British and United States intelligence services have long known the true identity of the man nicknamed “Jihadi John” — the masked jihadist with the British accent who appeared in IS videos of beheadings of western hostages last year. It was information that they withheld “for operational reasons.” Today, although the U.S. government has officially confirmed the identity of the person as Kuwait-born U.K. citizen Mohammad Emwazi, the London police and British officials have refused to do so.
It now transpires that Emwazi has been on the radar of the security services from 2010, and was interrogated by them more than once.
Speaking at a press conference in Wales, Prime Minister David Cameron said that he was “not going to talk about specific individuals,” adding that the security forces would be working to apprehend the perpetrator of “heinous” crimes. Indeed, he defended the security forces as “extraordinary men and women” whose work in this difficult period had kept the country safe.
Emwazi is believed to have killed American journalist James Foley, a murder shown in a video released by IS last August. He is also believed to have been involved in the beheadings of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines and taxi-driver Alan Henning, and U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig.
The wife of Mr. Haines has been quoted in the media as saying that she wants the terrorist caught alive and tried, although his daughter has said that she wanted to see Emwazi with a “bullet between the eyes.” The mother of Mr. Foley told the media that she had “forgiven” her son’s murderer.
The prison advocacy group CAGE (set up by former Guantanamo detainee Moazzem Begg) , which claims that Emwazi was in touch with them for two years before he left for Syria, blamed the British authorities for Emwazi’s radicalization, calling current anti-terror laws “suffocating” at a press conference in London on Thursday.
According to a profile of Emwazi on the CAGE website, he was raised and educated in West London and completed a degree in 2009. He and two friends went to Tanzania for a safari the same year, when they were apprehended at the airport and turned back via Amsterdam. At the Amsterdam airport, CAGE claims, they were interrogated by Dutch and U.K. intelligence officials.
Emwazi reportedly visited Kuwait twice in 2010 on work, and was interrogated by the U.K. police on both occasions at Heathrow on his return. CAGE claims that he sought the assistance of human rights groups and lawyers to help him move and settle in Kuwait.
