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18 Sep, 2014 14:56

​ISIS publishes video of captive British journalist John Cantlie

IS has released a haunting video allegedly showing British journalist John Cantlie, who was kidnapped by ISIS in Syria in November 2012.

A former reporter for The Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph, Cantlie sits at a table wearing an orange shirt and describes how he will dispel “manipulated truths” told by the Western media.

The video appears to be part of a targeted IS propaganda campaign using gruesome videos of Western hostages to convey the militant group’s message.

In what appears to be a rehearsed, scripted speech, Cantlie says: “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking ‘he’s only doing this because he’s a prisoner – he’s got a gun at his head and he’s being forced to do this.”

He said that he cannot deny that he is a prisoner, but since being “abandoned” by his government his fate now lies in the hands of Islamic State and he has “nothing to lose.”

Cantlie says he wants to take the opportunity to “convey some facts,” so that other lives can be saved.

A war with the Islamic State would be “yet another unwinnable conflict” - a reference to the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan.

“I’m going to show you the truth behind the systems and motivation of the Islamic State.”

Cantlie criticizes the US and UK governments for refusing to pay ransoms for their citizens. He says that while other European nations (including Spain and France) were willing to negotiate with IS to secure the release of their citizens, “the British and Americans were left behind.”

Washington and London, he adds, “thought they could do it differently to every other European country.”

At the end of the video Cantlie asks viewers to join him again for the next program – indicating that this video may be just the first of a series of propaganda clips featuring him.

The Islamic State’s media wing 'Al-Furqan' is thought to have released the video.

YouTube has since removed the video, because it is "a violation of YouTube's policy on violence."

To-date IS has released three gruesome videos showing the beheadings of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker David Haines. The Islamic State has threatened to execute a fourth hostage, British aid worker Alan Hennings.