[2][3] By spring 2008, in Iraq, he became an embedded journalist with an Indiana National Guard unit,[4] writing a story for In These Times, about condolence payments paid to Iraqis.

[5] In 2008, he became an embedded journalist with USAID-funded development projects in Iraq, and in 2011 he wrote for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes in Afghanistan, and GlobalPost in Libya.

Upon completion of his MFA in 2003, Foley returned to Phoenix for one year before relocating to Chicago in the summer of 2004 and taking a job teaching writing to young felons at the Cook County Boot Camp.

[19] He helped organize conferences and training seminars for a program designed to rebuild Iraq's civil service, crippled by decades of isolation and autocratic administration.

[18] According to media reports, on the morning of April 5, 2011, Foley, fellow American Clare Morgana Gillis, a freelance reporter (Atlantic Monthly, Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today), as well as Spanish photographer Manu Brabo, were attacked and captured near Brega, Libya, by forces loyal to Gaddafi; fellow photojournalist Anton Hammerl was killed.

[27] On May 18, Foley, Gillis and Brabo, as well as Nigel Chandler (an English journalist also being held), were brought to the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli after release.

[36] During the Syrian Civil War, Foley continued working as a freelancer for GlobalPost, in addition to other media outlets, such as Agence France-Presse.

[37] On November 22, 2012, Foley was kidnapped by an organized gang after departing from an internet café with British journalist John Cantlie, in northwestern Syria while on their way to the Turkish border.

[42][43] Sources close to the family said that they believed Foley was kidnapped by the Shabiha militia, a group loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

[47][49][50] Kroll's research led to GlobalPost reporting that Foley was being held in a Damascus prison run by Syrian Air Force Intelligence, along with at least one other Western journalist, possibly Austin Tice.

In it, Foley addressed members of his family, and described his captivity in a cell with seventeen other hostages, who passed the time with improvised strategy games and lectures.

[53] When Delta Force commandos landed in the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa, they were met with gunfire, and it became apparent that the hostages had been moved.

It then cut to Foley kneeling in the desert next to a masked, black-clad ISIL terrorist and reading a long message expressing regret.

[14][60] After Foley finished the message, the terrorist condemned U.S. airstrikes and threatened that any aggression by America would "result in the bloodshed of your people.

[64] The video of Foley being beheaded was shot at an unknown desert location, and media sources gave the name Jihadi John to the man (later discovered to be Mohammed Emwazi) who made the threats and spoke with a "Multicultural London English" accent.

[72][73][74] On August 22, fellow hostage Peter Moore, who had been held in Iraq, called on Foley's captors to release his body to his family.

[75] British analyst Eliot Higgins offered photographic and video forensic evidence that Foley was murdered at a spot in the hills south of the Syrian city Raqqa.

"[13] In 2014, Agence France-Presse (AFP) also released a statement saying that it would "no longer accept work from freelance journalists who travel to places where we ourselves would not venture.

The James Foley Scholarship in the J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication was established at Marquette University in his honor.

[87] Also in 2014, Boston-based GlobalPost, for which Foley had been a contributor, released a statement saying, "While we continue to send staff correspondents to Syria, we no longer accept freelance work from that war zone.

"[90] In 2014, Foley's family started the James W. Foley Legacy Fund to work in three areas: "building a resource center for families of American hostages and fostering a global dialog on governmental policies in hostage crises; supporting American journalists reporting from conflict zones and promoting quality educational opportunities for urban youth.

In November 2016, Sting, an English singer, wrote and recorded "The Empty Chair", a song about Foley's fate, appearing as the last track on his solo studio album 57th & 9th released .

In 2018, according to Charlie Savage, writing in The New York Times, Foley's mother Diane has called for the individuals who murdered him and abused him to be given a fair trial, not tried through a Guantanamo Military Commission.