Paul Wood’s diary: From James Foley’s memorial to gunfire in the streets

 Lebanon

The Beirut press corps gather to remember the murdered journalist Jim Foley. People stand for a minute’s silence, drink in hand. Below the balcony, the nightly Beirut traffic jam sends the sound of car horns floating upward. Before killing him, the so-called Islamic State emailed his family: ‘The scum of your society… are held prisoner by us, THEY DARED TO ENTER THE LION’S DEN AND WHERE [sic] EATEN!’ I always thought of the hardy band of foreign freelancers, of which Jim was a part, as the best of us. They venture into Syria without the cushion of a big news organisation behind them, often not knowing if they’ll even be able to sell anything. They do it purely for the love of being on the story. The Foley family, the image of grace in contrast to the jihadis, respond to the tragedy by setting up two charities in Jim’s name, one supporting freelancers. Details are at www.freejamesfoley.org, the website’s name now, sadly, redundant.

As I write, there’s more dreadful news: IS says it has killed another journalist, Steven Sotloff. A remark from Jim’s memorial gathering comes to mind, a correspondent for one of the big American TV networks saying that none of this should stop us going into Syria. It is a noble idea, but increasingly hard to act on. In July, we went to do a day’s filming in the rebel-held town of Azaz, just over the border from Turkey. Twenty minutes in, the rebels protecting us said we had to leave: other fighters were coming to kidnap us. The threat was from a group known as the ‘naughty brigade’, more criminal than Islamist. But an Iraqi intelligence official told me the Islamic State had made $200 million from kidnapping.