The father of the ISIS terrorist that beheaded U.S. journalist James Foley is believed to have been a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, the UK Daily Mail reports.
The father’s name is Adel Abdel Bari, and he is currently in New York waiting to be put on trial for bombing U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.
Bari has an extensive history in terrorism. Originally from Egypt, Bari was imprisoned and tortured following President Anwar Sadat’s assassination. He eventually applied for asylum in Britain after his son, Foley’s alleged killer Abdel-Majed Abdel Bari, was born in 1991.
After immigrating to Britain, Bari was appointed head of the London Cell for Islamic Jihad by current al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in May 1996. Bari’s office on Beethoven Street was a media information office for Osama bin Laden.
From that office, Bari would provide cover for al-Qaida’s military activities, which included recruitment and funding. The office was also a channel for military and security activities in numerous al-Qaeda cells, and provide fake travel documents to Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Holland and Albania members.
Bari was arrested for involvement in the Aug. 7, 1998 embassy bombings, but soon released when there wasn’t evidence to convict him. Bari also was sentenced to death in 1995 for planning to blow up a Cairo market, and sentenced to life in 1999 in another Egyptian trial.
He currently faces 213 counts of premeditated murder in the Nairobi bombing and 11 counts of premeditated murder in the Dar es Salaam attack, as well as conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction among others. Bari could face life in prison.
Bari’s son, now known as “Jihadi John,” provided homage to his father in his rap lyrics. For instance, the Daily Mail reports one of his lyrics was, “Give me the pride and the honor like my father, I swear the day they came and took my dad, I could have killed a cop or two.”