--- description: FBI Director James Comey said Thursday he believes the bureau knows the identity of the masked executioner in ISIS propaganda videos. He declined to say... title: FBI Says It Knows Identity of ISIS Executioner image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [National Security](/tag/national-security/) ## National Security Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # FBI Says It Knows Identity of ISIS Executioner by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 25, 2014 7:04 PM CUT by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 25, 2014 7:04 PM CUT FBI Director James Comey said Thursday he believes the bureau knows the identity of the masked executioner in ISIS propaganda videos. He declined to say who it is or where the man is from. In a question-and-answer session with reporters at bureau headquarters, he also said the FBI is working hard to identify two people in ISIS videos who appear to have American or Canadian accents. “We have a big focus going on that right now,” Comey said. He said the FBI believes that ISIS is “looking to try to do something in the U.S.,” though he said he did not believe the group is capable of a sophisticated or complex attack… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/fbi-director-says-bureau-knows-identity-isis-executioner-n211676?cid=par-time-article%5F20140925 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3430790/fbi-isis-executioner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3430790/fbi-isis-executioner/"},"headline":"FBI Says It Knows Identity of ISIS Executioner","datePublished":"2014-09-25T19:04:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:25:26.725Z","description":"FBI Director James Comey said Thursday he believes the bureau knows the identity of the masked executioner in ISIS propaganda videos. He declined to say...","url":"https://time.com/3430790/fbi-isis-executioner/","keywords":["National Security"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/national-security/","name":"National Security"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3430790/fbi-isis-executioner/","name":"FBI Says It Knows Identity of ISIS Executioner"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why So Many Foreign Fighters Join ISIS","description":"A growing number of foreigners is joining the Islamic militant group - but why?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xvTQSd5R/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-09-05T19:18:34.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xvTQSd5R.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3430790/fbi-isis-executioner/","duration":"PT2M58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3430790/fbi-isis-executioner/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```