A defector of the Islamic State (ISIS) has revealed the details of Jihadi John's strategy to calm foreign captives before he beheads them in front of cameras to be viewed by the world.
In an interview, the former ISIS member who was identified only as "Saleh" said that Jihadi John was known as a Big Boss within the organisation and commanded a lot of respect because he has no qualms about executing foreigners.
"I do not understand why he is so strong. One man can kill and all people will respect. A Syrian man, anyone (in ISIS) can kill, but strangers (foreigners), only John," he narrated in broken English.
Saleh was a translator for ISIS before he decided to abandon the group to flee to Turkey. His main job was to communicate with the captives in order to keep them calm and cooperative.
Jihadi John, who was recently revealed to be Mohammed Emzawi, is the ISIS executioner behind the brutal beheadings of the group's American prisoners – journalists James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, British charity workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese nationals Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa.
According to Saleh, Jihadi John calms the prisoners by convincing them that the executions will only be for show and that no actual harm will come to them while shooting the videos.
Emwazi "would say to me, 'Say to them, no problem, only video, we don't kill you, we want from your government [to] stop attacking Syria. We don't have any problem with you; you are only our visitors,'" Saleh said, adding that IS went so far as to stage mock executions to serve as rehearsals so that the prisoners would not panic when it came to the time for their actual beheadings.
Saleh said he always knew that the prisoners would not survive the taped executions, which Jihadi John took complete charge of.
"All time, all time say to all 'fastly, fastly, fastly, we should finish.' So respect him. Only he talks orders — others do," Saleh said.
Saleh's revelations corroborated the theory released by a CIA counterterrorism expert on the seeming calmness of prisoners who were about to be executed in ISIS propaganda videos.
In his article on the Washington Post, former CIA man Aki Peritz explained that the prisoners may not have known that they were going to be murdered or else they would not have read the speeches ISIS forced them to deliver before their deaths.
