Who is Steven Sotloff?

by David Kavanagh

The video of James Foley’s brutal death ends with a direct address to US President Barack Obama.

A masked jihadist, having murdered the American journalist only moments before, holds another man by the sleeves of his orange jumpsuit and states in an undeniably British accent: “the life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.”

Barbaric and horrific as it was, James Foley’s execution was obviously politically motivated – Islamic State fighters had had enough of the US’ targeted airstrikes against them in Iraq.

They implied that if Obama does not withdraw his forces soon, the other man, assumed to be US journalist Steven Joel Sotloff, and possibly at least 20 other local and foreign journalists and aid workers who are also believed to be held by the extremist group, would meet a similarly unsightly end.

In a solemn response to the video, Obama honoured Jim for his courageous reportage in war zones such as Libya and Syria, denounced the Islamic State as an embodiment of evil that “speaks for no religion” and ensured the American people that the USA would continue to “act against ISIL” (the Islamic State) while “standing alongside others.”

He did not, however, directly mention Sotloff or the other captives and went on to authorise further action and airstrikes in Iraq; a neccessary move if we’re ever going to get rid of this group which is, according to US Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel, “beyond anything (the US) has seen” before, but not good news for the captured journalists.

It’s already a tense and difficult moral quandary for the US. Sotloff’s family is unwilling to give in.

Unlike Foley’s family, who believed immediately publicising their son’s disappearance from Syria in November 2012 would help mobilise efforts to rescue him (the US did attempt to free Foley and other captives a while ago), Sotloff’s relatives were advised to remain quiet to see how things would progress.

In the wake of the recent tragic developments, they have started a petition calling for the White House to “do everything possible” to free the American reporter.

Jim’s family shared similar sentiments:

We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.

Steven Sotloff in Egypt
Source: facebook.com

Like James Foley, Florida-born Steven Sotloff was working in Syria as a freelance journalist when he disappeared near the city of Aleppo in August 2013.

Following the death of the legendary American frontline journalist, Marie Colvin, during the siege of Homs about a year and a half earlier, most major foreign news outlets pulled their reporters from Syria.

With at least 70 reporters having lost their lives reporting in what the Committee to Protect Journalists called one of the “most dangerous places to be a journalist” in 2012, it was simply too risky to continue embedding their workers in the country.

The job of documenting and bearing witness to the atrocities committed by both Assad’s military and rebel factions, like the Free Syrian Army and, of course, the Islamic State, fell into the hand of the citizen journalists who couldn’t escape and freelancers, like Foley and Sotloff, too brave and too committed to the truth to leave.

Having worked in tricky places like Egypt, Turkey, Libya, Bahrain, and Syria, and published for publications like Times magazine, Foreign Policy, the Christian Science Monitor, the Daily Caller, and most recently the World Affairs Journal, the 31-year-old Sotloff can be said to have a tremendous amount of experience telling the stories of those affected by war and conflict.

Janine di Giovanni, Middle East editor of Newsweek and Sotloff’s former coworker, described him as follows:

Sotloff is young and funny and irreverent. He lived in Benghazi, Libya—he actually lived there—one of the few freelance reporters who felt he had to stay there to do his job properly. He is a great storyteller, but he is also smart and committed.

Similarly, staff at the World Affairs Journal called him:

An honest and thoughtful journalist who strives to understand the story from local perspectives and report his findings straightforwardly. He is certainly courageous.

Whatever the future might hold, we should always think of Steven Sotloff, like James Foley, as a dedicated, intrepid and brave journalist.

The politics behind this situation are messy and it breaks my heart to think that he may also pay the ultimate price for his commitment to the important pursuit of news.

UPDATE (Sep 3 2014):
Sad news today. The Islamic State has released another video entitled “A Second Message to America” depicting the murder of  Steven Sotloff.

Very similar to the James Foley video, it ends with a warning:

We take this opportunity to warn those governments that have entered this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone.

Another man is then shown kneeling in an orange jumpsuit – supposedly the next in line. He is David Haines, a British aid worker captured by IS in Syria in March 2013.

IS is now blatantly addressing other nations involved in the conflict as well.

Given that there are at least 20 other foreign and local journalists and aid workers currently imprisoned by the extremist group, it seems these brutal executions could continue for some time to  come.

What it hopes to achieve is up to debate. Some commentators suggest the militants want to coax the US and allies into another drawn out conflict like the Iraq War to attain more public support.

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Tsagaan Khass: Mongolia’s Neo-Nazis

by David Kavanagh

The first thing you’d encounter if you were looking to join one of Mongolia’s most reported on neo-Nazi organisations, the Tsagaan Khass, is lingerie.

Adorned with swastikas and portraits of Mongolian heroes (think Genghis Khan), the group’s official headquarters are neatly tucked away behind a cramped lingerie store in Ulan Bator, the country’s capital and home to about 1.1 million people.

Here, the group discusses its plans and policies and assigns storm troopers, young men and women clad in black SS-styled uniforms, tasks to complete daily.

Once, they would go out into the streets and harass foreigners and women suspected of sleeping with the Chinese. Now, they march to save the environment.

Tsagaan Khass (translated: White Swastika) was founded by Ariunbold Altankhuum and his partner, a man that goes by the enigmatic moniker, ‘Big Brother’, in the 1990s.

At the time, the Cold War had just ended and Mongolia, which had, up until then, been a communist satellite state controlled by the Soviet Union, had attained its independence.

Although the idea of Mongolian Nazis may sound absurd given the fact that the real Nazis actively persecuted those of ‘impure’ Asian descent, for Altankhuum and Big Brother, the idea of a group that espoused austere fascist ideals and extreme nationalism was a welcome and refreshing alternative.

Tsagaan Khass founder, Ariunbold Altankhuum, June 22 2013
Source: reuters.com/ Carlos Barria

1990s – 2010: The early days
In a 2010 exposé by The Guardian, Tsagaan Khass’ leaders revealed their devout reverence for Adolf Hitler, praising him for fixing Germany’s economy and “preserv[ing] national identity”.

In many ways, parallels can be drawn between the situation in Germany in the 1930s and Mongolia following the collapse of the USSR.

Like Germany after World War One, Mongolia was left with a relatively impoverished economy following the Cold War.

Heavily reliant on its mining sector, the government soon began to allow foreign investors and mining corporations into the country. For the ultranationalists, this was a threat to pureblood Mongolians everywhere.

With a support base of 3000 (according to its leaders), Tsaghaan Khass declared itself a “law enforcement body” that actively conducted “checks” on hotels, restaurants and local businesses.

Although Javkhlan, one of the group’s leaders, claimed that they only tried to “make sure Mongolian girls don’t do prostitution and foreigners don’t break the laws” and didn’t use any violence, there were numerous reported cases of foreigners, interracial couples, and members of the LGBT community being threatened and beaten.

Anti-Chinese sentiment was particularly rife among neo-Nazi groups and, in 2007, a young man who purportedly studied in China was murdered by a leader of Blue Mongol, another Mongolian neo-Nazi group.

2013: Switch to environmentalism (sort-of)
Tsagaan Khass underwent a makeover of sorts in 2013.

If it wasn’t weird enough already, the extremist Mongolian nationalists rebranded themselves as environmentalists, albeit ones still motivated by anti-foreign ideals.

According to a report by Reuters, in 2013, mining accounted for approximately 90% of Mongolia’s economy and foreign investment was expected to boost it up even further, by about a third, by 2020.

While Tsagaan Khass’ leaders and their now humble base of only about 100 members continue to highlight the pollution caused by mining practices, it’s likely that they are still mainly driven by the fact that mining is so heavily synonymous with the “outsiders”.

In Mongolia, foreign mining companies like Rio Tinto rely extensively on cheap labor from neighboring China and South East Asia generally.

Given that about 30% of the locals live below the poverty line and could really use a job, Tsagaan Khass’ indignation is somewhat understandable.

They now conduct “environmental patrols”, visit quarries with a misguided sense of legitimacy, and check that papers are in order. At least their tactics are a little less crude.

Tsagaan Khass members visiting a quarry, June 23 2013
Source: reuters.com/ Carlos Barria

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