Re: Kayla Jean Mueller, an American prisoner held by ISIS, was confirmed dead

Admin Fri 13 Feb 2015, 4:51 pm

A Sad Truth About Kayla Mueller
By Voice of Israel February 13, 2015 , 8:45 am

Investigative journalist Lee Kaplan joins VOI’s Josh Hasten on the phone from San Francisco to discuss the ties between Kayla Mueller – the American killed after being held captive by ISIS — and the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Kaplan says that Mueller, like American ISM activist Rachel Corrie, turned the desire to do something good into support for terrorist organizations.

CLICK HERE SCROLL DOWN TO LISTEN (14.51min)

Admin Fri 13 Feb 2015, 3:26 pm

Kayla Mueller, ISIS Captive Killed in Airstrike, Had Deep Roots to Pro-Palestinian Causes
By Lea Speyer February 12, 2015 , 8:30 am
“All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.” (Ecclesiastes 3:20)

Kayla Jean Mueller, a 26-year-old aid worker from Arizona who was captured by ISIS in Syria, was confirmed dead by the US government.
Held secretly in captivity, ISIS announced on Friday that Mueller was tragically killed in a Jordanian airstrike in Raqqa when a rocket destroyed the building she was being held in.

For several days, neither Jordanian nor American officials could confirm her death. US President Barack Obama announced Mueller’s death on Tuesday and vowed to “find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible.”

While Mueller’s kidnapping was kept under wraps for over a year and a half, who exactly was Kayla Mueller?

According to a Haaretz report, Mueller had become a bit of an activist, organizing marches and events in support of the people in Darfur, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and other causes.
After graduating from Northern Arizona University in 2009, Mueller spent her summer volunteering for her latest cause, Palestinian “oppression.”

Working for the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian activist group with ties to terrorists, Mueller lived in the East Jerusalem neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah “to try and prevent the takeover of their home by Israeli settlers.”

These homes were, in fact, deemed legally belonging to Jews after a 20 year court battle.

The homes originally belonged to Jews but the inhabitants were chased out by Arabs in previous wars.
In several instances, Mueller served as a human shield, preventing Israel from demolishing the homes of convicted terrorists and suicide bombers responsible for the deaths of innocent Israelis after gaining legal clearance. She put her life in danger to protect radical Jihadists.

Mueller also worked in Hebron where she lived and protested against Israel. According to the report, “she also joined weekly Friday protests against the Israeli occupation in Bilin and other Palestinian villages, writing frequent blogs about those experiences.”
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/1-Hebron-CommunitySupport-600WIDE.jpg
In one such post, Mueller wrote: “Oppression greets us from all angles. Oppression wails from the soldiers radio and floats through tear gas clouds in the air…But resistance is nestled in the cracks in the wall, resistance flows from the minaret 5 times a day and resistance sits quietly in jail knowing its time will come again. Resistance lives in the grieving mother’s wails and resistance lives in the anger at the lies broadcasted across the globe. Though it is sometimes hard to see and even harder sometimes to harbor, resistance lives. Do not be fooled, resistance lives.”

After leaving Israel, Mueller traveled around the world continuing her activist work. Eventually, Mueller made her way to Syria with her boyfriend and “not under any aid organization’s auspices.” Mueller met her boyfriend in Cairo and is described as a Syrian photographer and activist.
The boyfriend was hired to perform work at a Spanish MSF (Doctors without Borders) hospital in Syria. Taking longer than expected to complete his work, the couple was forced to spend the night inside of Syria rather than be transported back to Turkey.

Mueller and her boyfriend never made it back to the bus station to meet their transport. Both were captured by ISISI soldiers. Mueller’s boyfriend was eventually released.
Upon confirmation of Mueller’s death, her family released a statement saying they were “heartbroken” over the death of their loved one. Various media outlets reported that the family was sent a photo, via email, of Mueller’s body as proof.

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/29754/kayla-mueller-isis-captive-killed-airstrike-deep-roots-pro-palestinian-causes-middle-east/#kIyrOJSpE50pwOsB.99

Admin Wed 11 Feb 2015, 1:37 am

Kayla Jean Mueller, an American prisoner held by ISIS, was confirmed dead on Tuesday, the Washington Post's Adam Goldman reports. The Post and a number of other outlets have also published an absolutely heartbreaking letter Mueller sent to her family from captivity last year.

"I have come to see there is good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it," she told her family. "Please be patient, give your pain to God. I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I am doing. Do not fear for me, continue to pray as will I + by God's will we will be together soon."

The circumstances of Mueller's death are still unclear. Last week, ISIS claimed that Mueller was killed in a Jordanian airstrike. But ISIS has strong incentives to lie here and has lied in the past.

Mueller disappeared in Aleppo, Syria, in 2013. She was there as an aid worker helping innocent victims of the Syrian civil war. "For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal. (I will not let this be) something we just accept," Mueller said in a 2013 address to the Kiwanis Club in her hometown of Prescott, Arizona, as reported by Prescott's Daily Courier newspaper. "When Syrians hear I'm an American, they ask, 'Where is the world?' All I can do is cry with them, because I don't know."

Mueller's letter, which the Post says was released by her family, was full of the same grace and humanity.

"If you could say I have 'suffered' at all throughout this whole experience it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through," Mueller wrote in the 2014 letter. "I will never ask you to forgive me as I do not deserve forgiveness."

Here's the full text of the letter, based on the Post's transcription (paragraph breaks added for readability). You can read the original handwritten version over at The Post:

Everyone,

If you are receiving this letter it means I am still detained but my cell mates (starting from 11/2/2014) have been released. I have asked them to contact you + send this letter. It's hard to know what to say. Please know I am in a safe location, completely unharmed + healthy (put on weight in fact); I have been treated w/ the utmost respect + kindness.

I wanted to write you all a well thought out letter (but I didn't know if my cell mates would be leaving in the coming days or the coming months restricting my time but primarily) I could only but write the letter a paragraph at a time, just the thought of you sends me into a fit of tears.

If you could say I have "suffered" at all throughout this whole experience it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through; I will never ask you to forgive me as I do not deserve forgiveness.

I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator b/c there was literally no one else... + by God + by your prayers I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall.

I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that, even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see there is good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it. I pray each day that if nothing else, yo have felt a certain closeness + surrender to God as well + have formed a bond of love + support amongst one another... I miss you all as if it has been a decade of forced separation.

I have had many a long hour to think, to think of all the things I will do w/ Lex, our first family camping trip, the first meeting @ the airport. I have had many hours to think how only in your absence have I finally @ 25 years old come to realize your place in my life. The gift that is each one of you + the person I could + could not be if you were not a part of my life, my fmaily, my support. I DO NOT want the negotiations for my release to be your duty, if there is any other option take it, even if it takes more time.

This should never have become your burden.

I have asked these women to support you; please seek their advice. If you have not done so already, [REDACTED] can contact [REDACTED] who may have a certain level of experience with these people. None of us could have known it would be this long but I know I am also fighting from my side in the ways that I am able + I have a lot of fight left in me. I am not breaking down + I will not give in no matter how long it takes.

I wrote a song some months ago that says, "The part of me that pains the most also gets me out of bed, w/out your hope there would be nothing left..." aka—The thought of your pain is the source of my own, simultaneously the hope of our reunion is the source of my strength.

Please be patient, give your pain to God. I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I am doing. Do not fear for me, continue to pray as will I + by God's will we will be together soon.

All my everything,

Kayla

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