With vigil at hand, hopes for finding James stay high

James Foley

The mother of captured journalist James Foley said today that despite speaking with the Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations this week, her family is no closer to fnding out what group in that war-torn country is keeping her son imprisoned and where they are holding him.
As recently as last week, it was believed Foley was likely being held by pro-government forces, but Diane Foley said today that they fear he may have fallen into the hands of more extreme factions.
“At first we thought it was a pro-government faction,” said Foley, of Rochester. “Now we have been made aware there are many persons who have been captured by more radical groups.”
The anti-government forces in Syria run the gamut from nationalistic freedom fighters to Al Qaida-inspired jihadists who target Westerners whenever the opportunity arises.
Foley went missing about 11 months ago while covering one of the anti-government groups in northern Syria.
There will be a Mass and short vigil for James Foley today – his 40th birthday - at 6 p.m. at the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church on North Main Street. The public is invited to attend.
This is not the first time James Foley, a correspondent for GlobalPost, has been held captive during a regime-change confrontation. He was captured in Libya two years ago, but was released after 44 days in captivity.
His mother said that ordeal was much less tense than the current situation, since they knew who was holding him and actually spoke to him several times during his imprisonment.

This time, she said, they have had no contact and no progress in finding out where he is and what his captors’ intentions are.
She said there are many other journalists and other Westerners, many of them unnamed, currently being held by various factions in Syria.
“The situation over there is horribly dangerous,” she told The Lebanon Voice.
Foley recently returned from a trip to New York where she met with Bashar Ja’afari, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, which she said was welcomed but produced no tangible leads on her son’s whereabouts.
“We know less now than we did before,” she said.