The masked militant first appeared in numerous gruesome videos
put out by Islamic State, as Lucy Manning
reports
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. Dragana Haines, wife of slain hostage David: "I hope he will be
caught alive... He needs to be put to justice". He was later thought to have been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of
US journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi
driver Alan Henning, and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as
Peter.
(Clockwise from left) Islamic State victims James
Foley, Abdul-Rahman (Peter) Kassig, Alan Henning, Kenji Goto and Steven Sotloff
In each of the videos, the militant appeared dressed in a black robe with a
black balaclava covering all but his eyes and top of his nose. Speaking with a British accent, he taunted Western powers before holding his
knife to the hostages' necks, appearing to start cutting before the film
stopped. The victims' decapitated bodies were then shown.
Earlier this month, the militant featured in a video in which the Japanese
journalist Kenji Goto appeared to be beheaded. Hostages released by IS said he
was one of three British jihadists guarding Westerners abducted by the group in
Syria. They were known collectively as "the Beatles".
Mohammed Emwazi timeline:
- 1988: Born in Kuwait, moves to UK in 1994
- 2009: Completes computing degree at University of
Westminster
- Aug 2009: Travels to Tanzania with two friends for safari
but refused entry at Dar es Salaam. Put on flight to Amsterdam. After
questioning there, returns to Dover
- Sept 2009: Travels to Kuwait to stay with father's
family
- July 2010: Returns to UK for short stay but told he cannot
return to Kuwait as visa denied
- 2012: Passes Celta English language teaching course
- 2013: Changes name by deed poll. Tries to travel to Kuwait
but is stopped. Disappears. Parents report him missing. Police tell family four
months later he has entered Syria
In a news conference, Asim Qureshi, the research director of the London-based
lobby group Cage, which had been in contact with Emwazi over a number of years,
explained how he had been approached by the
Washington Post for the story and detailed the difficulties Emwazi had had
with security services in the UK and overseas.
Mr Qureshi said Emwazi, who is understood to be about 27, had been "extremely
kind, gentle and soft-spoken, the most humble young person I knew". He said he could "not be 100% certain" Jihadi John was Emwazi although there
were "striking similarities".
Journalists gathered outside a home in London where
Mohammed Emwazi is believed to have once lived
Emwazi's difficulties began when he travelled to Tanzania in May 2009
following his graduation in computer programming at the University of
Westminster, Mr Qureshi added. He and two friends had planned to go on a safari but once they landed in Dar
es Salaam they were detained by police and held overnight.
Emwazi then ended up flying to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where he
claimed to be met by British intelligence agents from MI5 who accused him of
trying to travel to Somalia, where the jihadist group al-Shabab operates. He
denied the accusation and said the agents had tried to recruit him before
allowing him to return to the UK.
US and British counter-terrorism officials discovered the identity of "Jihadi
John" as far back as last September. The FBI, Britain's MI5 and other
intelligence agencies used a combination of voice recognition software,
interviews with former hostages and on-the-ground research in London to build up
a profile of the man now revealed to be Mohammed Emwazi.
They have always declined to reveal the name for "operational reasons". Now
that it's out in the public domain, it's emerged that Emwazi was well-known to
MI5 and that it even tried to recruit him as an informer, years before he went
off to Syria to eventually join Islamic State.
The practice by intelligence agencies of approaching jihadist sympathizers to
work for them is likely to continue. It's believed both Britain and the US have
informers inside the Islamic State "capital" of Raqqa. Yet this seems to have
been little help in stopping the actions of Mohammed Emwazi, or bringing him to
justice.
Emwazi later moved to Kuwait, where he got a job at a computer company. But
on a visit to London in 2010, he was detained by British counter-terrorism
officials and prevented from flying back to Kuwait, his friends said.
"I had a job waiting for me and marriage to get started," Emwazi wrote in a
June 2010 email to Cage.
Asim Qureshi of the human rights group Cage describes Mohammed
Emwazi as a "beautiful young man"
"[But now] I feel like a prisoner, only not in a cage, in London," he added,
"a person imprisoned and controlled by security service men, stopping me from
living my new life in my birthplace and country, Kuwait."
Mr Qureshi said Emwazi had made persistent efforts to try to change his
situation: "We had two-and-a-half years of communications talking about what he
could do to alleviate his problems."
He said he did not know what had happened to Emwazi, adding: "When we treat
people as if they are outsiders they will inevitably feel like outsiders - our
entire national security strategy for the last 13 years has only increased
alienation. A narrative of injustice has taken root."
Emwazi was believed to have travelled to Syria around 2013 and later joined
IS, which has declared the creation of a "caliphate" in the large swathes of
Syria and neighbouring Iraq it controls.
A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron would not confirm or deny the
latest reports, adding that the police and security services were working hard
to find those responsible for the murder of the British hostages.
The University of Westminster confirmed Emwazi had left six years ago,
adding: "If these allegations are true, we are shocked and sickened." The FBI went on record last
September to confirm it knew who Jihadi John was. However, US officials said
this month they would not name him as they believed this would be the best
strategy for finding him and bringing him to justice. A spokesman for the family of Steven Sotloff said: "We want to sit in a
courtroom, watch him sentenced and see him sent to a super-max prison."
David Haines's sister, Bethany, welcomed the identification, but told ITV
News: "I think all the families will feel closure and relief once there's a
bullet between his eyes."
