What We Know About ISIL’s Third Hostage, David Haines

From an article in The Wire: “Today, the terrorist organization ISIL released a video showing the purported decapitation of American journalist Steven Sotloff. In the video, another man appears. This man is the third hostage shown in a video by ISIL, the first being James Foley, whose beheading video broke online on August 19.

The third hostage is identified in the subtitle of the video as David Cawthorne Haines, a British citizen. While United Kingdom officials have not yet officially commented directly on Haines’ hostage status, Haines is believed to have been a security manager in South Sudan with the organization Nonviolent Peaceforce. From February to August 2012, Haines worked for the group whose mission “is to promote, develop and implement unarmed civilian peacekeeping as a tool for reducing violence and protecting civilians in situations of violent conflict.” The group confirmed in a statement that he did work for them at one point, but was not working for NP when he was abducted.

The LinkedIn page believed to be his shows his most recent employment as a Consultant Director in Yugoslavia with Astraea, from October 2012 until present. Astraea is a kitchen equipment supply company. Haines is married to Dragana Prodanovic Haines and the couple has one daughter. The family appears to have lived in Croatia for some time before the abduction.

While the exact date of his disappearance is unknown, Haines appears to have been abducted in early 2013 in Syria (Foley was also abducted in Syria.) His coworker at Nonviolent Peaceforce told NBC News, “A fellow he was abducted with was released a couple of months ago, and we were hopeful that he would be released soon.”