James Foley Killer ID to Be Made Public; FBI, Mi5 Race To Save British Aid Worker David Haines from Execution

Sep 09, 2014 02:55 PM EDT

James Foley
American journalist James Foley, who has been missing for nearly two years, was beheaded by ISIS militants.

President Barack Obama is meeting with leaders Tuesday, and plans to address the public on Wednesday, to outline a broader counterterrorism plan to combat Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists.

Congressional leaders have been putting pressure on Obama lately, pointing out that a strategy to deal with the growing threat has been a long time coming.

"We have a very serious problem and what we need is a strategy," House Speaker John Boehner said recently.

The president has said his new strategy will "degrade" and "defeat" the terrorist group behind the recent murders of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

The new plan also comes as intelligence officials in the United States and England say they've figured out the identity of the British ISIS terrorist who beheaded those Americans. They have dubbed him "Jihadi John", and they reportedly have plans to start rounding up at least 12 of his associates in England.

The British paper The Mirror reports an elite FBI team is in England working with Mi5 to capture the terrorists. They say "Jihadi John" worked as a charity collector for the "legitamate charities" in England before heading to fight for the twisted organization ISIS.

According to the Mirror, It is thought the killer arrived in Syria more than a year ago and was battle-hardened within months.

According to the Daily Mail, "Jihadi John's" identity will be revealed in the coming days.

David Haines
(Photo : Middle Eastern Eye)
Haines was captured by ISIS while working in Syria as an aid worker, and is next in line for execution.

Law Enforcement are now in a race against time to save the life of David Haines, a British hostage who was working as an aid worker in the region. The masked jihadi has revealed Haines as next in line for execution.

According to reports, the husband, and father-of-two, Haines has been struggling to hold down food and suffering from acute gastric and other health problems in his cramped captivity.

He was on mission for the group Nonviolent Peace Force before being taken captive.

In the past, Obama has ruled out sending American ground troops to fight the insurgents, just three years after pulling the last U.S. combat forces out of Iraq following a nine-year war. However, he has dispatched about 1,000 "advisers" to Iraq and ordered airstrikes against the Islamic State.

"The principal goal here is to make sure that people understand what the clear stake is for the American people and our nation in this ongoing violence that we're seeing in Iraq and Syria," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.

Other administration officials also noted the strategy could take a long time to complete.

"Our global coordinated campaign with a global coordinated coalition will be built not just in a matter of days or weeks, but it will be built to endure for the months and perhaps even the years to come," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a recent press conference.