Op-ed: ISIS Terrorists Who Beheaded Journalists Should Not Be Glorified or Humanized

One of the biggest terrorism trials in the United States is likely to be held in the coming months as Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh are soon to be brought to the U.S. The two were part of a quarter of ex-British nationals who had joined ISIS and were dubbed “the Beatles.” The pair faces charges of terrorism, kidnapping, and murder. 

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh joined the Islamic State and were half of a notorious cell that was responsible for killing more than 27 people. Among their victims were two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, American aid worker Peter Kassig, Kayla Mueller, as well as British and Japanese reporters and aid workers.

In a video interview, first seen in July, Kotey and Elsheikh admitted their involvement in the captivity of Mueller. Mueller was tortured and sexually abused before her death in 2015. They also admitted to beating Foley before his death. Another member of the cell, Mohammed Emwazi, beheaded Foley on video. 

These people are not the f**king Beatles. But for the second time, the mainstream (lamestream) media are trying to make terrorists and murderers to be some kind of misunderstood rock stars. 

This isn’t the first time this has happened. Several years ago, the Tsarnaev brothers planted two pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The initial blast killed two young women in their 20s and eight-year-old Martin Richard who was there with his family. Several hundred people were injured; 17 were amputated. While making their escape, the Tsarnaevs ambushed and killed a young MIT police officer. 

During the shootout with Boston and Massachusetts State Police officers, the older of the two brothers, Tamerlan was shot several times and was run over by his brother Dzhokhar as the latter sped away. Tamerlan died soon afterward. Dzhokhar was shot, wounded, and captured while hiding in a boat nearby. 

Rolling Stone magazine did an article about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that made him out to be more of a rock star than the murderer of an eight-year-old boy. The only thing missing was the full photo layout with the little prick modeling the latest fashion from New York. 

Now Kotey and Elsheikh, who were responsible for the kidnapping, brutal beating, raping, and beheading of innocent aid workers are the Beatles? The next time someone writes “the Beatles” next to these two names, maybe they should contact the Mueller or Foley families and ask if they think the pair should appear on “America’s Got Talent” as the Beatles had appeared on the old Ed Sullivan Show. 

And what this cell did is no different than hundreds of other cells of ISIS have done no matter where they were located. Committing atrocities has been a hallmark of the Islamic State. It has routinely slaughtered Syrian and Iraqi prisoners and civilians and then posted their graphic videos of their crimes on social media. 

Kotey and Elsheikh were captured and identified by the American-led SDF in Syria, but have been in legal limbo ever since. The U.S. asked the British, who had stripped the two of their citizenship, for evidence. It then asked for their extradition. The U.K. was reluctant to hand them over because they knew that the U.S. Justice Department would probably seek the death penalty. 

In 2018, the Brits decided to honor the extradition request. Yet, it was held up when the mother of Elsheikh filed a suit against the government challenging the decision, something that denied the Mueller and Foley families.

In August, Attorney General William Barr had assured the British government that the United States would not seek the death penalty against the pair. This cleared the way for their extradition.

The Justice Department is expected to announce charges against the pair this week. 

Mohammed Emwazi, the black-clad terrorist known as “Jihadi John” who beheaded several hostages on camera, was vaporized by Hellfire missiles in a 2015 drone-strike. The fourth member of the cell, Aine Lesley Davis, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in Turkey in 2017.

The State Department in describing him as a terrorist had a narrative that stated, “Elsheikh was said to have earned a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions, and crucifixions while serving as an ISIS jailer.”

Described as a jail guard, Kotey “likely engaged in the group’s executions and exceptionally cruel torture methods, including electronic shock and waterboarding.”

The pair told the British that they didn’t know or ever meet Mueller. They have since changed their stories. Kotey said, “She was in a room by herself that no one would go in.”

Elsheikh provided many more details, saying, “I took an email from her myself,” meaning he got an email address from Mueller that ISIS could use to demand ransom from the family. “She was in a large room, it was dark, and she was alone, and… she was very scared.”

Mueller was eventually turned over to and raped by the former ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Baghdadi killed himself with a suicide vest as he was being chased last fall by American Delta Force operators during a raid in northwest Syria.

Kayla Mueller died in 2015 in what ISIS said was a Jordanian airstrike. The circumstances of her death have yet to be confirmed.

The Tsarnaev brothers knew what terrorism was about and happily joined in after being influenced by al-Qaeda, after being welcomed into the United States where they went to college. Kotey and Elsheikh did the same with ISIS. They not only condoned ISIS’s atrocities, they willingly participated in them. 

They’re not rock stars nor the Beatles. They’re cold-blooded murderers and the sooner the trials take place the sooner they can spend the rest of their existence in a super-max hellhole.