he often taunted the west. i m back, obama. i m back, obama. we now know who he is. the washington post reported today his name is mohammed emwazi, thought to be about 27 years old, born in kuwait. he grew up in london, comes from a well to do family, a college graduate who studied computer programming. a u.s. intelligence official confirmed his identity to nbc news. how do we account from this journey. the washington post offers a few hints. in 2009, he traveled to tanzania, where he and two friends were detained by police. he later said that british authorities detained him again when he returned to europe. the next year he tried to move back to his homeland of kuwait, but reportedly was prevented from doing so by authorities. according to the bbc, he came to the attention of counterterrorism officials in britain, as thought to be involved with extremists over in africa. while he made he way to syria
how did he slip the net and get out of the country late 2012? early 2013? that s a really big question. at the moment the ease of travel through europe is certainly something that worries counterterrorism officials here. it s not like getting on a trans-atlantic flight where you know your travel plans are flagged well in advance. it is easy relatively easy to slip out of this country into other parts of europe. move let s say to turkey and into syria. it s an open question was it a miss? he was certainly under their spotlight before. back to you. nic robertson, thanks so much. let s talk about it with mitch silver the executive managing director for k 2 intelligence and former director of intelligence for the nypd. and daveed gartenstein-ross senior fellow for the foundation of defense of democracies. you both are experts in the field of recruitment. you re great guests to have on this morning. mitch, i want to start with you. let me read to you what the head of counterterrorism fo
cannot do is offer an explanation about why he became such an extreme radical to be involved in in cutting people s heads off, and also part of the puzzle we haven t heard any details about so far is what happened prior to 2009. why was he on the british services british intelligence service s radar. at the moment, the counterterrorism officials, metropolitan police in london saying they re not going to comment on jihadi john, lives are still at stake, there are on going terrorism operations involved at this time. john? a lot of unanswered questions, nic. alienation only begins to explain it. and not much. doesn t really excuse taking hostage and killing of innocent lives. from isis in syria and london to isis in brooklyn. new information about the two men in custody in new york accused of trying to join isis, a third man arrested for
such a beautiful young man. really. it s hard to imagine the trajectory. with me now are artika schubert in the neighborhood enwazi once lived. first nick cage what does that group say happened to enwazi before he apparently became radicalized? reporter: they re saying that his sort of trajectory if you will matches that of hundreds of other young people they say that come to them. say that they re being harassed by the british intelligence services. enwazi they say took a flight to tanzania this was a graduation gift from his parents, that he was going there on safari. but he was turned around and sent back to the u.k. questioned by mfi, questioned by other counterterrorism
trajectory that s unfamiliar for us. reporter: emwazi s friends say his path to radicalization may have begun in 2009 when he traveled to tanzania to go on a safari a graduation present from his parents. but he was detained on arrival, held overnight, then deported to the uk. authorities suspecting his true intention was to travel to somalia. in 2010 he was detained again by counter terrorism officials in britain. two years later, emwazi is believed to have traveled to syria, where he joined isis. his friends claim mistreatment by british authorities set him on a path to terrorism. our entire national security strategy for the last 13 years has only increased alienation has only increased people feeling like they don t belong. that was a fairly alarming defense, considering emwazi s truly brutal crimes particularly for families of his victims. today the daughter of one of his victims, the british aide