The United States condemns in the strongest terms possible the brutal and barbaric beheading by ISIL of a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff.
“Whatever these murderers think they’ll achieve by killing innocent Americans like Steven,” said President Barack Obama, “they have already failed. They have failed because, like people around the world, Americans are repulsed by their barbarism.
We will not be intimidated,” said President Obama. ISIL’s “horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to take the fight against these terrorists.” Those who make the mistake of harming Americans, warned President Obama, “will learn that we will not forget, and that our reach is long and that justice will be served.”
The United States is going to bring justice to those who perpetrated these terrible crimes against James Foley and Steven Sotloff. More broadly, said President Obama, the “United States will continue to lead a regional and international effort against the kind of barbaric and ultimately empty vision that ISIL represents.”
The objective now, said President Obama, is to organize “the Arab world, the Middle East, the Muslim world along with the international community to isolate[ISIL], this particular brand of extremism that is, first and foremost, destructive to the Muslim world and the Arab world and North Africa, and the people who live there. They’re the ones who are most severely affected. They’re the ones who are constantly under threat of being killed. . . .And we’ve got to combat it in a sustained, effective way. And I’m confident,” said President Obama, “we’re going to be able to do that.”
