home.

But Jim was always home.

Most of my memories of Jim
culminate around the holidays.

You know, they're playing at the
video games, the board games,

the ping-pong tournaments.

The anything tournaments!

CHATTERING AND CHUCKLING

And you wake up,
you open the gifts and you're like,

"Oh crap, Jim has my name.

"What's he going to give me?!"

HE LAUGHS

You know! So...

I shouldn't say that.

It's good times.

And then the last Christmas
he was home,

I remember him like rolling on
the floor with Michael's son Matty.

He loved that kid.

LAUGHTER

There's a million
Christmas stories, yeah.

You know, it's difficult for us to
celebrate Christmas in any way.

And we didn't have any present
to give each other.

So we...we decided to sit down
in a circle.

And then we had to say something
nice to each other.

And I remember that I said
to James that,

"James, first time I met you
was, you know, in this prison.

"And you looked as confused as if
you were just...

"dumped down on the Earth
from the Moon or something.

"And you basically destroyed my
whole idea

"of this great war journalist,
James Wright Foley.

"And then suddenly I find out
that you are...very clumsy,

"you're very bad at sports."

"But then again, you..."

"You're the most..."

I think I said to him, "You know,
you're the most honest person.

"There is no evil at all to find
in you, James. You are pure good."

"Sometimes too good.

"And I'm really happy
that I've met you."

That was our Christmas night.

When I went to bed that night,

I really felt that I had the
best Christmas night in my life.

I mean, this is...

So that's when
I started to get more frantic.

I mean, I thought,

there's got to be some way to get
the French and the US to talk.

Didier!

This is my husband, John.

They were willing to share all kinds
of things about Jim, personally,

how he was, what they did.

So I was starting to get
all this hope.

And they have
a hostage crisis unit in Paris,

and they were very generous
with their time.

So it was so different
than what I was experiencing,

so I was just kind of like,
jeez, you know?

Jim and the others, other Americans
are as important as these guys,

aren't they?

And...it was the last night
I was in Paris,

and I got a phone call from John.

And he said "Diane, we've had
another e-mail from the captors."

I thought, oh, great!
What did they say?

And that's when
they threatened to kill Jim.

But me, in my...cluelessness,

I was just excited
that they'd reached out to us.

We had raised about
$1 million in pledges.

And I was so excited
to hear from them.

Cos we thought now we can tell them
we have this money, and...

I was just so clueless.

We knew that paying
a ransom was illegal.

And we also knew that...

..it wouldn't have stopped us.

The Foleys were prepared
to mortgage their house,

and do what needed to be done
to make a payment.

I have a lot of evolving thoughts
about this whole process,

and what the government didn't do
that it should have done.

I mean...

If you just look at the facts,

there are 15 European hostages
who are alive,

and with their families and friends
and loved ones today.

I wish we'd started
raising money sooner.

I wish we'd negotiated,

and I wish it had...
turned out differently.

In some sense, I was OK with the
fact that he got captured

because I knew that he was...

doing what he wanted to do.

You know, and as a good
family member and as a good brother,

I need to understand that.

My mum did a great job in,
you know,

keeping the faith,
and working as hard as she could,

but...from the get-go,
once it happened,

I kind of felt
like he was already gone.

So, after a group of
the other hostages was released,

the Beatles,
they came back the day after.

And they...

They beated the shit
out of James and I.

I think it's called a Charlie horse,

when you put your knee
into the legs of a person.

And they did that to me and James,

while we had to sit
in stress position.

I don't know how many they gave us,
but it just continued and it was...

Never tried anything that hurt
so much in my entire life.

And then they just left.

And I was just laying there crying,

and I couldn't be in my own body
of pure pain.

And James, in the other corner
of the room, he...

I knew he got
exactly the same treatment as me,

but I couldn't hear it.

He just...

I don't know if he kept it inside,
or how he did it,

but only a few minutes
after they left,

James, he kind of looked up
and asked me if I was OK.

I was like, "Shut up, James."

I remember I said, "Shut up, James,"
you know?

HE CHUCKLES

Don't ask ME if I'm OK, you know?

Don't worry about me, you know,
worry about yourself.

Yeah, we just laid there until
the pain started to disappear a bit.

Two or three days after,
they came in again.

This time, the Beatles just told us
that now, guys, everything changed.

And they took all our food,

our games, most of the blankets.

And they started to use,
like, police clubs.

So every time we went to the toilet,
we got beatings with the stick.

We were so scared,
we lost all hopes.

No matter what came
through that door, it was evil.

Those 14 days before I got released
was the absolute worst times.

When people started to get released,

we decided to send out letters
with the person who was released.

But James, he didn't.

He didn't want to bother any of us.

And I remember one day that...

..I saw that John and James
had been talking for some times

in their corner.

And after that, John,
he came over to me,

and said Daniel, James wants to ask
you something.

OK, OK.

What up, James? And he was like,

"Oh, it's just if you want to carry
out a message or something."

You know, he was very...

He said it fast, like...
like he didn't want to bother me.

There's many ways of
dealing with a situation like this.

And James, I think one of the
reasons why he remained so strong,

was because he managed
to think about all the good things.

He saw the light,
instead of the dark spots.

Where a guy like John,
he was much more realistic.

He knew when it was bad.

But I couldn't bring out the letter.

I was too afraid,
after these 14 days.

So I decided just to memorise
as much as I could.

So I started waiting,

I knew they will come
in the morning to pick me up.

One day went, two days went.

And then fourth, fifth day.

Shit, man.

And then I woke up,
the sixth day in the morning.

And I couldn't sleep. I couldn't
sleep all night

because I was so afraid of, what
if they're playing a trick on me?

And James, he walked over to me
and he sat down right next to me.

And he said, "Are you OK, Daniel?"
"Yeah, all right."

And then I just couldn't hold back.

And I said, "Fuck. Fuck, man.

"I am really, really scared.

"I'm really, really, really,
really scared right now.

"I don't know what to do,
what to think. I..."

And he said, "Daniel, calm down.

"Calm down."

"Everything will be fine.

"You are going home. They will come.

"In a few hours, or tomorrow,
but one thing is sure, Daniel.

"You will go home."

Once again, it was a weird feeling,

because I was sitting there crying,

and making a scene
in front of James,

and I was about to go home.

And James, he didn't have anything
to look forward to.

James, he went back to
his side of the room.

Ten minutes after,

they knocked on the door.

They came in, and they asked me to
put a blanket over my head

and follow them.

That was the last time I...

..I saw James.

I call on my friends,
family and loved ones

to rise up against
my real killers,

the US government.

For what will happen to me is
only a result of their complacency,

and criminality.

I wish I had more time.

I wish I could have
the hope of freedom

and seeing my family once again.

But that ship has sailed.

I hadn't heard
Jim's voice in two years.

You know, I guess you can see it
in his neck and his face,

he's just,
the strength he has at that moment.

And, um...

I think of myself, I'd be calling
for my mother or something!

Just the strength he had, and I...

I wanted to feel what he felt...

SHAKY: ..is the reason I watched it.

I kept getting messages saying,
"John, are you OK?

"John, are you OK about
what your brother's saying?"

I'm like, what are you
talking about?

I call on my brother John,

who is a member of the US Air Force.

Think about what you're doing.

Think about the lives you destroy,

including those of your own family.

Even though he was reading
the script,

he seemed defiant...to the end.

I mean, for sure, I still have
some guilt regarding...

..me...

Just...me and
unfortunately my profession

that I am sure
that he endured torture.

Interestingly, John and I,

we've argued a lot
about things since that,

but we've been communicating
a lot more,

we've come a lot closer
as a result, and...

..and I think Jim would have
loved that.

And, you know Jim as well as I do.

He wouldn't have said those things
if there wasn't someone else

that was going to be harmed as
a result of it.

He never cared about himself.

KATIE: My only thought when I found
out about Jim was,

how am I going to get home?

I had missed the initial chaos
when it all happened,

but slowly
we all kind of came together.

We literally chose the smallest room
possible in our house,

but everybody was just
kind of huddled together.

Jim always found a way
to bring people together.

Always.

I really don't think I came to know
Jim as a man, as an adult.

I came to know him
through his friends.

LAUGHTER

It's hard as a mother.

You know, they're always
your children, somehow.

LAUGHTER

And it's hard to see that
they're adults,

with their own gifts,

and their own way in the world.

The day before his memorial,
I was like...

LAUGHING: ..shit!

I was like, "Now I get it."

"Now I get it."

And I...

Jokingly, I was always like,
you know, "Jim, get a job!"

Jim, you know, save for retirement!

So what I didn't recognise,
he was really trying to teach me.

"John, you need to look
outside yourself."

"John, it's not about physical
or monetary things.

"It's about how you act.

"It's who you teach.

"Who you mentor.

"Who's going to remember you?

"What are they going
to remember about you?"

Jimmy was included in
the long line of journalists

who gave their lives
to tell the truth.

We were just totally humbled by the
fact that the committee in Bayeux

would nominate him to be
included on one of the markers,

with 2,000 other
deceased journalists.

It was a very important moment.

This was Jim, and...

..it made me feel
very warm inside that...

..he was accepted as one of them.

And that's the difference with Jim.

He was just a you and a me,
a friendly guy...

until tested.

HIS VOICE BREAKS: Where that came
from, I don't know, Brian.

Because you just can't grit
something like that out.

You have to have
an inner strength...

..to do that.

We discovered Jim
just like the world did.

He was truly a man for others.

NICOLE: Witnessing Jim's murder
this publicly,

it sends a message to all of us.

And my, I guess, response
to that is

having lost so many friends,

and knowing that people are
purposely out for journalists, now,

I mean, we have to fight back,
with our pictures and our words.

I just...
I don't want to let them win.

The extent to which the media
coverage took off,

it was just staggering.

It was absolutely staggering.

Something like 94% of Americans

were aware of Jim's death,

and how he died.

It's the event
with the second most recognition

in recent American history,
after 9/11.

He would have been horrified
by that.

I mean, he was there
to talk about the Syrian people,

and this is the takeaway.

BRIAN: What is your response
to people

who would say he shouldn't have
been in there?

My response is
do you read the newspaper?

Do you watch TV?

You're depending on someone
to bring you that information.

If you care about
what's going on in Syria,

you don't have the right to be
like, oh, why's he there?

How do you even know what there is?

Because he told you.

PIERRE: I remember the video, and...
there was a desert.

And in the background,

you could see the desert stop.

And it was all
the Valley of Euphrates.

So according to what I know
from James,

I'm like 100% sure

that even though he was convinced
he would be killed,

he enjoyed the view.

NICOLAS: He died as a free man.

This is not the death of a hostage.

This is the difference,
eventually, between Jim and myself.

I ended up being released.

But...he ended up free.

And when we came to James's funeral,

everything started to become
real again in a way.

The fact that I managed to
say goodbye to James,

together with all his loved ones,

was really powerful.

It reminded me
how important it was that...

..that James,
he gave that letter to me.

Dear family and friends,

I remember going to the mall
with Dad.

A very long bike ride with Mum.

I remember
so many great family times

that take me away from this prison.

Dreams of family and friends
take me away,

and happiness fills my heart.

I know you're thinking of me
and praying for me,

and I am so thankful.

I feel you all
especially when I pray.

I pray for you to stay strong,
and to believe.

I really feel I can touch you,
even in this darkness, when I pray.

I think a lot
about my brothers and sister.

I remember playing werewolf
in the dark with Michael,

and so many other adventures.

I think of chasing Matty and Tee
around the kitchen counter.

It makes me happy to think of them.

If there is any money left
in my bank account,

I want it to go
to Michael and Matthew.

I am so proud of you, Michael...

..and thankful to you
for happy childhood memories,

and to you and Christie
for happy adult ones.

And big John,

how I enjoyed visiting you
and Cress in Germany.

Thank you for welcoming me.

I think a lot about Ro-Ro, and
try to imagine what Jack is like.

I hope he has Ro-Ro's personality.

So Mark and Casey,
what name have you given your son?

James Michael Foley.
James Michael Foley.

And Mark...

so proud of you too, bro.

I think of you on the West Coast,

and hope you're doing
some snowboarding and camping.

I especially remember us going to
the comedy club in Boston together,

and our big hug after.

The special moments keep me hopeful.

Katie, so very proud of you.

You are the strongest and best
of us all.

I think of you working so hard,
helping people as a nurse.

I pray I can come to your wedding.

Now I'm sounding like Grammy!

Grammy, please take your medicine.

Take walks and keep dancing.

I plan to take you out to
Margarita's when I get home.

Stay strong,

because I'm going to
need your help to reclaim my life.

Jim.

# Well, I was always late

# For every meal, you'll swear

# But keep my place

# On the empty chair

# And somehow I'll be there

# And somehow...

# I'll be there. #