James Foley’s Brother: The U.S. Could Have Done More for Jim 
 
 By Liz Goodwin 
 
 The brother of American journalist James Foley said Friday morning that the U.S. government could have done more to attempt to free his brother and other American hostages from the Islamic militant group ISIL. 
 
 “There’s more that could have been done directly on Jim’s behalf,” Michael Foley, 38, told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric in an exclusive interview near his parents’ home in Dover, New Hampshire. “I really, really hope that Jim’s death pushes us to take another look at our approach to terrorist and hostage negotiation.” 
 
 Foley, a 40-year-old journalist who was covering the Syrian conflict for GlobalPost, was kidnapped nearly two years ago near the Syria-Turkey border. ISIL, also called ISIS, released a grisly video of his beheading Tuesday, claiming it killed him in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes in the region. 
 
 But another issue was money. The group had also captured French and Spanish journalists, but freed them after their governments paid ransoms through intermediaries. The U.S. government refused to negotiate or pay the group on behalf of Foley and other American captives. ISIL emailed Michael Foley and demanded 100 million euros—a sum he called “ridiculous”—for his brother’s release. 
 
 “I just feel strongly that more can be done moving forward,” Michael Foley said. 
 
 The Obama administration said this week that it had sent a special military operations force to try to rescue Foley and the other Americans over the summer, but that the mission failed. “I’d like to think it did happen, but I certainly wasn’t aware of it,” Foley said of the failed mission. 
 
 ISIL has threatened to kill another captured American journalist, Steven Sotloff, next. Michael Foley said he hopes the U.S. government does more on his behalf, including considering trading prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 
 
 “I don't believe ISIL can be contained — containment is not a strategy. We need to recognize that they are a threat and we need to deal with them,” Michael Foley said. 
 
 Michael Foley and his sister Katie, 26, told Couric that condolences have come pouring in from all around the world. Pope Francis called their family yesterday, telling them that James Foley’s death was an act of martyrdom. 
 
 The family briefly had hope that they would be able to negotiate for his release, after an intermediary made contact with ISIL on their behalf. But then the U.S. government began bombing ISIL earlier this month. On August 12, ISIL sent Foley’s parents a “chilling” email saying their son would die to pay for the airstrikes, according to Michael Foley. “I don’t understand where that type of hate could come from,” Katie Foley said. 
 
 The family believes that Foley volunteered to be the first American to be executed. “You can see from the clips from the video that he wasn’t afraid,” Michael Foley said. 
 
 European journalists who were captured by ISIL but later freed told Foley’s family that the journalist made a makeshift board game out of objects they found and even taught his fellow captives Spanish as a way to keep hope alive. 
 
 The U.S. government says they will hunt down and punish Foley’s killers. 
 
 “We will be relentless,” President Barack Obama said this week. “When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done.” 
 
 Foley’s friends have set up a scholarship fund in his name at Marquette University, where he graduated in 1996, for disadvantaged students. 
 
 Watch the Full Interview: ||||| ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — James Foley, the U.S. journalist slain by Islamic State militants after being held in captivity for nearly two years, will be remembered Sunday at a Mass of Remembrance in his hometown. 
 
 Irene Harvey reaches over Barbara Bush to light her candle during a candlelight vigil for James Foley in his hometown of Rochester, N.H., Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014. Foley, a freelance journalist, was killed... (Associated Press) 
 
 A woman holds a candle during a vigil for James Foley in his hometown of Rochester, N.H., Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014. Several hundred people attended and paid tribute to the freelance American journalist... (Associated Press) 
 
 Foley was kidnapped on Thanksgiving Day 2012 while covering the Syrian uprising. The Islamic State posted a Web video Tuesday showing his murder and said it was in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq. 
 
 President Barack Obama has called Foley a hero for telling the stories of oppressed people in war-torn regions like Syria and Libya. The U.S. launched a raid this summer to rescue Foley and other hostages, but special forces were unable to locate the captives. 
 
 The Mass at 2 p.m. Sunday is in Foley's hometown church, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Rochester. 
 
 At a vigil Saturday night in Rochester, about 200 people gathered to show support for the Foley family. Foley's parents, John and Diane Foley, attended, Foster's Daily Democrat reported. 
 
 "We are honored that you care and love Jim. We are honored that you recognized the sacrifices he made," John Foley said. "He loved the Syrian people. He was devoted to telling their story and doing whatever he could to help their fight." 
 
 Speakers praised Foley's determination to report on the Syrian people uprooted by conflict. 
 
 "Tonight we want to honor freedom and love: the freedom that James so vehemently believed that all people deserved," said Nadia Alawa, founder of NuDay Syria, a Massachusetts-based organization working to ease the pain and loss in Syria. "To James Foley, denying others freedom and a basic voice of feelings and free space was not OK." 
 
 She also condemned the campaign of terror and violence carried out by the Islamic State. 
 
 "(ISIS) thrives on using the name of Islam to justify their vengeful acts that targets innocent non-Muslims as well as Muslims for no apparent, rational reasons," Alawa said. "As a Muslim, I refuse to let terrorists take my religion as hostage." 
 
 The world's largest bloc of Islamic nations also denounced Foley's "heinous" killing and reiterated its support for international efforts to confront the Islamic State. 
 
 Iyad Madani, chief of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, said in a statement Saturday that the actions of the Islamic State have nothing to do with the values of Islam or his organization's founding principles of tolerance and co-existence. ||||| share tweet pin email 
 
 James Foley's parents, John and Diane Foley, say that before their son was killed by ISIS they had hoped they could negotiate with the terrorist group, and promise that their son's legacy will live on. 
 
 "Jim's strength and love was the answer to prayer...Jim will live on," the Foleys told TODAY's Tamron Hall Friday. 
 
 ISIS militants have claimed responsibility for executing the American photojournalist. The group sent Foley's parents an email on Aug. 12, stating that their son would be "executed." The email was the first communication the Foleys had received from their son's captors since December of 2013, which initially left them hopeful they could find a way to bring him home safely. 
 
 
 
 Today John and Diane Foley 
 
 "I actually was excited to see an email despite the conclusion that they would execute Jim,'' his father said. "We underestimated that point. I did not realize how brutal they were, and I actually hoped we could engage in negotiations with them if they were willing to send any sort of communication because we had none prior." 
 
 A French journalist who was released in April and shared a cell with Foley spoke about his courage and noted how he was treated more harshly because he was American. 
 
 "Jim's courage and particularly his compassion and love in that box, which they called it, was an answer to prayer,'' his mother said. "We had so many people praying for Jimmy. We had begged for prayer, but we didn't need to." 
 
 
 
 The family has received a call from Pope Francis comforting them for their loss. 
 
 "Pope Francis was so dear because he is grieving himself having just lost three members of his family and (with) his nephew critically ill,'' Diane said. "Here in the midst of his tremendous grief, he took the time to call. He was just so kind." 
 
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– Many Roman Catholics saw journalist James Foley—who was kidnapped, tortured, and beheaded by ISIS—as a symbol of enduring faith under horrible circumstances. Then it came out that he had converted to Islam in captivity. Now what? "The answer is we can’t assess it," says a Jesuit preist who calls Foley "a good and holy man" but casts doubt on his conversion. "We cannot look at what is in someone’s soul." Foley's story is further complicated by his own apparent confusion, the New York Times reports. First kidnapped in Libya in 2011, Foley says he prayed with Muslim cellmates who opposed the Gadhafi government. After washing himself, he was told he had converted. "So, from then on out, I prayed with them five times a day," he says in a YouTube video. "But it was difficult. I was thinking, 'Jesus, am I praying to Allah? Am I violating my belief in you?'" he adds. "I don’t have an answer to that. I just know that I was authentically with them, and I was authentically praying to Jesus." Kidnapped again in Syria in 2012, he converted to Islam in captivity and appeared sincere about it, freed hostages say. But people are debating whether Foley, once an altar boy in a Catholic family, converted for himself or his captors (as this GetReligion article attests). "I believe, much like in Libya, Jim 'converted' for the purpose of surviving," says one of his brothers. Pope Francis has apparently called Foley a martyr and says other Christian martyrs are being "tortured, massacred" today, ANSA reports. Yet Foley's mother, a Eucharistic minister, seems unsure: "Only God and Jim know what was going on in his heart," she says.