Held at an 'art gallery' near London's Euston station, it was one of the most extraordinary and nauseating press conferences of recent times. It had been convened at 3pm on Thursday by the 'human rights' organisation Cage following the identification of masked killer Jihadi John as the Kuwaiti-born Londoner Mohammed Emwazi. For three years, the campaign group had been in close contact with and offered support to Emwazi before he left Britain to fight in Syria in 2012. But rather than express an apology – or even a smidgen of regret – for having failed to turn him away from the path to barbarism, what we witnessed was almost an hour of excuses, accusation and invective against Britain, British society and the British state.
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Cage held a press conference yesterday to discuss identity of Jihadi John
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The group had been in contact with Mohammed Emwazi for three years
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Its bosses did not express any regret for failing to prevent his barbarism
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Instead, they called him an 'extremely kind' and 'beautiful young man'
One article posted on its website last year was headed '@placeholder fighters in Syria should not concern us', which undoubtedly could be seen as encouraging or justifying terrorism.