A screen shot of the video showing the execution of Steven Sotloff.

JNS.org – So-called “moderate” Syrian rebels captured American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff and sold him to the Islamic State terror group, which eventually beheaded him, a family spokesman said.

In an interview with CNN‘s Anderson Cooper, Sotloff family spokesman Barak Barfi said that Islamic State paid between $25,000 and $50,000 for Sotloff after the Syrian rebels set up a fake checkpoint near the Syrian border to capture him.

“Somebody at the border crossing made a phone call to ISIS, and they set up a fake checkpoint with many people,” Barfi said. “Steve and his people that he went in with could not escape.”

Barfi, who said he obtained this information from “sources on the ground in Syria,” added that the tipster was one of “the so-called moderate rebels that people want our [Obama] administration to support.”

Barfi also heavily criticized the Obama administration for not doing enough to save Sotloff and James Foley, another American journalist who was beheaded by Islamic State in August.

“We know that the intelligence community and the White House are enmeshed in a larger game of bureaucratic infighting, and Jim and Steve are pawns in that game. And that’s not fair,” Barfi said.