mohammed enwasy growing up in london studying computer programme. >> you might be surprised that the man i knew was kind gentle soft spoken. >> this man worked is with group working with the intelligent services. they want be sure but they said mohammed enwaysy was radical ace the after he was prevented from flying to kuwait. he wrote: >> when are we going to learn this when we treat people like outsiders, they'll feel like outsiders and look to belong elsewhere. >> in the west london neighbourhood where his family is ploeffed to have lived. -- believed to have lived, a man, who identifies himself as an iraqi, he was surprised. >> he not jihad. sorry. >> reporter: in washington there was no official corroboration of the identification. >> whatever the person is the report is the person in question, i can't identify. >> it state department was asked how that scared with a statement, that joblessness among young men was fuelling extremism. >> our view is that is a factor but not the only factor. >> reporter: investigators in london are trying to find out if emwaysy was the scowl surviv

he's identified as a kuwaiti important british system called mohammed enwasi. we have this report. >> by the time the reporters turned up at the enwazi home they were long gone. the police had been around reports emerged that their son was a murderer. easy to understand why they didn't want to be there. >> we have probably donated 100 million to kill the women and change. >> it's some weeks since the american security services said recognition software helped to identify the man the newspapers called jihadi john a ridiculous sounding name given it was a man involved beheading captives aid workers and journalists, people who could not defend themselves and had not gone to fight. he was the narrator of an organization who tore through iraq and syria. the question is being raised as to what if anything the british security services knew of enwazi they nor the police would comment. this organization which hears complaints from muslims knew enwaysy. he told them -- enwazi. he told them he'd been harassed by security services and blocked him turning to kuwait. the me

. >> reporter: a voice we now think belongs to a 26-year-old from west london nameded mohammed enwasi. jihadi john's value as a top isis figure has grown. >> his chief value is being the west boogeyman and isis' man on the ground who tells it like it is and does terrible things to his victims. >> he's out of central casting for isis. isis has a flare for the dramatic. they're very good at social media, film production and figuring out in terms of narrative what is it that will scare people. >> reporter: his mask british accent, motion with the knife, the fact that he may have beheaded hostages on camera not only shocks western viewers but emboldens other isis viewers. >> the freaky thing about jihadi john is he looks like he likes that job. so for isis it's a way of desensitizing everybody who is within isis to the fact that is business as normal. >> reporter: u.s. intelligence and law enforcement officials sell cnn jihadi john helps recruitment. >> the message to westerners, if you come to isis you can be important. not just that you can be part of the crowd. >> reporter: he sprang i