Terrorists with the Islamic State have released what they claim to be a letter written by U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff to his mother, in the lead-up to his beheading. But it reads like pure propaganda and seems to be a thinly veiled attempt of the Islamic State to further a pro-jihad message that blames America for its own acts of terror.
On Aug. 27, Sotloff’s mother, Shirley Sotloff, released a video in which she pleaded with the terrorist group to let her son go free. Islamic State terrorists ultimately beheaded him and showed the graphic event on a video released on Sept. 2.
The supposed letter from Sotloff to his mom was posted on Dabiq, the Islamic State’s English-language online magazine, Vocativ reported. It’s assumed that the terrorist group tinkered with some of the language and statements to fit its own intentions and devices, or outright penned the letter in its entirety, United Press International reported.
The letter started: “To Mom, I do not have much time and will probably not get this opportunity again, so I would like to get straight to the point. Your recent public video of pleading to the [Caliphate] not to kill me has been received loud and clear by them. However, this in itself is not enough to save me. Although I’ve been informed that the aerial campaign in Iraq has been halted, which at the moment has given me breathing room thanks be to God, I believe it looks like it’s not enough Mom because Obama’s recent decision to fly spy drones over Syria in the Islamic State’s airspace is only aggravating and infuriating my captors further.”
Sotloff then allegedly wrote that Mr. Obama’s actions prove the “U.S. government is interfering yet again the affairs of the Islamic State,” UPI reported. He also said that his journalism title won’t save him — that even though the Islamic State recognizes that he’s unarmed, the group also says that the United States’ airstrikes take out the unarmed.
“Beseeching the Caliphate to spare my life will not help either of use, as the matter is in Obama’s next judgment,” Sotloff reportedly wrote, UPI reported. “As you and the world have plainly seen in the recent video, the message was my life depends on Obama’s next decision. Mom, please don’t let Obama kill me. Do not let him get away with murder again.”
He then reportedly added that the United States should not “get involved in the Islamic State’s internal and external affairs,” and called on his mother to “pressure our government to not involve themselves in the affairs of these people,” UPI reported.
And his alleged sign-off: “At the rate that Obama’s administration is going, this could very well be the last you hear from me. … Fight for me. I love you,” signed “The Failed Crusade.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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