The Islamic State has released a video allegedly depicting the beheading of British national David Cawthorne Haines. It has the same feel of having been produced in a studio downtown Tel Aviv as the previously released alleged beheadings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff. The one difference is that instead of it being a message for Obama, because the alleged victim is British, they made it a message for David Cameron.

If the purpose of a “terrorist organization” is to spread terror, then releasing videos which fade to black before terror takes place is contra-productive. It defeats the whole idea.

There is nothing explicit in these “Jihadi John” videos – no cutting, no bleeding, no close up of wounds – nothing. You see a dispassionate speech from the supposed victim, and then you are simply presented at the end with a montage of his apparently headless corpse with his apparently severed head placed upright on his back.

None of these “Jihad John” videos depict anyone actually dying. Let me repeat that – neither James Foley, nor Steven Sotloff, nor David Haines are shown actually dying in any of the videos. Do what you want with that statement.