British Rapper Suspected To Be Terrorist Who Beheaded Journalist James Foley

Via the Sydney Morning Herald:

British intelligence agencies MI5 and MI6 have identified the man suspected of the horrific beheading of American journalist James Foley, according to British media reports. The hooded man with an English accent is believed to be 23-year-old Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, known to fellow Islamic State militants as Jihadi John. The former rapper left his family home in an affluent west London suburb last year to fight in the civil war in Syria. In early August he tweeted a photo of himself wearing military camouflage and a black hood, while holding a severed head in his left hand. British SAS forces are hunting Foley’s killer, using a range of high-tech equipment to track him down and potentially free other hostages.

Via the New York Daily News:

The British ambassador to the United States, Peter Westmacott, said investigators aren’t ready to name Bary as the killer, but are getting “close” to ID’ing the killer, he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Bary is one of six children of Adel Abdul Bary, an Egyptian militant who is facing terrorism charges in connection with Al Qaeda’s twin 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. After spending years in and out of Egyptian prisons, subjected to torture, the elder Bary and his wife, Ragaa, were granted political asylum in Britain in 1993. He was arrested for the bombings in 1998 and was extradited to the United States in 2012 after a protracted legal battle. Ragaa’s story is told in the book, “Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Woman of the War on Terror.” The younger Bary rapped under the name L. Jinny or Lyricist Jinn Matic, and his songs had been featured on the BBC’s Radio 1 Extra, media outlets reported.

Here’s one of Bary’s rap clips.


(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)