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Post by Admin on Feb 26, 2015 22:08:48 GMT
The world knows him as 'Jihadi John', the masked man with a British accent who has beheaded several hostages held by the Islamic State and who taunts audiences in videos circulated widely online. But his real name, according to friends and others familiar with his case, is Mohammed Emwazi, a Briton from a well-to-do family who grew up in west London and graduated from college with a degree in computer programming. He is believed to have travelled to Syria around 2012 and to have later joined the Islamic State, the group whose barbarity he has come to symbolise.  "I have no doubt that Mohammed is 'Jihadi John'," said one of Emwazi's close friends who identified him in an interview with The Washington Post. "He was like a brother to me. . . . I am sure it is him." A representative of a British human rights group who had been in contact with Emwazi before he left for Syria also said he believed Emwazi was 'Jihadi John', a moniker given to him by some of the hostages he once held. "There was an extremely strong resemblance," Asim Qureshi, research director at the rights group, CAGE, said after watching one of the videos. "This is making me feel fairly certain that this is the same person." Authorities have used a variety of investigative techniques, including voice analysis and interviews with former hostages, to try to identify 'Jihadi John'. James Comey, the director of the FBI, said in September — only a month after the Briton was seen in a video killing American journalist James Foley — that officials believed they had succeeded.  Nevertheless, the identity of 'Jihadi John' has remained shrouded in secrecy. Since Foley's killing, he has appeared in a series of videos documenting the gruesome killings of other hostages, including four other Westerners, some of whom he personally beheaded. In each, he is dressed in all black, a balaclava covering all but his eyes and the ridge of his nose. He wears a holster under his left arm. A spokeswoman for the British Embassy in Washington said: "Our prime minister has been clear that we want all those who have committed murder on behalf of ISIL to face justice for the appalling acts carried out. There is an ongoing police investigation into the murder of hostages by ISIL in Syria. It is not appropriate for the government to comment on any part of it while this continues." ISIL is another name for the Islamic State. |
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Post by Admin on Feb 27, 2015 22:40:12 GMT
The masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John", who has been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages, has been named. He is Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British man in his mid-20s from west London, who was previously known to British security services. British police declined to comment, citing ongoing investigations. Emwazi first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the US journalist James Foley.  Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sir John said: "These people draw attention to themselves because of their activity, their mixing, participation in extremist and sometimes terrorist circles, so of course they're going to draw attention to themselves." He said an approach by security services to individuals they suspected of becoming extremist was an opportunity for them "to draw back from the terrorist groups" and acted as a warning. "But the idea that somehow being spoken to by a member of MI5 is a radicalising act, I think this is very false and very transparent," he said. MI5 is coming under pressure to explain why its officers spent five years talking to Emwazi before he left the country for Syria.  Sir John, who served as head of MI6 for five years, defended the security services, saying they "do a really professional job". "Of course they know many of these individuals, most of them who end up taking part in terrorist organisations," he said.  "They'd be more subject to criticism if someone came and committed an atrocity in this country or elsewhere who they had no knowledge of whatsoever." He said: "There are probably several thousand of these individuals of concern and the numbers are rising as more people go to Syria and Iraq. And no-one is talking about rounding up all these people or keeping 100% coverage, there's just not the resources to do that and it would be contrary to our principles of human rights to do that, so you have to find a balance." UK-based advocacy group Cage has suggested that MI5 may have contributed to the radicalisation of Emwazi. Downing Street said that suggestion was "completely reprehensible", while London mayor Boris Johnson described Cage's comments as "an apology for terror". Mr Cameron has defended the UK's security services, praising the work of "these extraordinary men and women". Mr Cameron went on to say the security services' "dedication and work has saved us from plots on the streets of the UK that could have done us immense damage" within the last few months. |
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Post by Admin on Mar 4, 2015 22:35:16 GMT
 The British graduate unmasked in reports as the Islamic State (IS) executioner known as Jihadi John was a model employee, "calm and decent" and "very good with people", his former boss has said. The unnamed Kuwaiti IT firm, which hired Mohammed Emwazi during a stint in the Gulf before he eventually fled London for Syria in 2013, described him as "the best employee we ever had". The boss told the Guardian newspaper: "He was very good with people. Calm and decent. He came to our door and gave us his CV.  "How could someone as calm and quiet as him become like the man who we saw on the news? It's just not logical that he could be this guy." "I have no answers for this. He wasn't sociable. He was always earnest. He didn't smile. But he wasn't bad." He said Emwazi left the company when he returned to England abruptly in 2010. The boss told the Guardian: "Maybe he fell into the wrong hands when he went back." On Thursday, Asim Qureshi, director of campaign group Cage and a former confidante of Emwazi, described how he got to know the "beautiful young man" after he complained of harassment from MI5 before leaving for Syria and becoming the world's most wanted terrorist. The claims come amid continuing arguments over the role security services and authorities have in allowing a potential terrorist suspect to slip through the net and fall into the clutches of extremists. Tories have been accused of "giving in to terrorists" and risking radicalising more young people by seeking a ban on extremist preachers from university campuses in a coalition row over how to respond to IS. New laws place a duty on institutions to prevent students being drawn into terrorism but the governing parties are split over how it should be implemented in official guidance to educational leaders.  Kuwait-born Londoner Emwazi had been pinpointed as a potential terrorist by the British authorities but was nonetheless able to travel to Syria in 2013 and join a group responsible for the murder of several Western hostages. Former independent reviewer of government anti-terror laws Lord Carlile said there was a "realistic prospect Emwazi might have been prevented from joining up with IS had restrictions on suspects not been relaxed. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper claimed the security services' hands were tied for nearly five years by Mrs May's "wrong" decision to scrap powers to move terror suspects away from their networks. Relocation powers have been reintroduced by the coalition this year but Ms Cooper called for the security services to immediately brief the Intelligence and Security Committee on how the loss of the measures might have affected their work.  |
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