The terrorist group, ISIS released video footage of another British beheading on Friday.
The latest video appears to show a masked member of ISIS beheading British aid worker, Alan Henning, and then threatens the life of an American hostage, Iraqi war veteran Peter Kassig, who is shown kneeling in the same position as Alan Henning with a caption showing his name seen at the end of the video.
The British hostage, Alan Henning seen and heard on the video said the following:
“I am Alan Henning. Because of our Parliament’s decision to attack the Islamic State [ISIS], I, as a member of the British public, will now pay the price for that decision,” Henning says in the video, before his apparent executioner speaks.
“The blood of [fellow slain captive] David Haines was on your hands, [British Prime Minister David] Cameron,” the black clad militant says. “Alan Henning will also be slaughtered but his blood is on the hands of the British Parliament.”
The British newspaper, the Independent reports that Alan Henning was a volunteer aid worker with two children who left his job as a taxi driver to deliver supplies to Muslim refugees caught up in the Syrian civil war.
On September 13, ISIS released video footage of the beheading of the first British aid worker, David Haines who was captured by ISIS in Syria in March 2013. The masked ISIS terrorist seen and heard on the video warned that a second British hostage would be the next to die.
Previously, the Islamic State, aka ISIS beheaded two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff. After Steven Sotloff was brutally executed, Haines appeared on the video and ISIS threatened he would be killed next.
Last Friday, Alton Alexander Nolen, 30, a disgruntled ex-employee of Vaughan Foods processing plant in Moore, Oklahoma beheaded his co-worker, Colleen Hufford, 54, with a knife and attacked a second victim, identified as 43-year-old Traci Johnson, who survived the attack–thanks to a co-worker that intervened and shot Nolen.
Alton Nolen has a tattoo that says ‘assalamu alaikum,’ an Arabic greeting. Nolen allegedly tried to convert co-workers to Islam. According to police, Nolen was fired after Traci Johnson complained she had an altercation with him “about him not liking white people”
Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn said Nolan requested a Muslim defense attorney, and that Nolen had “some sort of infatuation with beheadings. It seemed to be related to his interest in killing someone that way”.
Interestingly, the United States Department of Homeland Security issued two intelligence bulletins to law enforcement agencies across the country in the last month warning police to be on heightened alert for lone-wolf attacks. The second bulletin was issued the same day as the workplace beheading after U.S. military airstrikes against ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria.
In recent weeks, the FBI has stepped up counter-terrorism efforts including tracking American jihadists who may return home from Syria. U.S. bound flights have increased security screening protocol to include more thorough searches for hidden explosives in electronics including laptops and cell phones.
States adopted terrorism laws after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However, state courts are hesitant to apply enacted state level terrorism laws. While there is evidence that Alton Nolen searched for information online on beheadings, the District Attorney said a murder charge was “more appropriate” than to leave any questions about a possible terrorism link to federal investigators.
