The Global Post, the media outlet which employed the slain American journalist James Foley, revealed this week that both they and the Foley family had been in contact with Islamic State militants who demanded a cash ransom for the release of their prisoner.

On November 26, 2013, the Foley family was told by IS militants demanded $132 million and the release of unspecified prisoners in American captivity in exchange for James Foley, the Global Post revealed. That negotiation proved unsuccessful, and there was no communication between IS militants and the Foleys until August 12, 2014 when they received another letter with a series of much more specific demands that the terrorists claimed were unmet.

It is as much a letter from ISIS to America as it is to the Foley family.

The Global Post decided on Thursday to publish this letter in full:

HOW LONG WILL THE SHEEP FOLLOW THE BLIND SHEPPARD?

A message to the American government and their sheep like citizens:

We have left you alone since your disgraceful defeat in Iraq. We did not interfere in your country or attack your citizens while they were safe in their homes despite our capability to do so!

As for the scum of your society who are held prisoner by us, THEY DARED TO ENTER THE LION’S DEN AND WHERE [sic] EATEN!

“Today our swords are unsheathed towards you, GOVERNMENT AND CITIZENS ALIKE! AND WE WILL NOT STOP UNTILL WE QUENCH OUR THIRST FOR YOUR BLOOD,” the letter continued. “You do not spare our weak, elderly, women or children so we will NOT spare yours!”

You and your citizens will pay the price of your bombings!

The first of which being the blood of the American citizen, James Foley!

He will be executed as a DIRECT result of your transgressions towards us!

The video featuring the execution of James Wright Foley would be made public just six days after this letter was received.

There are some who will object to the publication of this letter, perhaps in much the same way that so many were enraged by the New York Post’s decision to publish an image of Foley the moment before he was beheaded by an IS terrorist. That’s not an unjustified emotion, but it is sometimes better to look evil in the eye than to rage against those media outlets that refuse to sanitize reality.

These people would like nothing more than to kill you and your family. No one is well-served by being shielded from that fact.