'Jihadi John' denies he's an extremist in 2009 tape

Jane Onyanga-Omara | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption ‘Jihadi John’ opposed extremism in 2009 recording British advocacy group CAGE released an audio recording made in 2009 of alleged ‘Jihadi John’ suspect Mohammed Emwazi claiming he was not an extremist and denouncing past terrorist attacks.

LONDON — A 2009 recording has emerged of Islamic State executioner Mohammed Emwazi purportedly condemning terror attacks in London and New York and denying that he was an extremist.

In the recording, which could not be independently verified by USA TODAY, Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Londoner who was named as "Jihadi John" last week, talks about his conversation with a security agent from MI5, the United Kingdom's domestic security agency.

The clip was made in 2009 by the British advocacy group CAGE, which assists people who claim they are targeted by security officials.

After graduating from the University of Westminster in London in 2009, Emwazi, 26, traveled to Tanzania for a safari with friends, but he was detained by authorities and flown to Amsterdam, where a British agent questioned him about suspicions he was trying to join al-Shabab militants in Somali. Emwazi spoke to CAGE about his experience after returning to London.

In the recording, Emwazi says he was asked by the officer what he thought about the July 7, 2005, terror attacks in London, which saw 52 people killed in suicide bombing attacks on the city's transport system, and he replied: "Innocent people have died. … I think this is extremism."

He said he was then asked what he thought of the war in Afghanistan.

Emwazi said he replied: "We see the news, innocent people are getting killed, and he (the officer) started telling me 'What do you think of 9/11?'

"I told him this is a wrong thing, what happened was wrong. What do you want me to say? If I had the opportunity for those lives to come back, then I would make those lives come back."

When asked what he thought about "the Jews," he says he said "they're a religion, everyone's got his right to his own belief."

Emwazi told CAGE that "after all this" the officer said he still believed Emwazi was going to Somalia to train. "I said after what I just told you, after I told you that what's happening is extremism … you're still suggesting that I'm an extremist?"

Asim Qureshi, CAGE's research director, made the recording on a Dictaphone, the BBC reported. He has been criticized for suggesting that harassment by security services could have contributed to Emwazi's radicalization.

John Sawers, the former head of MI6, the U.K's foreign intelligence service, told BBC radio last week that an approach by security services was a chance for suspected extremists "to draw back from the terrorist groups" and acted as a warning.

"But the idea that somehow being spoken to by a member of MI5 is a radicalizing act, I think this is very false and very transparent," he said



Emwazi's father Jassem, mother Ghaneyah, and eldest brother Omar were taken in for routine questioning by Kuwaiti authorities on Sunday, according to the Guardian. His parents are thought to have returned to the Jahra region of the country from London, the paper said.

Jassem Emwazi, 51, reportedly described his son as a dog, an animal and a terrorist and said he had begged his parents for forgiveness before joining the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, according to the Daily Telegraph.

In a phone call Monday to Abu Meshaal, his colleague at a supermarket depot in Kuwait, Emwazi senior said he told his son that he hoped he would be killed after he said he was going to Syria "for jihad" in 2013, the paper reported.

Emwazi's mother said she recognized her son's voice immediately when she heard him on an ISIL hostage video, according to the BBC.

Emwazi's parents told the Kuwaiti authorities they were last in contact with their son in 2013 when he called them from Turkey and said he was going to do humanitarian work in Syria, according to the broadcaster.

Kuwaiti officials told the BBC that Mohammed Emwazi never held Kuwaiti nationality or Kuwaiti documentation such as medical or educational certificates, and said he was "an illegal resident" when he lived in Kuwait.

The militant moved to Kuwait and worked for a local IT company when he was 21. He left to visit the U.K. in April 2010 and never returned, the Guardian reported.

Emwazi's family is from a stateless group of Iraqi immigrants in Kuwait referred to as the Bidoon.