British counterterrorism officers have identified Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, from West London, as the prime suspect in the ISIS video showing the beheading of reporter James Foley.  

The once aspiring rapper is one of several militant Britons whom investigators believe fit the build, skin coloration, and accent similar to the British jihadist known as "John." 

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The British ambassador to the United States, Peter Westmacott, said that security services MI5 and MI6 used voice recognition technology to compare the voice of the masked executioner in the video against thousands of recordings kept by British counterterrorism agencies on known and suspected Britons who have joined the militant Islamic State.

Video forensics were also used to approximate the executioner's height, and take note of important identifying characteristics such as eye color, eyebrows, and the fact that he is left-handed.

24-year-old Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary was named as a main suspect on Sunday using the clues in the video.

Bary is the son of Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, an Egyptian-born militant who was extradited to the United States in 2012 and is awaiting  trial on charges linked to the Al-Qaeda bombings of two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The younger Bary was an up-and-coming rapper that went by the stage name "L Jinny" in the UK.  His singles were played on BBC Radio 1 as well as his own YouTube channel.

Bary's social media activities continued even after he turned his back on his affluent home in West London's Maida Vale.  He has posted photos of himself on his Twitter account holding a severed head in his left hand along with the message, "Chillin' with my homie or what's left of him."

Other British Nationals are also named as suspects in the beheading.  

Abu Hussain Al-Britani is a computer programmer from Portsmouth. His real name is Junaid Hussian and he was arrested back in 2012 for stealing information about former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair.  He has launched cyber-attacks on British banks and celebrities in order to fund ISIS.  

Another suspect who is active on social media is Abu Abdullah Al-Britani, who has been posting pro-ISIS propaganda on Twitter and Instagram.  Reportedly, he has ask.fm to give advice to other young Britons on how to travel to Iraq and Syria and join the jihad.

Investigators from the UK and the US are looking closely into these and other suspects to identify the masked executioner in the video as well as other British jihadists who hostages called "The Beatles" due to their English accents.  

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