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the screen flickered to life without warning

a black flag hung motionless against an empty sky The screen flickered to life without warning.

A black flag hung motionless against an empty sky.

The desert stretched behind two figures, fixed on the horizon beneath the sun.

One man was dressed in orange, kneeling and still, resigned to his fate. The other, dressed entirely in black,

was standing over him. His face concealed, his voice composed, and his accent, unmistakably British.

From that moment onwards, living rooms across the United States, the United Kingdom, and far beyond fell silent.

The footage was viewed by millions, and the appalling images were burned into memory.

Suddenly, the masked man started talking.

He spoke calmly, as if reading from a script, he'd been written. Suddenly, the masked man started talking.

He spoke calmly, as if reading from a script he'd been rehearsing for years.

Then, he reached forward and grabbed the man's jaw.

By the end of the video, an American journalist named James Foley was dead.

Within weeks, many more videos followed, released deliberately, timed carefully and designed to be seen.

Stephen Sotloff, David Haynes, Alan Henning, Peter Kasig, Haruna Yakawa, Kenji Goto. Each time, the same setting, the same masked executioner, the same haunting voice, and the same outcome.

The Western world did not know his name, could not see his face, but it knew that voice.

News anchors replayed fragments of it all over the world, and he was quickly given a nickname by the British press, Jihadi John, a faceless figure who seemed to materialise from nowhere.

And the most chilling thing, he didn't look like a warlord,

...