I wonder if Kassig refused to read ISIS propaganda statement before his murder.

[arely staircase]

That would explain its absence. Just speculation. But can you imagine the strength that would take, given what these hostages have been subjected to according to other hostages who have been released?

[pampango]

1. There is no video of a statement from him? That is different. n/t

[arely staircase]

3. no. unlike the others he reas no statement

It was also done with an identifiable town in the background. It is the place where Muslims believe the last great Apocalyptic battle will take place. So, as someone speculated on CNN just now, they may have gone full death cult at this point and think the end of the world is at hand.

[JonLP24]

2. I'm curious to their propaganda strategy with their remaining American hostage

The hostage is the only American woman held by the militant group. She is the same age as Kassig, and, like him, was kidnapped while trying to help people whose lives have been upended by the long Syrian civil war. She was particularly moved to help children who have been orphaned and separated from their families. The woman was taken in August 2013, along with a group of other aid workers who have reportedly been released.

U.S. officials and the woman’s family have requested that her name not be made public, fearing that further attention will put her in greater jeopardy. No news organization has published her name. But the general circumstances of her capture and captivity have been known and widely reported for more than a year now.

ISIS’s intentions for its remaining American prisoner are unclear. But current and former U.S. officials told The Daily Beast that it was notable she doesn’t appear at the end of a video, released Sunday, that shows the aftermath of Kassig’s beheading. That breaks with ISIS’s pattern of showing the next hostage it intends to kill.

ISIS has killed Muslim women, as well as children. But it has never murdered a female Western hostage on camera. Doing so would mark a radical departure even for a group that has relied on bloody propaganda to lure foreign fighters to its ranks.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/16/a-26-year-old-woman-is-isis-s-last-american-hostage.html

Though it is telling who they choose to target.

Violent extremism thrives in areas where social services have all but disappeared. A woman who serves on the local council of an opposition-held town told us that she fears more of her neighbors may become radicalized because there's no work, no education, and no other opportunities.

http://theweek.com/article/index/270220/syrian-women-know-how-to-defeat-isis

[arely staircase]

4. I knew they had an American woman.

I didn't know she was the only remaining American. That poor woman.