Emwazi is both a university grad and a name on the UK’s terror watch list, thus providing a commentary on both the poverty-causes-terrorism dogma and the efficacy of Supine Britain’s counter-terror apparatus. “Jihadi John unmasked: Former Westminster University student was arrested FIVE years ago and put on a terror watch list – but he flew to Syria to join ISIS two years later,” by Mark Duell, Martin Robinson and Emma Glanfield, MailOnline, February 26, 2015:
The Islamic State executioner known as ‘Jihadi John’ was today revealed to be a university graduate from London who flew to Syria despite being on an MI5 terror watch list.
Mohammed Emwazi, 27, of Queen’s Park, west London, who studied computer programming at the University of Westminster, is said to have travelled to the Middle East in 2012 and later joined ISIS.
Jihadi John has featured in the execution videos of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, aid worker David Haines, 22 Syrian soldiers and Japanese reporter Kenji Goto.
Arabic speaker Mr Emwazi has three brothers and sisters and first moved to Britain aged six.
The son of a minicab driver was reported to have been raised in a middle-class family and occasionally prayed at a mosque in Greenwich, south-east London.
But after graduating from university in 2009, he claimed to have been harassed and intimidated by security services – and complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Mr Emwazi alleged an agent from MI5 knew ‘everything about me; where I lived, what I did, and the people I hanged around with’ and claimed the organisation attempted to ‘turn’ him to work for them.
One of Kuwait-born Mr Emwazi’s close friends identified him, telling a newspaper: ‘I have no doubt that Mohammed is Jihadi John. He was like a brother to me… I am sure it is him.’
And Asim Qureshi, research director a British human rights group Cage – who had been in contact with Mr Emwazi before he left for Syria – said he also believed the man was Jihadi John.
Mr Qureshi told the Washington Post: ‘There was an extremely strong resemblance. This is making me feel fairly certain that this is the same person.’
According to the newspaper, in May 2009 Mr Emwazi flew to Tanzania with friends apparently on a safari – but was arrested by police upon landing in Dar es Salaam and sent back to Britain.
En route he stopped in Amsterdam, where he claimed to have been accused by an MI5 officer of trying to reach Somalia, home of the militant group Al Shabaab.
The Washington Post reported Mr Emwazi – who has also been known as Muhammad ibn Muazzam – then moved to his native Kuwait and worked in IT, but he was detained by counter-terrorism police in June 2010 upon a return trip to London.
They allegedly fingerprinted him and searched his belongings, and he was not allowed to fly back to Kuwait. Mr Emwazi was put on a terror watch list and banned from leaving the UK.
The FBI said last September that authorities had been trying to identify Jihadi John using various investigative techniques including voice analysis and interviews with former hostages.
Scotland Yard would not confirm the name, and Downing Street declined to comment on the report. Police attended Mr Emwazi’s home in Queen’s Park earlier today….