Abdul-Rahman Kassig's family has already released a letter from him in which he said he was "scared to die" and posted a series of YouTube videos begging for his freedom from his ISIS captors. Now mom Paula Kassig has taken to Twitter to directly address "Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi" in an online plea, NBC News reports. "I am trying to get in touch with the Islamic State about my son's fate," she tweeted yesterday evening. "I am an old woman, and Abdul Rahman is my only child. My husband and I are on our own, with no help from the government. We would like to talk to you. How can we reach you?" Abdul-Rahman, whose given name was Peter, was captured in Syria in October 2013 while on a humanitarian mission and most recently shown at the end of the video that showed fellow hostage Alan Henning's beheading, CNN reports.
The Kassigs' public announcement that the US government isn't helping their cause probably isn't a surprise to the family of David Foley, who claimed that American officials threatened them with prosecution if they paid a ransom and warned them not to talk to the media; the government denies threatening either the Foleys or the family of journalist Steven Sotloff. Meanwhile, friends who attended a vigil last night at Butler University, the Indiana college Abdul-Rahman Kassig attended, told NBC News that he believed the help he could bring to the region would outweigh any risks he might find there. "I think that says a tremendous amount about the sort of person he is and to the kind of legacy he wants to create," a college pal said. (More ISIS stories.)
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