I
will post information about the ISIS Executioner, Jihadi John from Wikipedia
and other links.
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A close-up of the Jihadi dubbed “John”
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Born
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Mohammed Emwazi
17 August 1988 Al Jahra, Kuwait |
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Nationality
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British
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Other names
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"Jihadi
John" "John the Beatle" "Jailer John" Abu Abdullah al-Britani Abu Muharib al-Yemeni Mohammed al-Ayan Muhammad ibn Muazzam
Mohammed Al-Zuhary
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Education
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BSc (lower second-class honours) in Information Systems
with Business Management from the University of Westminster (2009)
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Known for
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Involvement in multiple beheadings
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Religion
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Sunni Islam
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Military
career
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Allegiance
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Al-Nusra Front, then
ISIL |
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Years of
service
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2013–present
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Battles/wars
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Syria |
Mohammed Emwazi
(born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri, 17 August 1988) is a
Kuwaiti-British man who is thought to be the person seen in several videos
produced by the Islamic extremist group ISIL showing the beheadings of a number
of captives in 2014 and 2015. A group of his hostages nicknamed him "Jihadi
John" since he was part of a four-person terrorist cell with British
accents whom they called "The Beatles".
Early
life
Emwazi
was born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri on 17 August 1988 in Kuwait to Jassem
and Ghaneyah. The family, who were Bedoon of Iraqi
origin, moved to the United Kingdom in 1994 when he was six. They settled
in inner west London, moving between several properties in Maida Vale, later
living in St John's Wood and finally in Queen's Park. Emwazi attended St Mary
Magdalene Church of England primary school, and later Quintin Kynaston School.
In
2006 he went to the University of Westminster, studying Information Systems
with Business Management. He secured a lower second-class BSc (Hons) on
graduation three years later. At age 21, he worked as a salesman at an IT
company in Kuwait and was considered by his boss as the best employee the
company ever had.
Nicknames
Emwazi
was given the nickname "John" by a group of his hostages. The
hostages said that he was part of a terrorist cell they called "The Beatles", and that he
guarded Western hostages while handling communications with their families. The
nickname refers to John Lennon of the
Beatles, and other members of the cell are known as "George",
"Paul", and "Ringo", in reference to the other Beatles. The
cell members all had British accents. The nicknames "Jihadi John",
"Jailer John" and "John the Beatle" were created by the
press.
Ringo
Starr expressed his disgust at the use of his former band's name in this
context, saying: “It’s bullshit. What they are doing
out there is against everything the Beatles stood for,” and adding that the
Beatles had stood for peace and opposed violence.
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Jihadi John and his hostages.
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Victims
See also: ISIL beheading incidents
James
Foley
Main
article: James Foley (journalist)
In
a video uploaded to YouTube on 19 August 2014, Foley read a prepared statement
criticizing the United States, the recent airstrikes in Iraq, and his brother
who serves in the United States Air Force. Emwazi, wearing a
mask, also read a prepared statement in which he criticized America and President Barack
Obama and made demands to cease the 2014 American-led
intervention in Iraq. The masked man then beheaded Foley off-camera, after
which he threatened to behead Steven
Sotloff if his demands were not met. The FBI and United States National Security
Council confirmed that the video, which included footage of Foley's
beheaded corpse, was genuine.
Steven
Sotloff
Main
article: Steven Sotloff
On
2 September 2014, a video was released reportedly showing American journalist Steven
Sotloff's beheading by Emwazi. The White
House confirmed the video's authenticity.
David
Haines
Main
article: David Cawthorne Haines
On
13 September 2014, a video, directed at British Prime Minister David Cameron,
was released, showing British hostage aid worker David Haines being beheaded by
Emwazi.
Alan
Henning
Main
article: Alan Henning
On
3 October 2014, a video released by ISIS showing Emwazi beheading British aid
worker Alan Henning. Henning, a taxi driver from Salford, Greater Manchester,
had volunteered to deliver aid to Syria when he was kidnapped in Ad Dana, an
area held by ISIS, on 27 December 2013.
Peter
Kassig
On
16 November 2014 a video was posted by ISIS of Emwazi standing over a severed
head, which the White House confirmed was that of Peter
Kassig. Kassig's actual beheading was not shown, and unlike earlier hostage
beheading videos he did not make a statement.
Syrian
soldiers
The
video that ended with a shot of Kassig's severed head showed the beheadings of
21 Syrian soldiers in gruesome detail, by a group led by a masked Emwazi. It
was said by the BBC that, unlike previous videos, this one shows the faces of
many of the militants, indicates the location as being Dabiq in Aleppo
Province, and that this video "revels in gore." Unlike previous
videos that cut away without showing the killing, Emwazi is shown beheading a
victim.
Haruna
Yukawa and Kenji Goto
Main
article: Kenji
Goto
Haruna
Yukawa, age 42, was captured sometime before August 2014. Kenji Goto,
age 47, was captured sometime in October 2014 while trying to rescue Yukawa. In
January 2015, they were threatened to be killed unless the Japanese government paid a ransom of $200
million. Haruna was beheaded on 24 January, and Kenji on 31 January 2015.
Hostages
It
was claimed in August 2014 that ISIS held more than 20 hostages. Many hostage
families chose not to reveal their relatives' names in order to avoid drawing
attention to them and compromising their safety. All or nearly all of the
Europeans were ransomed by their countries. However, laws in the US and the UK
prohibit payment of ransoms.
John
Cantlie
Main
article: John Cantlie
Cantlie is
a British citizen held hostage who has appeared in a series of ISIL videos. He
was kidnapped along with James Foley on 22 November 2012.
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Beheading procedure
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Analysis
of videos
Official
analysis
Officially
the FBI and United States National Security
Council confirmed that the James Foley video, which ended with footage of a
beheaded corpse, is genuine. David Cameron and the British Foreign Office also
confirmed the authenticity of the video showing the death of David Haines.
The
videos were produced and distributed by Al Hayat Media Center, a media outlet of ISIS
that is under the authority of the ISIS's official propaganda arm, the
Al-Itisam Establishment for Media Production, that targets specifically Western
and non-Arabic speaking audiences.
Unofficial
analysis
An
unnamed forensics expert commissioned by The Times to look at the James Foley
video said "I think it has been staged. My feeling is that the murder may
have happened after the camera was stopped." The Times concluded
that "No one is questioning that the photojournalist James Foley
was beheaded, but camera trickery and slick post-production techniques appear
to have been used." Two unnamed video specialists in the International
Business Times of Australia claimed that portions of the video
appeared to be staged and edited. Dr. James Alvarez, a British-American hostage
negotiator, also claimed the James Foley video was "expertly staged",
with the use of two separate cameras and a clip-on microphone attached to
Foley’s orange jumpsuit. Jeff Smith, Associate Director of the CU Denver
National Center for Media Forensics said "What's
most interesting is that the actual beheading that takes place in the videos,
both of them are staged."
British
analyst Eliot Higgins
(Brown Moses) published photographic and video forensic evidence suggesting
that the James Foley video was taken at a spot in the hills south of the Syrian
city of Raqqa.
Identification
and manhunt
See also: The Beatles (terrorist cell)
Search for identity and
early speculation
See also: United Kingdom and ISIL and Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary
'Jihadi
John' became the subject of a manhunt by the FBI, MI5, and Scotland Yard. In his videos,
"Jihadi John" concealed his identity by covering himself from head to
toe in black, except for tan desert boots, with a mask that left only his eyes
visible. Despite this, several facts about 'Jihadi John' could be ascertained
from both videos. He spoke with an apparent London or southern England accent
and appeared to have a skin tone consistent with African
or South Asian descent. In both videos, he was
seen to sport a pistol in a leather shoulder
holster under his left shoulder, typical of right-handed
people, but his actions in the videos suggest he is left-handed.
Other
factors that could have led to his identification were his height, general
physique, the pattern of veins on the back of his hands, his voice and clothes.
A team of analysts might use the topography of the landscape in the video in an
attempt to identify the location. On 24 August 2014, the British Ambassador to the
United States, Sir Peter Westmacott, said that Britain was very
close to identifying 'Jihadi John' using sophisticated voice recognition technology, but when pressed,
refused to disclose any other details.
On
20 September 2014, the United States Senate approved a $10 million
reward for information that led to the capture of anyone involved in the
murders of James Foley, Steven
Sotloff and David Cawthorne Haines, which includes
'Jihadi John'. On November 20, the bill, extending the potential scope of the
reward program to any American kidnapped and murdered by a "foreign
terrorist organization" and limiting the reward to a maximum of $5
million, was referred to the United States House
Committee on Foreign Affairs.
On
14 September British Prime Minister David
Cameron confirmed that the identity of 'Jihadi John' was known but had yet
to be revealed.
On
25 September, FBI Director James
Comey told reporters that they had identified the suspect, but did not give
information regarding the man's identity or nationality. "I believe that
we have identified him. I'm not going to tell you who I believe it is,"
Comey stated. Michael Ryan, an author and scholar from the Middle East Institute speculated "Maybe
98 percent of 95 percent sure is not sure enough to put a man's name out."
In
August 2014, The Sunday Times reported that Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary ("L
Jinny"), 23, a hip-hop musician from West
London had "emerged as a key suspect" in the investigation. Other
sources also stated that Abu Hussain Al-Britani,
20, a computer hacker from Birmingham
and Abu Abdullah al-Britani, in his 20s from Portsmouth, were suspects.
Mohammed
Emwazi
On
26 February 2015, The Washington Post
identified the perpetrator as Mohammed Emwazi, a British man in his
mid-20s who was born in Kuwait and grew up in west London. The Washington
Post investigation was undertaken by Souad Mekhennet and Alan Goldman.
Emwazi
was born to Iraqi parents who moved to neighboring Kuwait from Iraq. When the
Kuwaiti government rejected their application for citizenship, in 1994 they
moved to Iraq and then on to Britain. According to his student card from the University of
Westminster, Emwazi was born on 17 August 1988.
Scotland Yard and 10 Downing Street declined to comment on
the reports. The Counter
Terrorism Command of the Metropolitan
Police Service released a statement saying: "We are not going
to confirm the identity of anyone at this stage or give an update on the
progress of this live counter-terrorism investigation." The security
services in the US and UK are believed to have known the identity of 'Jihadi
John' since September 2014, but have not revealed the name for operational
security reasons.
In
an interview with The Washington Post, one of Emwazi's close friends
said: "I have no doubt that Mohammed is Jihadi John. He was like a brother
to me. ... I am sure it is him." Asim Qureshi, research director at the
advocacy group CAGE, who had
been in contact with Emwazi before he left for Syria, also identified the man
in the videos as Emwazi, stating:
"There was an extremely strong resemblance. This is making me feel fairly certain that this is the same person." U.S. officials declined to comment for the Washington Post report, and Emwazi's family declined a request for an interview. Qureshi said that Emwazi was "extremely kind, gentle and soft-spoken, the most humble young person I knew".
The
BBC stated that Emwazi is believed to be "an associate of a former UK control order suspect ... who travelled to Somalia in 2006 and is allegedly linked to
a facilitation and funding network for Somali militant group al-Shabab."
He reportedly prayed on occasion at a mosque in Greenwich. He graduated with a degree in
Information Systems with Business Management from the University of
Westminster (2009). His final address in the UK before he went
abroad was in the Queen's Park
area of north-west London.
The
Post reported interviews with Emwazi's friends indicating that Emwazi
was radicalized
after a planned safari to Tanzania following his graduation.
According to the interviews, Emwazi and two friends, a German convert to Islam
named Omar and another man, Abu Talib, never made the safari. Rather, upon
landing in Dar es Salaam
in May 2009, the three were detained, held overnight by police, and eventually deported. In May 2010, The Independent reported on the
episode, identifying Emwazi as Muhammad ibn Muazzam. According to
e-mails sent by Emwazi to Qureshi and that were provided to the Post,
after leaving Tanzania, Emwazi flew to Amsterdam, where he claimed that an MI5
officer accused him of attempting to go to Somalia, where al-Shabab operates.
Emwazi denied attempting to reach Somalia, but a former hostage told the Post
that "Jihadi John was obsessed with Somalia" and forced captives to
watch videos about al-Shabab. Tanzanian officials have denied that they
detained and deported Emwazi at the request of MI5, saying instead that he had
been refused entry for being drunk and abusive.
Later,
Emwazi and his friends were permitted to return to Britain, where Emwazi met
with Qureshi in late 2009. The Post quoted Qureshi as saying that Emwazi
was "incensed" at the way he had been treated. Emwazi moved to Kuwait
shortly afterward, where (according to emails he wrote to Qureshi), he worked
for a computer company. Emwazi returned to London twice, however, and, on the
second visit, he made plans to wed a woman in Kuwait.
In
June 2010, Emwazi was detained by counter-terrorism officials in Britain, who
searched and fingerprinted him, and blocked him from returning to Kuwait. In an
email four months later to Qureshi, Emwazi expressed sympathy for Aafia Siddiqui, an al-Qaeda operative who had just been
sentenced in U.S. federal court for assault and attempted murder. Qureshi said
he last heard from Emwazi when Emwazi sought advice from him in January 2012.
Close friends of Emwazi interviewed by the Post said that he was "desperate
to leave the country" and one friend stated that Emwazi unsuccessfully
tried to travel to Saudi Arabia to
teach English in 2012. Sometime after January 2012, Emwazi traveled to Syria,
where he apparently contacted his family and at least one of his friends.
In
March 2015, following media reports that his mother had recognised Jihadi
John's voice as her son's, his father denied that this had happened or that
Emwazi was Jihadi John.
Reactions
US
President Barack Obama condemned the actions of 'Jihadi John' and vowed
punishment for all the militants responsible behind the videotaped beheadings. Secretary of State John Kerry
also called 'Jihadi John' a "coward behind a mask" and, echoing
Obama, stated that all those responsible would be held accountable by the
United States. British officials have also reiterated their commitment to
capturing 'Jihadi John'. Admiral Alan West, a former UK Minister for Security and Counter-terrorism,
said that he is a "dead man walking" who will be "hunted
down" like Osama bin Laden. David Cameron also
stated that he was absolutely certain that Jihadi John would "one way or
another, face justice", he also condemned the actions. UK Justice Secretary Chris
Grayling, and Secretary General of Interpol Ronald
Noble also stated that Jihadi John should be brought to justice.
Reacting
to the naming of Emwazi by the media, a spokesman for the family of Steven
Sotloff told the BBC that they wanted to see him behind bars. Bethany Haines,
daughter of David, said "It's a good step but I
think all the families will feel closure and relief once there's a bullet
between his eyes."
Lord Carlisle, a former
independent reviewer of UK anti-terror laws, said, "Had control
orders been in place, in my view there is a realistic prospect that
Mohammed Emwazi, and at least two of his associates, would have been the
subject of control orders with a compulsory relocation."
In
reaction to the revelation, Emwazi's father, Jassem, has said that he is
ashamed of his son. Previously, when he learned from his son that he was going
to Syria "for jihad", Jassem had told him that he hoped he would be
killed. But the day after the naming he issued a statement denying that his son
was Jihadi John. An unidentified cousin issued a statement which said, "We hate him. We hope he will be killed soon. This will
be good news for our family."
On
8 March 2015, according to The
Sunday Times, Emwazi apologised to his family for "problems and
trouble the revelation of his identity has caused" them. The message was
conveyed via an unspecified third party.
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