John Cantlie RIP?

John Burns
by John Burns

It looks like our former colleague from the U.K. magazine SuperBike, John “Sonic the Hedgehog” Cantlie has become another casualty of the ongoing fighting in the Middle East. According to this report by Iraq’s Al-Sura news agency, Cantlie was killed at the end of July in Mosul as that city was retaken from ISIS forces.

Happier times.

As we first reported here nearly three years ago, Cantlie was taken hostage in 2012 along with slain American journalist James Foley, and had been pressed into service by ISIS to produce and narrate videos designed to project a less negative image of the group to western audiences. We all hoped his usefulness in that role would lead to his salvation, but that now appears not to have been the case.

Cantlie’s death remains unconfirmed, but if the news is true, no one can say the man didn’t lead an interesting life. There’s a Wikipedia page here.

MO‘s thoughts and prayers go out to Sonic, his friends and family.

John Burns
John Burns

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