The British connection to ISIS beheadings

He has beheaded again. The tall,
masked British man with the London accent,
working with ISIS.
His first two victims were American journalists.
His third was a fellow citizen, British aid worker
David Haines.
British Prime Minister David Cameron hastily
assembled a meeting of his top national security
advisers in the early hours of Sunday morning to
discuss what can be done.
According to British officials, Cameron knows the
identity of the British executioner.
ISIS executes David Haines, Cameron vows
justice
He also knows that the executioner
has already killed two citizens of his
country's closest ally and he knows
that the executioner holds at least two
other American citizens.
Cameron knows that the executioner
holds other hostages from additional
Western countries and that he is part
of a larger group of British hostage-
takers working for ISIS, nicknamed
"the Beatles" by their captives. And he
knows that the lives of the remaining
hostages are in grave danger.
It is a real crisis for Cameron, and it
underlines a sobering fact: British
citizens have volunteered to go to
Syria to fight at 25 times the rate that Americans
have done so, when adjusted for population size.
Some 500 British citizens have traveled to Syria
to fight, as have 100 Americans. The population
of the United Kingdom is about a fifth of that of
the States.
A British government assessment by the Office of
Security and Counter-Terrorism provided to CNN
shows that the British have already arrested 69
people this year for "Syria related terrorist
offences" that include terrorist financing,
preparing an act of terrorism, and attending a
terrorist training camp.
In 2013, 25 people were arrested in
the UK on similar charges, bringing the
total number of arrests to 94,
according to the British government
assessment. By contrast, only eight
have been arrested for similar Syria-
related terrorist crimes in the States.
ISIS execution videos strikingly similar
The war in Syria is attracting British
fighters from all kinds of ethnic
backgrounds, not just those of Syrian
descent. A British official told CNN
that the vast majority of British
fighters going to Syria do not have
any real links to the country other
than a desire to fight in a holy war
against the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Alarmed by the threat posed by its
citizens fighting in Syria, the British
government has already refused to
issue or has cancelled 23 passports
and has also revoked the citizenship of eight
British citizens, according to the Office of Security
and Counter-Terrorism.
The British agency also underlines the threat
posed by other European citizens who have
traveled to Syria, who can freely travel around the
European Union, including the UK, and who can
also travel to the States without visas as they are
from so-called "visa waiver" countries.
Statement from the family of David Haines
According to the British government, 700 fighters
have traveled to Syria from France; 400 from
Germany; between 300 and 500 from Belgium;
130 from the Netherlands; over 100 from
Denmark; 100 from Austria; 80 from Sweden; and
between 50 and 100 from Spain.
The British government also estimates that 100
Canadians have left Canada to "support or train
with terrorist movements abroad. The majority of
these are likely to be in Syria." And it estimates
that there are 60 Australians fighting in Syria and
Iraq and about 100 Australian "facilitators"
helping to make this possible in Australia.
This brings the total number of Westerners who
have fought in Syria to between 2,620 and 2,870,
according to the British Office of Security and
Counter-Terrorism assessment obtained by CNN,
which is likely the most authoritative estimate
yet.
Despite the fact that the British government has
identified the executioner of the two American
journalists and of David Haines, it is not making
his name public "for operational reasons."
That's because the only likely hope for the
remaining hostages is some kind of rescue
operation similar to the one that the U.S. Joint
Special Operations Command mounted on July 4,
which didn't achieve its purpose because the
prisoners had been recently moved from the
location where they were being held in Syria.
A rescue operation is a long shot, but at this
point it may be the only real chance of saving the
lives of the remaining hostages. David Cameron
knows this -- and so does President Barack
Obama.