After the September 11 attacks, it was considered plausible to use rudimentary weapons of mass destruction to hit western metropolises, but few imagined that a man armed with a knife and a video director could sow terror all over the world .
That judge and executioner, has been the Western nightmare since its first execution. That diabolical character now has a name and is no longer a mystery: Mohammed Emwazi, bourgeois jihadist of 27 years.
But why could the man dressed in black who has served the Caliphate well now become uncomfortable with the cause?
First of all because all the secret services in the world know who he is and his picture is in the public domain.
That boy wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates cap is not so much scared anymore and even for him it might be time to leave the scene.
In short, that boy who knows everything by now, has lost the surprise effect. Moreover, now that the authorities know who he is, there is no doubt that he will become the target of a missile attack should the United States and Britain trace his position.
He is one of the most sought after men in the Middle East and the sworn revenge of at least four nations with assault groups specifically sent to the region to end it hangs over him.
Mohammed Emwazi then, cannot get caught alive because he represents an important source of data, which is why, militants of the Islamic State could think of making him leave the scene as soon as possible and place him on the margins of the organization.
But the problems for John and what he can do to his terrorist friends are not over. Every jihadist on the phone with Emwazi knows he's targeting a drone, and all Hunter Killer missions have been authorized by the Pentagon. Because if it is true that terrorists can hide in their lands, they can not do anything against the US satellite network.
It should also be noted that ISIS is instilling two special feelings in the world: anger and hope. Anger for ruthless executions and that modus vivendi that offends any reference to the Koran and hope because the very identification of the executioner, transmits to the public the certainty that this nightmare will end.
Alive or dead, it doesn't matter. And this is important for the families of the victims who only want its elimination.
Isis, therefore, will continue to hold in its ranks, a man on whom hangs a death sentence that will never expire?
Will the Caliphate continue to consider fundamental "The Beatles" (the four English jailers of kidnapped Westerners) in view of the fact that they are top-level targets?
Without considering, finally, that the 27-year-old could represent a serious danger for ISIS.
The Emwazi affair, meanwhile, continues to divide the English even if under accusation it is precisely the secret services of Her Majesty, guilty of having allowed a possible lethal threat to become real, arriving in Syria.
It should be emphasized that radicalization is a phenomenon that is taking place in France, Belgium, Denmark and other Western European countries, even though in Great Britain there are the most particular cases.
The last episode, three weeks ago, concerns three London female students who fled their homes to become "jihadist brides" in Syria.
Nearly half of British Muslims, interviewed in a BBC poll published last week, said that the British are becoming less and less tolerant of them, while the UKIP political party is gaining support to curb immigration.
This increased polarization was clearly one of the objectives of the Islamic campaign. The choice to recruit Emwazi was not causal, but a powerful reminder: the enemy was in their midst. Not a distant person who speaks Arabic, but a boy who grew up in London. The demystification of the executioner, however, may have reduced the propaganda effect for the Islamic State.
Today he is just a murderer, like the others. It is also true, however, that if the world is "accustomed" to John, this does not mean that the fundamentalists could not find other methods to shock the public. "I am John" Mohammed Emwazi, is a 27 year old born in Kuwait, raised in the suburbs of London, and computer programmer at the University of Westminster.
The transformation of Emwazi, described as a gentle and peaceful man, has revived the problem of the fascination of ruthless extremism and the role of Great Britain as an incubator of Islamic militants. Emwazi, he would have been watched by the secret services before leaving Britain for Syria.
Those who know him describe Mohammed as an "extremely kind, polite, very calm boy". His first appearance dates back to last August, when he beheaded the American journalist James Foley. Emwazi would later execute the American journalist Steven Sotloff, the British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning and US humanitarian worker Peter Kassig.
Emwazi was first arrested in 2009, in Tanzania, where he went on a safari after graduation with two friends (a German convert to Islam named Omar and another man, Abu Talib). In fact, the British authorities already suspected his affiliation with the Shalab terrorist group, active in Somalia. Landed at the Dar es Salaam airport in Tanzania in May 2009, they were arrested by the police and detained overnight before being deported. It was then that the British secret services would ask Emwazi to become an informant. Emwazi, after his forced return from Tanzania, moved to Kuwait and began working for a while as a computer programmer.
In the 2010, he returns to Britain twice to visit the family, but when he tries to return to Kuwait, his visa is refused. Emwazi then tries to change his name to the registry office. What he gets in the 2013, when he legally changes his name to Mohammed al-Ayan. It was then that he buys a new ticket for Kuwait, but this time he is again blocked and interrogated by the secret services. A week later, Emwazi leaves her parents' home forever.
Four months later, the family denounces his disappearance. The London police respond to them that their son went to Syria in the ranks of terrorists.
Franco Iacch
(in the photo below a JDAM - US Air Force archive)
