Is This the Man Who Beheaded James Foley? And What Really Happened?

Britain’s intelligence agency believes it knows
the identity of the man who beheaded American journalist James
Foley. Also, some are questioning if the video of the killing was
staged.

The investigation “is ongoing,” an unnamed police intelligence
source
tells The Sunday Times, but the alleged killer may be
Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a 23-year-old rapper who was raised in a
well-to-do London home. Last year, he joined the terrorist
organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),
which is now wreaking havoc throughout Iraq.

The New York Times provides some
background on the man:

Bary’s father, Adel Abdel Bary, was extradited to the United
States from Britain in 2012 after a long legal battle to face
terrorism charges in Al Qaeda’s bombing of two American Embassies
in East Africa in 1998.

The younger Bary had considerable success rapping under the name
“L Jinny” or “Lyricist Jinn,” with singles played on BBC Radio and
much-watched videos on YouTube. …

Earlier this year, Bary posted on Twitter a photograph of
himself holding a severed head with the comment, “Chillin’ with my
homie or what’s left of him.”

Charming.

From
The Daily Mail:

Friends say Bary became
radicalised after coming into contact with extremists linked to
hate preacher Anjem Choudary.

A former friend said: “He had the talent – he could have been as
big as Dizzee Rascal. He was doing music with huge names in the
underground scene.

“People have got into his head – it’s transformed a talented
young guy into a vengeful extremist.”

Although Bary is a key suspect, there are
several other men also being eyed by British intelligence.

An estimated
1,000 Europeans have joined the Islamic State, half of whom are
from Britain. About 100 Americans have also joined.

Whoever actually beheaded Foley, here’s a twist: “I think it has
been staged,” an unnamed visual forensics expert told
the U.K. Times. “My feeling is that the execution may have
happened after the camera was stopped.”

The New York Daily News
explains that “several pieces of evidence that suggested the
video was a chilling bit of propaganda, but not an actual
decapitation.”:

First, although the masked jihadist can be seen
repeatedly drawing the knife across the 40-year-old war reporter’s
neck, no actual incisions were visible, the
analyst said.

Similarly, there didn’t appear to be any blood spilling from
Foley’s throat, and the sounds he made at the moment of his death
didn’t appear sound right.

The analyst also found a slight blip in the scripted remarks
Foley made in the video, suggesting he may have had to repeat a
line, which was spliced into the final version.