Countryman Haruna Yukawa was early earlier executed. It was hoped goto would be released through a hostage swap. That is not the case. Nick robertson what can you tell us . Reporter the government had to be engaged with isis for the release of their pilot. What is more apparent is isis continues to play whatever card it can for its own advantage to raise their profile, and in particular this case make trouble for the jordanian government try to undermine the jordanian government. There are so many reasons to do this. Jordan is a strong ally of the west in fighting isis. Think do have trouble in their own country with al qaeda sympathizers with isis sympathizers. If isis can energize those people that will help destabilize jordan perhaps remove jordan from the fight against isis tactically thats something theyd like to see happen. So at the moment anything that they can do to highlight and continue to profile this Current Issue centered around the jordanian pilot and tonight that appears to be including the beheading of kenji goto because that thrusts this issue back front and center again now, what has happened to the jordanian pilot, will the jordanians continue to negotiate and release this iraqi tribeswoman, the female suicide bomber from 2005. So at the moment the picture that this creates and the view from this part of the world is that isis is playing the card that it has with no regard to the fact that it may run out of hostages to behead. Its playing them for maximum effect at the moment. And the moment it seems very much aimed at destabilizing jordan and trying to weaken it in the fight against isis. And jordan being a key ally of the United States in this fight. Nic robertson, stand by for us. Were getting were trying to turn some video for you of japanese officials speaking just moments ago there about this apparent beheading. As soon as we vet we will bring that to you. Let me go back to jurmanah jurmanah kuratchi in ahman. Could you youd please speak to what nic was saying isis trying to destabilize jordan here and wondering if they were real hi sincere in saying we will release these two hostages the jordanian pilot and japanese journalist if you give us back this female convicted terrorist. Reporter that is absolutely been the feeling here poppy, that the only reason that isis brought up sajida alrishawi was after japan had set up this Crisis Center here to try and negotiate the release of its own hostages. Of course choosing jordan because the country is believed to have those indirect channels here that it has been using to try to secure the release of its own hostage, the jordanian pilot, and because of its position regionally and the ability to talk to intermediaries from the region to try to secure their release. Once that happened once the japanese set up that Crisis Center here that is when we saw these demands change. This is when sajida alrishawi and that demand for her release from prison really was what isis was asking for. This is why a lot of people here have been asking whether this is a genuine demand or not. Is it trying to undermine the jordanian government embarrass them locally here this will cause this has caused a lot of pressure on the government from the tribes. The tribe of the pilot this is an influential tribe in this country. They are the backbone the tribes in jordan are the backbone of the jordanian monarchy. And really, this would cause some trouble in the country. And of course internationally really to try and embarrass the country that is part of the antiisis coalition with the United States. So a very tough situation that jordan has been in. But poppy, its very important to note here that we do not know what isis is demanding for the release of the jordanian pilot. This is not something that has been publicly announced by the group. Right. And we will recall of course that the jordanian government said look were willing to negotiate but we need proof of life. We need proof of life. This dragged out for days with isis not responding with any proof of life. Jomanah, thank you for that. Before i get to this video from japanese officials, i do just want to remind our viewers who kenji goto was. A husband, a father. A journalist who left japan to risk his life to report on the atrocities in syria the civil war going on there, the refugees saying he believed he would be safe because he wasnt an american or british citizen. Saying he could go and he felt according to his mother that he wanted to save the lives of children in war zones and tell their stories. Lets listen in to what japanese officials just had to say moments ago. [ speaking japanese ] okay. My apologies for that. It appears we dont have a translation for that. However, were working on it. We will tell you what they said in just a moment. As we do that let me go straight to will ripley who joins us live in tokyo. Will im not sure if you were able to hear that press Conference Live as it was going on in japan. If you were what did they say . If not can you bring us uptodate on the latest from there . Reporter im going to put you on the line with our producer because she actually was just listening to that press conference and writing down her translation. Can you tell the u. S. Audience what the chief cabinet secretary just said. Chef secretary said that barbaric and absolutely despicable terrorist act conducted by the terrorists. So we have a strong anger and we are definitely criticize them. Yuko thanks. Poppy, she is our ace producer here whos been monitoring very closely. And of course this now is dominating the headlines on all of the Japanese Networks. I just arrived here in the office a few second ago and im looking at every single japanese channel showing video of kenji goto. Nhk showing the video he made on the turkishsyria border shortly before he crossed in october on that reporting trip where he thought he was going to make it back alive. He acknowledged it was a dangerous situation. But he said poppy, as you pointed out before he felt that being a japanese citizen, that gave him a bit more safety to travel throughout this region. The isis video really has made clear that that is no lomger the case for japanese citizens. In fact there was a threat in the video that the executioner in the propaganda video said the same knife that he used purportedly to kill kenji goto would be used to inflict carnage on any japanese citizen in the region who encounters isis. So japan has decided to join this coalition, to fight isis, and now japan also like the United States like britain, has suffered the death of two of its citizens as a result of taking a stand against this brutal terror group, poppy. Absolutely. Will ripley, thank you to you and your producer for that. Stand by as we continue to cover this breaking news for our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Let me reset for you the breaking news is that a 47yearold father of two, a husband, an extraordinary journalist kenji goto has been beheaded by isis. Let me bring in all our players you can see who were talking to around the world as we cover this. Jomananah, aaron mcpike, tom fuentes, Bob Bair Chris Voss former fbi Hostage Negotiator our Senior International correspondent Nic Robertson joining us from saudi arabia. Let me go to you, nic. You have covered terrorist organizations extensively. You have covered isis. Do you believe it isis was genuine in its pledge to release this japanese hostage and also the jordanian pilot if indeed they did get that female terrorist back . Or do you believe it was all just playing into the propaganda that they have been spouting and that they were intent on beheading this hostage as well . Reporter i think they were intent on making propaganda they could out of this. I think they are trying to destabilize jordan in its resolve to fight against isis by dividing and conquering that is by trying to divide the tribes which is jomanah has so well said the backbone of support, the backbone of the army the military forces in jordan that are at the forefront, the spearhead of this fight inside and in the skies above syria. So i think theyre trying to weaken the jordanian resolve. And i think we should expect in the coming days for isis to continue to try to push this issue of a potential prisoner swap. Theyve found it is going to be lucrative for them in terms of getting a profile, in terms of getting a lot of time on the airwaves. And this will only help serve their purpose to further put pressure on the jordanian government. What will be interesting now that theyve killed kenji goto is the card to play next it appears, at the moment will be the jordanian pilot. Will they release a video or a picture of him . Will that amount to a proof of life . Their strategy may play out over a number of days to do this. Because it seems to be poppy, a strategy thats giving them what they want which is publicity. And i think they care not whether they make a pledge and whether they break it. They want the maximum publicity and the maximum instability for jordan right now. No question about that. Let me go to chris voss former fbi Hostage Negotiator. As Nic Robertson says clearly it seems the card that they will isis may try to play next is this jordanian pilot, right . Moaz this jordanian pilot whos being held. And i just want to note that hes not the only one. You also have john cantley, a british journalist being held there used in propaganda videos. You also have a 26yearold female american aid worker being held by isis. What do you do . I think to start with some of the characterization is whats being described as important. What theyre doing to these noncombatants, kenji goto who is in fact my view a hero these are murders. These arent executions. They need to be looked at as murders as opposed to executions. They didnt accuse him of any crime. Secondly i think whats going to happen next is were going to see some heavily redacted videos of the jordanian pilot. Theyre not going to provide proof of life because they probably cant. And i think jordan is well aware of that. So are going to continue to try to play this out without actually playing any legitimate cards on the table. So what should the u. S. And our allies the jordanian government, do and should they change at all their strategy especially the jordanian government right now trying to get their pilot back. Welk the jordanian governments strategy is sound so far. They want proof of life. They want to have a discussion. Theyre looking eminently reasonable. And within the region thats sorts of moves makes some local reasonable and honorable. The rest of what the other countries should do is the characterization of this in the media as tom as pointed out and several other as well the payoff here is for what theyre getting in the media. Theyre defining the conversation. Everyone else is allowing them to define the conversation and be second movers. So calling the truth as what it really is these are murders. And theyre murdering people that havent been accused of violating any sharia laws or islamic laws if thats the rules they want to play by. North even playing by those rules. Bob bair to you, an excellent and very important point, this is a clear murder. Theyre not being charged or told that they broke any laws whatsoever. It is barbaric. And we are covering it. The media covers it in the western world, the media covers it in the middle east and they make their own propaganda videos about this. Well poppy, you have to look at it this way. You have to look at it globally this movement. They are getting adherence all over the middle east. Even in the sinai there was an attack two days ago with a group thats claiming allegiance to the islamic state. I dont that they have any connections. But these murders and their terms is succeeding. This is preislamic cutting the heads off of people. Its tribal in so many ways. And they are in what they believe is an existential war against damascus. This is a tribal war we dont understand and i think ultimately will fail. But they are marching right ahead with this aimless to us aimless violence and random violence. And i agree with nic and jomanah they want to undermine the monarchy in jordan. The jordanian tribes do not approve war in syria and iraq. And they believe that they can peel them off from the monarchy. I think at the end of the day they wont, but there is a lot of uneasiness in jordan about this war. All right, bob, thank you. Stand by. I do have a translation of what japanese officials had to say just moments ago. Lets listen to that. Translator i would like to start the press conference. The terrorist act of bar barism has been committed and we are outraged at this. We would like to say that we are outraged by this from the outset and from the japanese government we would have the coordinated information gathering, intelligence gathering and also respond to this matter. And i have instructed all the related parties to hold a conference on this matter. All right. That is a translation of what the chief cabinet secretary there in japan had to say just moments ago about the tragic murder of a 47yearold journalist named kenji goto a father. We heard the plea from his wife speaking out for the first time just yesterday for his life to be spared. To you, tom fuente s, what can be done . You still have a jordanian pilot being held. A 26yearold american aid worker being held. A british journalist john cantley being held and used for propaganda purposes on the part of isis. Does this race the stakes in terms of immediacy in these negotiations . I dont think so poppy. Theyve been going at this they best all along not knowing whether isis was in any way serious about resolving this. If they want to resolve it they dont want to do it in a hurry so they can maintain public attention. I think this is going to play on no matter what jordan wants to do. Its going to play out for a longer period of time before theres any resolution to this. And to talk about Jordan Jordan is one of the most peaceful countries in the middle east. When these bombings occurred by this woman ten years ago, the reason they call it the 9 11 of jordan is because for decades youve had christians muslims, jews live side by side in jordan in a peaceful way while all of these conflicts raged all over the region. And they prided themselves on the fact that they had this kind of peace and people getting along with each other. So when these bombings occurred at the weddings in 2005 it did send a shock wave for this to occur on jordans soil. And lets not forget jordan is a place that has been taking in tens of thousands of Syrian Refugees from the civil war that has been raging there. And also poppy, millions of refugees during the war in iraq. So they have taken in refugees now for more than ten years. Absolutely. Thank you very much tom. Stay with us. Obviously were going to be covering this all evening here on cnn. To you, will ripley id like to talk about the man. It is an atrocity. It is a murder. It is barbaric. But in this painful painful time where we have lost a great japanese citizen, can you tell us a little bit about kenji goto and what he meant to the people of japan . All right. I dont have will ripley. I will tell you what we know and well work to get will ripley back on the line. This is someone according to his friend said that he wasnt scared to go. He felt the need to report the stories of Syrian Refugees of the people there on the ground. Let me go to will ripley who can tell us better. Will if you can hear me what i want to do for our viewers is talk about who this man was. A 47yearold, a father a husband, someone who was incredibly incredibly meaningful to a lot of people there in japan. Reporter certainly. And a man that people here in japan have come to know as this crisis has unfolded poppy. As you mentioned, he is a freelance journalist. So he is paid to go and report stories. Hes worked with many of the major Japanese Networks including our cnn affiliate here tvs aji, nhk. By reporting from hot spots, africa middle east places in turmoil, he has so many friends in the tokyo and in the japan journalism community. I cant tell you this week people ive run into who had lunch with him before he left for syria or had coffee or had been emailing with him and talk with him. So this is not somebody who is anything but very wellknown. Hes a wellknown journalist familiar to japanese viewers for his television reports. And yet were told he never went to these places. He never went to war zones. He wasnt covering the crisis in syria because he was trying to elevate his own career. He went there because he was passionate about the people who were caught in the middle of all these politics the geopolitics, women and children especially who were suffering. He gave his time to organizations like unicef. He would speak to when he was back here in japan he would give lectures about the situation and the urgent need for humanitarian assistance. One reason why goto was in the region given that japan had just pledged or was planning to pledge support, planning to take a bigger role geopolitically in the middle east thats something that kenji goto had been pushing for, talking about. Talking about the plight of these people. But at the same time he didnt want to get involved in the politics. He didnt want to take sides. He just wanted to tell the stories of people who needed help innocent people. And will there also was some talk about whether part of what he was doing there on the ground was trying to help his fellow japanese citizen who was taken hostage and who was murdered beheaded by isis harunayakawa. Reporter his wife confirmed that his mother also confirmed. So the way these men met, haruna ayakawa was not a journalist but someone who had lost his business whose wife had died of cancer. His life was in turmoil. He had attempted suicide. He wrote about it on his online blog. He actually went to the middle east looking for a new fresh start and was hoping to work as one of these private security contracts. Hed started a company but he had no experience. And he ran into kenji goto who met this fellow japanese citizen, realized that clearly this was someone who didnt belong in the middle east unaided. And so goto offered to help him, to actually cake him with him on a trip to iraq. We were showing video of the two of them together in iraq in april and june of last year. And so they became friends. They had only known each other for a matter of months. But goto told ayakawa not to go to the isis stronghold and ayakawa ignored that advice and went anyway and he was captured. Those who have talked to yukawa about this say that really ha