White House verifies video showing execution of journalist
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E-mail Xinhua, August 21, 2014
The White House said on Wednesday that the video released by Islamic militants to show the beheading of one American journalist and the presence of another was "authentic."
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the U. S. intelligence community had analyzed the video posted online late Tuesday, and that "we have reached the judgment that this video is authentic."
"We will continue to provide updates as they are available," she said in a brief statement.
James Foley, a freelance American journalist who was captured by militants in Syria in November 2012, was shown on the video being beheaded by a masked militant from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to avenge ongoing air raids on the group's targets by U.S. warplanes.
The group, which has seized large swathes of territories in western and northern Iraq in recent months, also threatened to kill another man shown on the video said to be American freelancer Steven Sotloff.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to make a statement on the beheading at 12:45 p.m. ET (1645 GMT), the White House said.
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