President Trump personally called the parents of journalist James Foley with news of the “whimpering and crying” death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, they have revealed.
Administration officials first alerted the Foleys that a statement was coming early Sunday before the president phoned them at their New Hampshire home later that day.
“I am grateful for that kindness and for finding Baghdadi,” James’ mom, Diane Foley, told the Boston Globe of the commander-in-chief’s call.
Foley said she urged the president to bring to trial in the US the two captured members of “The Beatles,” the notorious kill squad that beheaded her son in a videotaped horror in 2014.
Brits Alexanda Kotey, 35, and El Shafee Elsheikh, 31, were recently transferred from a Kurdish jail into US military custody to avoid any possible escape during the upheaval as US troops withdrew. The group’s executioner, Mohammed “Jihadi John” Emwazim, was killed in a drone strike in 2015.
Foley said she believes a US trial is the best way to deal with all the terrorists — and she would have preferred Baghdadi to have been captured alive.
“My preference is for all of these ISIS fighters and leaders to be held in custody and face trial,” Foley told the Globe.
The mom also tweeted about the news Sunday.
“I am grateful to our President and brave troops for finding ISIS leader Al-Bagdadi,” she wrote on her late son’s foundation page. “I hope this will hinder the resurgence of terror groups and pray that captured ISIS fighters will be brought to trial and held accountable.”
She said she was “concerned about the dozen Americans held hostage in Syria” still.
“I ask President Trump to make them, and all American hostages, a priority,” she wrote.
She later told WMUR-TV, “We have the expertise to find them and bring them home, and this finding al-Baghdadi is proof of that.”
Foley also admitted in that interview that Baghdadi’s death may only prove a temporary “blow” to the “shrewd, hateful group.”
“We’ve got to be ready for retaliation, and they’re not defeated yet,” she said.
ISIS is “like grass. You mow it, but it continues to grow,” her husband, John Foley, told the station. “And I don’t think that the elimination of al-Baghdadi is the final answer.”
