[There was a video here]

On Thursday, ISIS released a video of captured British journalist John Cantlie. In the video, Cantlie, who was abducted in Syria in November 2012, calmly tells the viewer that the British government has "abandoned" him and promises to explain, over a series of subsequent videos, the "truth" behind ISIS and the ways in which the Western media manipulates that truth.

From the video:

Hello, my name is John Cantlie. I am a British journalist who used to work for some of the bigger newspapers and magazines in the UK, including the Sunday Times, the Sun, and the Sunday Telegraph. In 2012 I came to Syria, where I was subsequently captured by the Islamic State. Now, many things have changed, including the expansion of the Islamic State to include large areas of Syria and western Iraq—-a land mass bigger than Britain and many other nations. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "He's only doing this because he's a prisoner. He's got a gun to his head and he's being forced to do this." Well, it's true—I am a prisoner. That I cannot deny. But seeing as how I've been abandoned by my government and my fate now lies at the hands of the Islamic State, I have nothing to lose. Maybe I will live and maybe I will die. But I want to take the opportunity to convey some facts that you can verify, facts that if you contemplate might help preserving lives.

Over the next few programs, I'm going to show you the truth as the western the media tries to drag the world back to a the abyss of a war with the Islamic State. After two disastrous and hugely unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, why is it that our governments appear so keen to get involved in yet another unwinnable conflict. I'm going to show you the truth behind the systems and motivation of the Islamic State, and how the Western media, the very organization I used to work for, can twist and manipulate that truth for the public back home. There are two sides to every story? Think you're getting the whole picture?

And I'll show you the truth behind what happened when many European citizens were captured and then released by the Islamic State, and how the United States and Britain thought they could do it differently than every other European country. They negotiated with the Islamic State and got their people home, while the British and Americans were left behind.

It's very alarming to see where this is all headed, and it looks like history repeating itself, yet again. There is time to change this seemingly inevitable sequence of events, but only if you, the public, act now. Join me for the next programs and I think you might be surprised at what you learn.