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 The black-clad militant brandishing a knife and speaking with an
English accent was shown in videos released by Islamic State (IS)
apparently decapitating hostages including Americans, Britons and
Syrians.
The 26-year-old militant used the videos to threaten the West,
admonish its Arab allies and taunt President Barack Obama and
British Prime Minister David Cameron before petrified hostages
cowering in orange jump suits.
Emwazi's name was first disclosed by the Washington Post. Two U.S.
government sources who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to
Reuters that investigators believed Jihadi John was Emwazi.
Dressed entirely in black, a balaclava covering all but his eyes and
the bridge of his nose and a holster under his left arm, Jihadi John
became a menacing symbol of Islamic State brutality and one of the
world's most wanted men.
Hostages called him John as he and other Britons in Islamic State
had been nicknamed the Beatles.
He was unmasked publicly for the first time on Friday by British
media which published a photograph showing Emwazi as a schoolboy.
The Daily Mail newspaper published a picture showing Emwazi smiling
and sitting cross-legged on the grass at the front of the photograph
from the St Mary Magdalene Church of England primary school in Maida
Vale, West London.
 Emwazi was born in Kuwait but came to Britain aged 6 and graduated
with a computer programming degree from the University of
Westminster before coming to the attention of Britain's main
domestic intelligence service, MI5, according to an account given by
Asim Qureshi, the research director of the Cage charity that
campaigns for those detained on terrorism charges.
Emwazi, a fluent Arabic speaker, said MI5 had tried to recruit him
and then prevented him from traveling abroad, forcing him to flee
abroad without telling his family, Qureshi told a news conference in
London.
Emwazi traveled to Syria around 2012, Qureshi said.
MI5 does not publicly comment on the identity of militants or their
backgrounds while an investigation is still ongoing. The British
government and police declined to confirm or deny Emwazi's identity,
citing an ongoing security investigation.
AGENCIES HUNTING JIHAD JOHN
"We don't confirm or deny matters relating to intelligence," said a
spokeswoman for Cameron, who has ordered spy agencies and soldiers
to track down the killer.
"Jihadi John" rose to notoriety in August 2014 when a video appeared
showing a masked man raging against the United States before
apparently beheading U.S. citizen James Foley off camera.
Intelligence services in the United States and Britain used a
variety of investigative techniques including voice and facial
recognition as well as interviews with former hostages to identify
the man, intelligence sources said.
But security officials made great efforts to avoid publicly naming
Emwazi, fearing that would make him more difficult to catch. Two
intelligence sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said they
were uneasy that the name had been revealed.
There was no answer at two addresses in west London where Emwazi was
listed to have lived. Neighbors described the family as "normal
people" and "friendly".
"This is the first time anything like this happens in this
neighborhood," said Fatima Al-Baqali. "We have to be careful now. I
didn't know this family and I usually know everyone here."
Qureshi, of the Cage charity which describes itself as having
campaigned against the 'War on Terror' for more than a decade, said
that although he could not be certain Emwazi was John, there were
some "striking similarities". He declined to elaborate.
In a meeting with reporters in London, Qureshi painted a picture of
a kind and thoughtful young man who faced harassment from MI5, which
apparently suspected he wanted to join the Somali Islamist militant
group al Shabaab.
British authorities have linked Emwazi to another British militant
killed in Somalia in a U.S. drone attack.
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A British court ruling dated December 2011 reported that Elwazi was
an associate of Bilal al Berjawi, a high-ranking leader of the
Somali-based militant group al Shabaab, a person in possession of
the court ruling said.
Reuters has not seen the original court ruling. Media reports said
he helped supervise the recruitment and training of new Shabaab
members.
BRITISH SPIES
Qureshi said British spies had tried to recruit Emwazi as a source
but declined to provide specifics.
"There's one character that I remember, one kind person that I
remember and then I see that image and there doesn't seem to be a
correlation between the two," Qureshi told reporters.
"I feel like a prisoner, only not in a cage, in London..," Emwazi
wrote in an email to Cage.
He felt like "a person imprisoned and controlled by security service
men, (who) stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace and
my country, Kuwait".
Cage said Emwazi was detained in Tanzania, where he went for a
safari holiday with two friends in August 2009.
He was deported to Amsterdam and interrogated by MI5 and a Dutch
intelligence officer and then sent back to Britain, according to
Qureshi.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the version of events given
by the charity, which provoked criticism for shifting the
responsibility for Emwazi's crimes.
"I think this is an attempt to deflect attention from Jihadi John,"
said Shiraz Maher, Senior Fellow at the International Centre for the
Study of Radicalization, King's College London.
"They're trying to lay the blame for this at the feet of the British
government," he told Sky news.
The Cage charity, which also worked with the family of Michael
Adebolajo, the Muslim covert who with an accomplice killed a British
soldier in London in May 2013, said both men had been victims of
undue pressure from the security services.
Britain's MI5 security service was not immediately available for
comment on those allegations. MI5 has argued to British lawmakers
that it would be damaging to national security to comment on
allegations that is sought to recruit Adebolajo.
The British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee said
last year that MI5 had investigated Adebolajo five times, twice as a
high priority, but had found no evidence that any attack was being
planned.
The Committee said it had found no evidence that Adebolajo was
harassed by MI5.
After becoming frustrated following three failed attempts to return
to Kuwait, and changing his name to Mohammed al-Ayan, Emwazi left
his parents' home and slipped out of Britain, according to Qureshi.
Four months later, police visited the family home to say they had
information he had entered Syria. His family thought he was in
Turkey doing aid work.
"Jihadi John" fronted gruesome Islamic State videos that showed
either the killing or bodies of victims including U.S. citizens
James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, Britons David Haines
and Alan Henning, Japanese Kenji Goto and over 20 Syrian soldiers.
(Editing by Peter Millership)
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