The Beatles — you remember their hits. “I Want to Hold Your Head,” “We Hate Jews, Yeah Yeah Yeah,” “Yellow Caliphate,” “Back in the ISIL,” “Kill Together,” on and on and on. A band like that will not be seen again.
“James Foley: British jihadist called John is world’s most wanted man over beheading of journalist,” by Jason Beattie, Mirror, August 20, 2014 (thanks to Twostellas):
An educated British jihadi called John is the world’s most wanted man over the beheading of US journalist James Foley.
The killer was tonight said to be from London’s East End, and the leader of a murderous team of UK-born militants dubbed “The Beatles” by captives.
He is thought to be one of 500 British nationals fighting with the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. Today US security forces launched an international manhunt to track him down.
It came after a masked man was seen brandishing a knife and ranting about America in a chilling video, before beheading photojournalist James, 40.
Militants said the horror was in revenge for US strikes against its fighters.
But this afternoon President Barack Obama vowed “justice would be done” as US officials said they were weighing up whether to send extra troops to Iraq.
John is believed to be one of the main guards of foreign hostages in Raqqa, Syria. One ex-captive described him as intelligent, educated and a devout believer in radical Islamic teachings.
He said the militant – who called himself John – and two other UK-born fighters, were referred to as “The Beatles” because of their nationality.
UK intelligence experts were reportedly comparing the killer’s voice with those of ex-Guantanamo Bay prisoners and other Brits believed to have joined the Islamic State fighters.
Prof Paul Kerswill, a linguistics expert at the University of York, said the executioner spoke in “multicultural London English” usually found in the East End.
He said: “He probably has a foreign language background but it sounds like multicultural London English, which is people from all kinds of backgrounds who mix in the East End, a new cockney.”
British teams are examining the horrific video to “establish its authenticity” and track down the killer.
Today Prime Minister David Cameron broke off his Cornish holiday to London to chair an emergency No 10 meeting on the UK response to the “barbaric and brutal” execution.
He vowed new measures to stop more UK nationals joining IS forces, including proposals for “tougher laws to deal with terrorism and extremism”.
As long as you won’t call it by its actual name or identify its root causes, Cameron, you will never make any headway against it, “tougher laws” notwithstanding.
He said: “We have not identified the individual responsible, but it looks increasingly likely it is a British citizen.
“This is deeply shocking. But we know that far too many British citizens have travelled to Iraq and travelled to Syria to take part in extremism and violence. And what we must do is redouble all our efforts to stop people from going.”
Police have been told to stop the flying of the IS flag here and arrest anyone peddling recruitment literature for the group – once known as ISIS or ISIL.
The authorities have withdrawn 23 passports this year and made 69 arrests in a bid to stop the flow of fighters travelling to Iraq and Syria. The PM also warned of the threat to the UK from the estimated 250 Brits who have returned from Middle East battlegrounds.
He said the fight was not against the religion of Islam but “poisonous” extremists. He said: “It is a battle we have to fight in our own country using everything we have – our aid, our diplomacy, and on occasions our military powers.
“What happens in other far-flung places can come back and cause huge harm here.” But there will be no recall of Parliament, and he said it was not time for a “knee-jerk reaction”.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also warned there was a risk of extremists returning home to continue their terror.
He said: “If the Islamic State, so called, becomes established in an area of Syria and Iraq, it will undoubtedly use it for a base, for launching attacks on the West.
“Equally if it gets pushed back, some will return to their countries, not just the UK, all European countries, Australia, the US, other Arab countries. We will see these people going back and potentially carrying on their fight in our homelands.” He added: “We are absolutely aware that there are significant numbers of British nationals involved in terrible crimes, probably in the commission of atrocities, making jihad with IS and other organisations.”
As Mr Hammond said UK troops could be sent to Baghdad to train Iraqi forces, French President Francois Hollande called for a summit to discuss ways of crushing the IS threat, while Germany and Italy said they were ready to send arms to the Iraqi Kurds battling jihadi extremists.
In the barbaric beheading video, victim James – captured in Syria in 2012 – is pictured with his head shaved and dressed in an orange jump suit, kneeling next to masked man who holds a knife to his neck. The killer then rants against President Obama and warns action against IS will result in the “bloodshed” of Americans.
President Obama said: “We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, we do what is necessary to see that justice is done. For governments and peoples across the Middle East, there has to be a common effort to extract this cancer.”
US officials last night said the Pentagon was considering sending more troops to Iraq. Mr Obama said militants had rampaged across cities, abducted women and children and subjected them to torture and rape and killed Muslims by the thousands….
Jay Boo says
The first sentence of this article could be better.
Feel free to delete this comment.
john spielman says
I think its funny, gallows humor for sure, but funny!
Jay Boo says
Maybe no so funny to his family
It is a bit insensitive and disrespectful in this context.
Jay Boo says
I am referring to the phrase “I Want to Hold Your Head,”
Some other commenter may disagree, but that doesn’t bother me at all.
somehistory says
I agree. If I were Paul or Ringo, I wouldn’t care for it either. But maybe that’s just me. I can’t speak for either of those two men.
Beagle says
Caliph Bakr’s Eating Hearts Club Band…?
Hey, idiotic non-Muslims, get the hell out of Dodge, or in this case what used to be Iraq and Syria. You are walking piggy banks to jihadis.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/20/islamic-state-isis-foreign-hostages-syria-aleppo?CMP=twt_gu
“Flush with looted weapons, buoyed by sweeping gains in Syria and eager to shock, Islamic State militants have seized four more foreign hostages near Aleppo in recent days, taking to more than 20 the number of foreigners they now hold.”
One of the bobbleheads on FNC this morning was wondering if we should have paid a ransom for Foley.
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is among the most important of all the lessons history has to teach.” — Huxley
Jay Boo says
If there was a known GPS location for all the British converts and if it was targeted, it would solve two problems.
1 — relieving the world of these lunatics.
2 — relieving the British politicians of their responsibility to stop them from returning to Britain.
voegelinian says
And the converts living in the UK now, and all the non-British Muslims there, all magically harmless, eh, and not part of the problem — the bloody (and stealthy) war Islam is waging on us, eh?
Jaladhi says
This is true Islam and true Muslims following their leader Mo/allah who beheaded 800 Jews in Medina and enslaved women and girls after the genocide. Ever since then Muslims are committing genocide with no reprisals!!
And our media and many so called respected journalists keep on saying this has nothing to with Islam. Just saw and heard on Fox News this morning Judith Miller saying this as if the ISIS group has appeared in vacuum. There are hundreds of more such “respected” journalists who are rushing to the defense of Islam. Instead of telling the truth they are just covering up. The same is true for most politicians including our Prez and members of both parties. Why are they afraid of facing the truth instead of burying their heads in Arbian sands and oil. What a bunch of liars and cowards are leading the society these days!! Totally disgusting!!
Jay Boo says
Yes ISIS or whatever they call themselves now is basically just Islam.
At least journalist James Foley’s suffering is over now.
But this will happen again until as Ayaan Hirsi Ali said of Islamic violence “calling things by their name”. (Islam)
Beagle says
Mean Mr. Mujahid…?
If I lived in Britain, ah, I wouldn’t much longer.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2730602/The-homegrown-jihadists-fighting-ISIS-How-one-four-foreigners-signed-Islamic-State-British-half-ALREADY-UK.html
“At least one in four of the estimated 2,000 foreigners fighting for ISIS in Syria and Iraq is British – and half of those are already back in the UK, it has emerged today.”
Kevin says
It has happened before. The response that worked the first several times is called, in the vernacular, a “crusade”.
Only this time, I believe the world lacks a Charles Martell; this time the battle of Tours will be lost.
Beagle says
The war we’re not fighting against the IS, we’re losing. And by “we” I mean not only the US but the entire non-Muslim world. The forced conversion of hundreds of Yazidis yesterday had nothing to do with Islam, right Obama?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2730733/ISIS-march-DESPITE-U-S-airstrikes-How-terror-group-expanding-thanks-lucrative-hostage-trade-capturing-swathes-territory-seizing-oil.html
US airstrikes slowed ISIS in Iraq but the group is still becoming stronger
Yesterday militants took four more hostages which they will likely ransom
Added trade in oil makes ISIS the wealthiest terror group in the world
Soldiers yesterday captured villages in Syria and attacked key airbase
Experts say they are using five battalions’ worth of US-supplied weapons
Recruitment drive in July added thousands of militant fighters to ranks
dan says
Trust me we left more than 5 battalions worth of weapons…more like 9
john spielman says
islamic groups may deny that ISIS is behaving as Muhammed ordered muslims to behave, but hey, they also are instructed to LIE to unbelievers so as to gain advantage over them!
Buraq says
The Beatles? Led by a man called John?
Well, we know what happened to a man called John who was a Beatle, don’t we?
I mean, imagine.
Clown!
Mr Squat says
Is anybody in the UK asking why were so many Muslims imported into the UK to begin with? Are the politicians who caused this getting any flack? Or is the media conveniently blaming the Jihadis?
Beryl says
The western approach to dealing with Islamists is silly in the extreme. They force upon the islamists themselves the idea that they are peaceful. They demands Muslims in Britain to denounce the atrocities, as if they care or as if that would matter. They target single incidents and people while pretending the whole mass movement into Europe and the US has nothing to do with any of it and won’t matter. The approach should be the opposite, unapologetically. Muslim immigration should have stopped on 9/12/2001 in the US and in Europe. The overall attempt to destroy the West should be dealt with in a comprehensive way, stopping immigration and allowing Israel to show the world how to deal with islamist killers in the only language they understand. The politically correct way is the end of the West, and an apology for its democratic values.
voegelinian says
” The approach should be the opposite, unapologetically. Muslim immigration should have stopped on 9/12/2001 in the US and in Europe.”
Well, it didn’t. And the infusion of more and more Muslim immigrants continues unabated, and it’s reasonable to suppose it will for many years to come. Now what do we do? Continuing to agitate for “stopping” (or, for the more nougaty Softies, “limiting”) immigration is like closing the barn door AFTER the wolves have already gotten in.
No, it’s not like that; it is horribly worse than that.
Godwin says
Under Saudi oil-deal “pressure” the western leaders are weak in dealing with Islamists in their own countries so much so that there are so many home grown terrorists. They are the ticking time bombs.
voegelinian says
An important thing this shows is an indication of how Muslims can assimilate Western secular pop culture and yet still be jihadist (i.e., still be a garden-variety Muslim, albeit one who may be camouflaging his or her jihadism with seeming moderation or other mutations of moderation that fool even many in the Counter-Jihad). This also came up, as I noted at the time, in the recent story in light of the death of Robin Williams about ISIS-supporting Muslims (i.e., garden-variety Muslims who don’t feel the need to pretend to be against ISIS — and who would blame them, when so many in the West, probably the majority still, think most Muslims are against ISIS and think that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam) who revealed their pop culture appetite with regard to various movies.
voegelinian says
And why this is important is that it helps (or should help, for the less obtuse among us in the West) disabuse us of the notion that somehow modern secular values and influence will “de-Islamize” Muslims because, of course, Muslims must be just like us — we Westerners who arrogantly assume in our Wilsonian delusion that all peoples of the Earth must be species of Homo Occidentalis and even if they don’t seem to behave like it, can be coaxed with enough assistance, money and exposure to our values to let their Inner Western Man out.
Champ says
“The Beatles”? …these evil jihadists more closely resemble a satanist band called “Mayhem”!
Champ says
…and, no, I do not listen to music by “Mayhem” ..I have only heard *of* this evil band.
Champ says
Today Prime Minister David Cameron broke off his Cornish holiday to London to chair an emergency No 10 meeting on the UK response to the “barbaric and brutal” execution.
He vowed new measures to stop more UK nationals joining IS forces, including proposals for “tougher laws to deal with terrorism and extremism”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok. I am far from getting excited over this news. Time will tell what he means, exactly, by “tougher laws to deal with terrorism and extremism”. Don’t hate me for stating this, but it seems a bit late for “tougher laws to deal with terrorism and extremism”, doesn’t it? Better late, than never, I suppose, but the jury is still out on what he plans to do, exactly …
Oliver says
SAounds like Nobama. HE ( NOBAMA) TOOK TWO ( WHOLE OR PART- NEWS ITEM UNCLEAR) OFF OF HIS VACATION (in Martha’s Vineyard) to go to Washington, to deal with Ferguson, MoO., the middle east, Foley, etc.
Then back for more golf.
And some hack- well, he doesn’t take more vacations then some of his predecessors.
Pierre says
James Foley was a Muslim sympathizer and supporter of ISIS. He trusted & supported the people who then beheaded him. The left wing Govt’s around the world are responsible for much of Islamic extremism and its ability to grow. The problem is only going to continue and also get worse because there are too many people in this world that are idiots and do not understand the manifesto of the Quran. The left wing apologists are as bad as the Islamists.
Josh says
Heavy story, now I believe the world lacks a Charles Martell; this time the battle of Tours will be lost.
paddy says
These pigs are not British…they are the spawn of a muslim bitch and an illiterate muslim cunt who have collectively turned their demon offspring against all that strives to be good in this world. Make no mistake, muslims suffer from the biggest inferiority complex in History.