British PM vows justice after ‘act of pure evil’ David Cameron

LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron said this weekend that the apparent beheading of British aid worker David Haines by Islamic State militants was an “act of pure evil” and vowed to “hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice.”
Cameron made the comments late Saturday after a video emerged online released by ISIL or ISIS of a man resembling the 44-year-old Scot kneeling beside a masked militant who speaks in British-accented English. Britain’s Foreign Office said yesterday it believes the video to be genuine.

The video, which goes on to show Haines’ brutal slaying, is similar to footage released by ISIL showing the killings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Haines is at least the third westerner murdered by the Islamic extremist group under exceptionally barbaric circumstances and his death comes as Washington has stepped up a campaign to enlist allies to combat the organisation operating across large parts of Iraq and Syria.

“I don’t think (this video) will change things,” Raffaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defence think tank, said yesterday. “It might, however, serve to heighten Britons’ horror and resolve to deal with this problem,” he said.

“The fundamental western strategy to deal with ISIL is not being affected by these grim videos, as the political calculus at this point must be that the group is going to continue these heinous acts notwithstanding any shift,” said Pantucci.

The two-and-a-half minute video is titled “A Message to the Allies of America” and shows Haines delivering a direct message to Cameron.
“My name is David Cawthorne Haines,” the message starts. “I would like to declare that I hold you David Cameron entirely responsible for my execution. You entered voluntarily into a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State just as your predecessor Tony Blair did, following a trend against our British prime ministers who can’t find the courage to say no to the Americans.”

The man seen alongside Haines in the video reiterates the captive’s message, saying that the UK bears responsibility for partnering with the US against ISIL.
“If you, Cameron, persist in fighting the Islamic State, then you like your master Obama will have the blood of your people on your hands,” the executioner, who appears to be the same man who appeared in the Foley and Sotloff videos, says.

That man has yet to be publicly identified, a situation that has led to the British press to refer to him as “Jihadi John.”
The prime minister chaired an emergency meeting at Downing Street yesterday to coordinate a response to the video, which also contains a threat to Alan Henning, another British national being held by ISIL.

Speaking after the meeting, Cameron said the UK was “sickened” that a British national may have carried out the killing. He also said that ISIL fighters “are not Muslims, they are monsters.”

He added: “Step by step, we must drive back, dismantle and ultimately destroy ISIL and what it stands for. We will do so in a calm, deliberate way — but with an iron determination.”

However, the prime minister stopped short of offering new measures to counter the threat of ISIL at home and abroad.
Cameron said yesterday: “The United States is taking direct military action. We support their efforts. This is not about British combat troops on the ground.”
Both London and Washington have so far insisted that they will not negotiate with groups such as ISIL who are holding western hostages.

On Saturday, the White House released a statement condemning Haines’ killing.
“We will work with the United Kingdom and a broad coalition of nations from the region and around the world to bring the perpetrators of this outrageous act to justice, and to degrade and destroy this threat to the people of our countries, the region and the world,” the statement said.

President Obama said on Wednesday he is prepared to order airstrikes against ISIL and send in 475 military advisers to assist in operations to root out the group.
Haines, a father of two who grew up in Perth, Scotland, but who settled in Croatia after working for several humanitarian agencies there and in Libya and South Sudan, was abducted last year in Syria.

His brother, Mike, released a statement Saturday mourning his family’s loss. — USA Today

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