Parents of slain journalist decry political ads featuring their son

Parents of slain New Hampshire journalist James Foley condemned conservative political Web ads that surfaced this week showing their son moments before he was beheaded. 

“I think it is deplorable and there should be an apology,” Foley’s father said in an interview Thursday with the New England Cable News. 

{mosads}The ads, paid for by Secure America Now, feature a CNN broadcast showing Foley kneeling in an orange jumpsuit before he is beheaded by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militants. 

The ads target vulnerable Democrats just weeks before the congressional midterm elections; a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that ISIS is Republican voters’ top issue for the midterms. 

One of the ads, targeting New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, says: 

“While radical Islamists threaten to attack America and millions cross our border undetected, President Obama and Senator Shaheen have done nothing. Call now and tell Senator Shaheen to stop ignoring our border crisis. Tell her to secure our border now.”

Identical ads target other vulnerable Democrats, Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.), Mark Udall (Colo.) and Mark Pryor (Ark.). Their races could determine whether Democrats lose control of the Senate. 

“It makes me very sad that people would use the brutality of our son’s death for their own political purposes,” mother Diane Foley said on NECN. 

Shaheen has called the ad disgraceful, and her challenger, former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, called them inappropriate. The Foleys are demanding the ads be pulled from New Hampshire. 

Secure America Now’s president, Allen Roth, told NECN, “The image has appeared around the world millions of times. We meant no harm, we just took an image that is in public domain and we used it.”

Roth said there was an attempt to create a political controversy over the ad, but said he would consider pulling it from New Hampshire out of respect for Foley and his family.