ISIS has been accused of trying to sell James Foley's headless body to the American photojournalist's parents for $1 million,
according to a BuzzFeed report that cites sources connected to the terrorist group.
The report claims that ISIS middlemen scrambling to raise money attempted to strike the deal with the family of Foley, the first American hostage to be killed in the ISIS beheadings that started over the summer.
"If true, the attempted sale would highlight the ruthlessness behind the hostage-taking enterprise that has provided ISIS with deep reservoirs of funds and publicity — as well as the group's cold calculation as it works to raise more cash," BuzzFeed's Mike Giglio wrote.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for killing Foley, U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker Alan Henning, and U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig, according to BuzzFeed. The website reported that ISIS continues to hold British journalist John Cantlie and a 26-year-old female U.S. aid worker hostage.
In November, President Barack Obama ordered a review of the administration's handling of overseas hostage cases after the families of those killed by ISIS accused the
White House of inaction, the New York Daily News reported.
Foley's family claims that the White House prevented them from raising funds for their son's ransom and ignored reports of his whereabouts before he was killed on Aug. 19. Similarly, Sotloff's family says that government officials "bullied and hectored" them when they tried to work through a back channel win their son's release with ransom money, the Daily News noted.
Trading Western hostage has become its own shadow industry in a place like Syria, where a middleman can earn a commission for successful negotiation, one source told BuzzFeed. Taking the trade to the level of selling bodies demonstrates how far ISIS will go to make money from its hostage enterprise, according to the website.
The National Review Online reported that the U.S. State Department press office initially declined to comment on the BuzzFeed News report.
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