What My Friend Jim Foley Taught Me to Question by Jessica Desvarieux, The Real News Network August 21, 2014

Sub-Context: SAUDIS + QATAR = AT ROOT OF ISIS(L) FUNDING of JIM FOLEY’s horrible death and CONTINUOUS MIDDLE EAST CRISES AND MURDERS

Click for Source Video of Jim Foley on The Real News Network

Jessica Desvarieux, TRNN PRODUCER pays tribute to the life of her friend and colleague Jim Foley, who was executed by ISIS while covering the Syrian civil war

FACT: Syrian Civil War worst humanitarian crisis this century = 170,000 people killed or murdered and 9 million displaced civilians.

FACT: QATAR and SAUDIS funded $3+ Billion to ISIS(L) to Murder Syrians and Iraqis and anyone else that got in the way of CAPTURING OIL FIELDS FOR THE BIG OIL MONARCHS.

JESSICA: What created the conditions for this MASS MURDER? What role did America play in this? Post-World War II America supported extremists, starting with FDR backing Saudi King Ibn Saud + The Saudi-Based OBL & Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the ’80s + Our decade long FAKED WMD WAR in IRAQ + ISIS QATAR & SAUDI funded ISIS(L) (AQ CONTRACT KILLERS) in Syria and Iraq.

JESSICA: Two of our most important allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have used jihadist groups as centerpieces of their own foreign policy. It’s been reported repeatedly that both countries have provided arms directly to extremists. And there are reports, like this one from The New York Times, which expose how the CIA played an instrumental role in shopping for weapons and choosing which rebel groups would get them.

JESSICA: USA opened up a Pandora’s box in the Middle East with the Faked WMD) invasion of Iraq in 2003, followed with the years of ongoing sectarian violence which has left half a million people dead from war-related causes, according to a recent study. The U.S. has invaded and supported the overthrow of governments, which tilled the soil for fanaticism. After creating this power vacuum, groups like the ISIS(L) have been (funded by BIG OIL MONARCHS) to fill it. And that’s the part of the story that needs to be told.

JESSICA: My friend 40-year-old journalist James Foley was beheaded by ISIS(L). The video has been linked on every major news site. But to tell you the truth, I can’t even stomach to read the headlines, because what a headline can never capture is the character of a person. Jim and I both attended Northwestern University’s Medill school of journalism in 2007. We sat across from each other in the D.C. bureau, both covering national security. He called me “JD”, and he was just “Jim” to me. We shared a love of hip hop, and you could always catch Jim dropping a beat in the halls. He was so incredibly funny. I remember one school project which was meant to help us develop our camera skills. See parody of The Office.

JESSICA: After graduation, we both went abroad. I went to Egypt, and he went to Afghanistan and then Libya. That’s where he was in prison for 41 days while covering the 2011 Libyan Revolution. There was a massive campaign waged to bring Jim home, and the good news was that it worked and he did make it home.
He went back to Northwestern to speak, and I got a chance to see my friend again for what I didn’t know then would be the last time. We were all excited to catch up, and he told me of his plans to go to Syria, where the situation was escalating. It was dangerous, especially for foreign journalists, who were banned from covering Syria by Syrian President Bashar Assad. But Jim wanted to speak to the people. He wanted to be there so we could get a sense of what’s really going on.

JESSICA: Jim was chasing the story (of SAUDI + QATAR funding of ISIS) and many others like it when he headed to Syria. He wanted to bear witness to this destruction and share with the world the Syrian people’s stories. He can tell you the reason why he chose to go better than anyone else can. So here’s Jim in his own words at Medill in 2011. Jim, my friend, you will be missed.

MUST SEE VIDEO OF JAMES FOLEY, REPORTER, GLOBALPOST: I talked to my mom once. I had one phone call, and that was all I was praying for. You know, Clare and I, all we are praying for was just let us talk to our moms, just let our moms know–it sounds funny, but it’s not–just let our moms know that we’re okay, that we’re alive, that physically I’m okay. You know, physically I’m fine. I’m being fed. We were beaten once, tortured never. Physically I’m okay. There’s some humanity in these guards. You know? The system is inhumane, but the humanity is in these people.

We were in a general Libyan population, immediately embraced by Libyan political prisoners. They saw us as trying to tell their story. Immediately embraced by these Libyan political prisoners, from age 24 to 50s, 60s, sending text messages making jokes about Gaddafi. Real criminals, you know? Waving the rebel flag. An amazing sense of community that literally helped us.

But I talked to my mom on the phone. Not only did I call her, they let me call her, but she picked up the phone. You know. I only know one number, my family’s phone number. My mom actually picked it up. It was like, that was a miracle, man. That was God right there, you know? And that was the day before Easter, and my mom’s very Catholic. It meant a lot.

I mean, and a lot of my friends from Marquette are very Catholic. And these guys were–. I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea what people were doing for me. No idea. You know, you’re in a cell. It’s like you’re in a submarine, and you can only see out these bars, and you’re just trying to stay sane through prayer and, you know, cigarettes, basically. But I said, Mom, can’t you feel me praying to you that I’m okay? She said, Jim, can’t you feel all your friends, all the people praying for you? You know, they’re having prayer vigils at Marquette. And I said, I guess I can. I guess I can feel that.

JIM FOLEY1973-2014

Jessica Desvarieux, TRNN Producer, is a multimedia journalist who serves as the Capitol Hill correspondent for the Real News Network. Most recently, Jessica worked as a producer for the ABC Sunday morning program, This Week with Christianne Amanpour. Before moving to Washington DC, Jessica served as the Haiti corespondent for TIME Magazine and TIME.com. Previously, she was as an on-air reporter for New York tri-state cable outlet Regional News Network, where she worked before the 2010 earthquake struck her native country of Haiti. From March 2008 – September 2009, she lived in Egypt, where her work appeared in various media outlets like the Associated Press, Voice of America, and the International Herald Tribune – Daily News Egypt. She graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a Master of Science degree in journalism. She is proficient in French, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and has a working knowledge of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Follow her @Jessica_Reports.