"Jihadi John" was once suicidal, e-mails suggest
LONDON - There have been a steady stream of revelations about infamous Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant known as "Jihadi John." Some of Mohammed Emwazi's e-mails published on Sunday give insights into his deeply troubled mind.
The executioner blamed for taking so many lives apparently considered taking his own.
Britain's Mail on Sunday said Mohammed Emwazi sent e-mails to their reporter in 2010, which revealed a paranoia that British security forces were closing in on him.
"Sometimes I feel like a dead man walking, fearing they may kill me," he wrote. "Maybe I'll take as many pills as I can so that I will sleep forever."
He cites an example when he tried to sell his laptop online and was convinced the buyer who met him was an intelligence agent.
"He shook my hand and said 'nice doing business with you, Mohammed," Emwazi allegedly wrote. Then, in all caps, he said: "I NEVER GIVE OUT MY FIRST NAME. IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM TO KNOW IT WAS MY FIRST NAME!!"
The emails display an edgy attitude, a different picture than the grinning schoolboy at a London elementary school, although a new photo of Emwazi as a teenager shows a more menacing sneer.
He's thought to have been living in a London neighborhood when he contacted the paper, and already part of a loose network of young Muslims called "The North London Boys," which has sent dozens of jihadi fighters to fight in Somalia and Syria.
And not long after he sent those e-mails his name appeared in court papers for his alleged association with a group "involved in the provision of funds and equipment to Somalia for terrorism related purposes."
The "North London Boys" or "London Boys," as it's sometimes called, has been alleged to be an Osama Bin Laden sleeper cell, and that neighborhood has reputation as a breeding ground for Muslim extremists. Two Somali men convicted for trying to bomb the London transit system in 2005 lived less than two miles away.
