Imran Khawaja was a key member of Rayat al–Tawheed (RaT), a group of British recruits who went to fight the Assad regime in Syria. Known as Abu Daigham al Baritani or Abu Daigham al-Britani, he faked his own death and tried to sneak back into the UK, but was caught.

Today he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and 5 years of supervision. (He will have to serve about 8 years.) [More...]

President Obama released a 29 page security plan to Congress today and said we must be careful not to overreach in the Middle East.

The United States cannot try to "dictate the trajectory of all unfolding events around the world" as it does not have infinite resources nor influence to tackle complex problems that cannot be fixed only with its military might, he said.

"We must always resist the overreach that comes when we make decisions based upon fear," Obama said.

ISIS released a statement today claiming American hostage Kayla Mueller was killed in a Jordanian bomb strike in Raqqa.

It provided photos of a bombed building, but none of Mueller. Mueller is the last known American hostage to be held by ISIS.

Long War Journal finds the claim "convenient".

While it is certainly possible Mueller has been killed, the Islamic State's description of how she was allegedly killed could very well be a crude attempt at propaganda.

ISIS also says the bombing of the building lasted an hour but no ISIS members were killed. It claims Ms. Mueller was killed by fire from the bombing.

When we last left off with Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (spiritual mentor to Al Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, bio here), he had just been jailed in Jordan for communicating with terrorists while working with U.S. lawyer Stanley Cohen to negotiate with Maqdisi's enemy ISIS to free Peter Kassig. The F.B.I. was aware of the effort, and paid for Cohen and his translator's travel. (Cohen began serving his own federal prison sentence on tax charges this month.)

Today Jordan confirmed it released Maqdisi two days ago. [More...]

ISIS burned a Jordanian pilot alive, claiming its actions are justified by the pilot having flown missions for Jordan in which Syrian civilians, including children, were killed. It views the brutal murder as justified, under the Islamic equivalent of "an eye for an eye."

IS believes in a principle known as "qisas" which, in its broadest terms, is the law of equal retaliation. Put another way, it is the Islamic equivalent of "lex talionis", or the doctrine of an eye for an eye. Within Islamic law qisas typically relates to cases of murder, manslaughter, or acts involving physical mutilation (such as the loss of limbs) and creates a framework for victims (or their families) to seek retributive justice.

[More....]

Update: Jordan has executed Sajida al-Rishawi and another al Qaida prisoner, Ziad al-Karbouli (aka Abu Houthiyfah), who was also sentenced to death. Are more coming executions coming?

There are reports a Jordanian member of al-Qaida, Muammar Ahmad Yusuf Al-Jaghbir, was also moved to the execution facility. Al-Jaghbir was initially sentenced to death, but in 2009, his sentenced was changed to 15 years. On December 25, when reports first surfaced of an exchange of al Qaida prisoners with Jordan, al-Jahbir was mentioned, along with al-Rashawi and al-Karouli as those who could be released.

Would Jordan execute a prisoner (and Jordanian citizen) whose death sentence was commuted? That doesn't sit right, especially when al-Jaqhbir is not a member of ISIS. [More...]

ISIS released its official video today in which "Jihadi John", the black-clad ISIS executioner, beheads Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. (I'm not linking to the video and please do not post link in comments.)

The video does not show the actual moment of beheading, but it does show Goto's head laying on his body afterwards.

There is no mention of the Jordanian pilot in the video.

Update: No swap or release occurred. It should be mentioned that ISIS never said it would free the Jordanian pilot if Jordan released Sajida al-Rishawi. ISIS only said the pilot wouldn't be killed. Big difference. ISIS only offered to swap the Japanese journalist for al-Rishawi. ISIS said both would be killed if Jordan didn't comply by sunset. I suspect ISIS will carry out its threat, and kill both. (The pilot may already be dead, since there have been no photos of him since around the time of his capture.)

It was Jordan that added a condition that the release of al-Rishawi would have to be in exchange for its pilot (a swap), and demanded proof of life, before proceeding further. (Jordanian announcement here.) But that was never ISIS' offer. It only proposed a swap of the Japanese journalist. [More...]

The Indian press reports today on the evidence that will be used against Shami Witness. A key piece will be a tweet by Shami in response to repeated requests by a would-be militant recruit using the handle @TalabAlHaqq for information on how to make the crossing from Turkey to Syria. He had been waiting for months in Turkey. [More....]

The black clad executioner known only as "Jihadi John" is back. Today ISIS released a video with a Message to Japan. The video is in English. Jihadi John says as a result of Japan pledging $200 million in non-military aid to assist in the fight against ISIS, it is demanding a ransom of $200 million, one for each of the two Japanese hostages.

One of the hostages, Haruna Yukawa, was shown being interrogated in a video last August. The second, Kenji Goto, is a journalist.

At the end of the video, Jihadi John addresses the Japanese people. He tells them they have 72 hours to convince their government to pay. "Otherwise, this knife will become your nightmare." [More...]

Update: 1/14/15: The fighter standing next to the child soldier who kills the Russian and Kazakh intel agents is Abu Saad al-Dagfhistani. He was killed in Kobane today according to ISIS accounts.

Al Hayat Media, an official media arm of the Islamic State, has a new video (I'm not linking to it) in which two captured Russian/Kazakh intelligence agents confess and are shot and killed. What's unusual is that the killer is about 10 years old. The video shows him prepare to kill the men and then proceed to shoot them in the head. The final screenshot in the video is of the child I wrote about here in an earlier video who was one of many children from Kazakhstan training in a camp in Syria. That child appears to be about 10 years old and looks and sounds female. S/he says to the camera, "We're going to kill you O kuffar...we're going to slaughter you."

[More...]

Just before New Years, I wondered what happened to John Cantlie.

We have the answer. He's still alive. Here is his latest video giving a tour of Mosul, Iraq, which he says is the "absolute heartland" of the Caliphate and home to 2 million people." He says he sees millions of people going about their daily business after years of oppression.

Towards the end, he is driving an ISIS police motorcycle through the streets of Mosul, with a big grin and an ISIS member sitting behind him: [More...]