Obama says terror group has killed Japanese hostage

Goto has a wife and baby ... what logical person would leave them ?

wow, i am truly impress with obama, he knows what happened quicky rather than abe itself. truly what people said, obama is police of the world!

Goto is a journalist, and it's part of his job as he sees it to report on this. The same could be said for all men and women in the military as well. Why leave your families behind, I believe he did it as a sense of duty as a journalist to let the world know just how barbaric the IS is and why they need to be stamped out like the cockroaches they are.

The other dude was a thrill seeker who seems to have gotten his wish to die. He attempted suicide, and his actions after that seem like those of a person hell-bent on putting themselves in danger to fulfill their desire to die. His actions speak louder than his words.

Sad if true.

A good way to alienate more of the worlds population. ISIS days are numbered....

These people don't care if hostages have family, babies, children, wife. They feel very happy to kill Christians, Jews and other religious people. They always do this in the name of Mohammad.

This may be a good time to reflect on history and understand the violence that seems to accompany the foundation of any new nation and also often the withering of old powers. The US is a good example. Also we can read about the Martyrs of Japan. Whether we like it or not or agree with the methods, perhaps we are watching the birth of the new nation of IS.

@masri I cannot understand your criticism. If there is one specialist for giving orders to have people killed, Obama is indeed the first choice.

Even the New York Times showed that every morning he marks names of people on a list, which will be killed by drones on that day. Of course they are all bad...

Goto knew Yukawa before the kidnapping. He also knew Yukawa had problems (a death wish, cut off his own penis, etc), perhaps stemming from a broken heart caused by the recent death of his wife. Goto went back there to try to convince Yukawa to return to Japan. Maybe Yukawa is where he wanted to be all along, with his wife. I hope Goto returns to Japan and is given a hero's welcome.

Goto is a journalist, and it's part of his job as he sees it to report on this.

Maybe, but that's not why he went. He couldn't live with himself knowing that they had his acquaintance and not trying to do anything about it. Then he got fooled by a guide and ended up in IS hands.

Sad if true.

A good way to alienate more of the worlds population. ISIS days are numbered....

That would be sad news, I agree, if that were true. But the only way to fight radical Islam is if the world can call it out for what it is and go after these guys with full force and absolute will to take the gloves off and kill as many of these guys as possible and starve them financially as well as well. If the world doesn't understand by now they don't play by the rules and will kill you without a thought, then they are living on another planet.

bass4funk Never a truer word said. Erase these IS evil bastards from the face of the earth like the cockroaches they are.

I will pray for the soul of Yukawa-san Sunday morning at mass here in the states, as well as for the safe release of oto-san as well. Incredible that such barbarian acts are being done in the name of religion.

Most likely Yukawa has been beheaded. Way past time for the Japanese military to join a world-wide coalition to wipe out these savages.

"wow, i am truly impress (sic) with obama, he knows what happened quicky rather than abe itself."

Maybe you don't recall back in 1998 when North Korea shot a missile right over Japan's main island of Honshu before splashing down in the Pacific? The American CIA were the ones to tell the Japanese government that it happened: they knew before Japan did.

The Japanese people must realize that they can no longer pretend that they're innocents watching on the sidelines, "not taking sides." Japan is now funding the fight AGAINST ISIS, and every person who lives here should come to terms with all that entails.

And not only Japanese nationals. Since ISIS is an Islamic-based radicalized terrorist group, no one in the world should feel themselves free from threat since, as the renowned professor of Mideast and Islamic studies, Bernard Lewis, once honestly stated, "It is the duty of those who have accepted them [Allah's word and message] to strive unceasingly to convert or at least to subjugate those who have not. This obligation is without limit of time or space. It must continue until the whole world has either accepted the Islamic faith or submitted to the power of the Islamic state."

japan came to the middle east but abe lacks foreign diplomacy and gesture in dealing with foreigners , ,,,,,

very very bad

ISIS maximises the impact. The lower-value hostage first, then let the extortion victims grill for a few days, and then then the higher-value hostage.

Completely systematic, effective, and brutal. And we look at this medieval supmrecist cult from our 21st century perspective like a deer caught in the headlights.

RIP Haruna Yakawa.

It's awful these two men died. Shows the ugly side of humanity. Which, let's be honest, is a really big side.

I've heard though, that if you don't stick your face in a bee's nest, you won't get stung. Dunno if it's true or not.

The killers will suffer a violent death themselves in time. These evil men should be laid to rest with dead sickened swine too.

ISIS or Al-Qaeda, those aggressive groups are pathetically trying to increase their political power by posing that they are fighting against "the USA and its minions" over people whose lives are screwed up by US foreign policy around its energy strategy meddling with their local conflicts. The irony here is, such hostile attitudes will give excuses for the USA and its allies to interfere militarily even further and thus profiting military industry while they are milking money out of the pockets of ordinary people in their country though taxes while putting their lives under constant threats. So, if you are a part of the system, it's good for you but if not, you are actually those who are on the chopping block.

Obama says in his statement that the United States will stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Japan.

This is real damaging statement.

"Obama’s statement doesn’t say how the United States knows that Haruna Yukawa is dead, and the Japanese government is trying to verify an online video that purports to show his death."

That or if? Is there an insider?

But the only way to fight radical Islam is if the world can call it out for what it is and go after these guys with full force and absolute will to take the gloves off and kill as many of these guys as possible

Yep, connecting arms and walking around Paris is not going to stop these type of people from killing as many people as they please. Freedom of speech is one thing but we need freedom to live.

America knows first because America is there. It's very unlikely that Japan even sent agents to ascertain the whereabouts of those men.

Said it before and I'll say it again, this guy/gal whatever decided on his own to go there and put himself in harm's way- beyond stupid. This was not some bosozuku-like group of thugs; these are TRAINED KILLERS! I'll reserve my sympathy.