Interesting article in the Washington Post describing the real life identity of “Jihadi John”, the ISIS executioner who has been seen on numerous ISIS video’s executing hostages. The executioner is identified as a rather affluent Kuwaiti national who grew up and lived in London’s west side. The details are interesting.

LONDON — 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 traveled to Syria around 2012 and to have later joined the Islamic State, the group whose barbarity he has come to symbolize.

“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.” (read more)

According to Buzzfeed – Emwazi was born in 1988, and moved to the UK at the age of six with his family, according to Cage UK, a counter-terrorist activist group who spoke at length with Emwazi while he was still in the UK.

♦  Emwazi attended the Quintin Kynaston Community Academy, in St John’s Wood, north London. He then attended the University of Westminster. He graduated in 2009 with a degree in computer science.

♦  Emwaz’s name appears in UK court documents. The Secretary of State named him as having connections to a network of Islamist extremists based in Somalia. Emwazi told investigators that MI5 questioned him about what his opinion was of the London suicide attacks of 2005

♦  According to activist group Cage UK, after graduation, Emwazi became increasingly radicalized. In 2012, Emwazi took and passed a course to teach English as a foreign language. In early 2013, his father apparently suggested that he should change his name in order to make it easier to travel.

Emwazi was refused entry to Kuwait a third time. He left his parents’ home, and was reported as a missing person. Four months later, police told Emwazi’s family that he had entered Syria.  (read more)