ISIS fighter offers UK paper bribe for revealing ‘Jihadi John’

A British Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant offered to reveal the identity of “Jihadi John” – the ISIS fighter who was featured in a series of gruesome videos released by the group in which Western hostages were beheaded – in exchange for a bribe from the London-based Mail on Sunday, the newspaper reported.

In online correspondence with the Mail on Sunday, 20-year-old Junaid Hussain, - who was imprisoned for six months in 2012 after publishing on the internet former UK Prime Minister Blair’s address and social security number - for the sum of $4,800.

Although the newspaper did not pay and contacted UK police, Hussain reportedly revealed that “Jihadi John” was of Arab origins, was born a Muslim and has been in Syria “for ages.”

Cash not principles

In exchange for the money, Hussain said that he could give the newspaper the name and old Twitter account information of “Jihadi John.”

The money, he explained, would be used to pay for a car that would use to transport his family around the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa.

Jihadi John - who is wanted for executing two American journalists and two British aid workers - was identified by the FBI in late September, although the bureau did not release his name to the public. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered UK intelligence agencies to capture him.

Although drones earlier this month managed to track “Jihadi John” in Syria, British Special Forces fear a mission to either kill or capture him may end in failure.