Original subtitles

I found this camera in Mosul.

EXPLOSION

John had the exact same camera.

This is the place where John Cantlie was last seen.

He is still missing.

John Cantlie's story...

..is the story of a very complicated...

..intelligent and driven man.

And a very controversial figure.

I didn't like John Cantlie.

That didn't mean that I didn't grow to like what I knew of him

as I investigated him.

There's a mythology that's been built around John Cantlie.

It's very Heart Of Darkness.

He has gone down the river and no-one knows what happened to him.

This is the golden era of Jihad.

NEWS REPORT: The Islamic State is now at war with the West.

One thing we can all agree on is that a group like ISIL

has no place in the 21st century.

John went into the hornets' nest.

He wanted a proper story.

EXPLOSION

He went looking for British jihadis in dangerous environments.

Was he on the verge of an amazing story?

- NEWS REPORT: - Journalists have become targets.

- NEWS REPORT: - Scores of journalists are believed to have been kidnapped.

NEWS REPORT: John Cantlie is being held by extremists from Islamic State.

We just were desperate for information.

It was a mission to find missing persons.

NEWS REPORT: Another barbaric beheading,

another unwatchable video.

It became apparent that he had not been beheaded.

Hello, my name is John Cantlie,

and the media hasn't had a story as big as this

for a very long time, indeed.

Why not kill him like the rest?

People began to take the view that he was a turned Islamic State asset.

What really did happen to John Cantlie?

In 2011, a wave of protests swept across North Africa

and the Middle East...

..first Tunisia, then Egypt...

..with people demonstrating against their leaders.

Everyone is in the street.

They are cheering that Mubarak's left.

Thank God that he did.

One by one, dictators are ousted.

I feel that I'm living in a Hollywood movie,

not even an Egyptian movie.

I feel it's a movie.

In Libya, after anti-government protests,

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has started to fire on his own people.

We pray very hard for his fall.

This guy has to come out and we ask the world to help us arm.

On the other side of the country,

a coalition of opposition groups have formed,

determined to topple Gaddafi.

And journalists from the major news organisations flock to the country...

..to uncover the reality on the ground.

GUN FIRE

Listen to these crowds. What are they shouting?

"Colonel Gaddafi is a coward", they say.

"Come and attack us here in the square."

No, no-one is against us. Against me for what?

They love me, all my people are with me. They love me all.

But if they do love you...

They will die to protect me, my people.

You don't understand.

And the world doesn't understand the system here.

I ended up in Libya.

I'd covered several conflicts before.

I've worked a lot in Afghanistan.

Probably over the years,

I've spent more time in Afghanistan than anywhere.

I covered the war a lot in Iraq.

Yeah, long road.

When the Arab Spring began, I was in Africa.

Very quickly I got to Kenya, got to Egypt,

and then drove through the desert and got into Eastern Libya.

At the same time, arriving is another group,

independent from the news networks.

The freelance journalists.

Banging tunes on Libyan FM!

This is 103.5.

Among them is John Cantlie.

A lot of very young guys with a lot of guns.

John films his arrival,

recording a video in his self-shot irreverent style.

He is a motorbike reporter turned conflict photojournalist.

John travels out to the rebel front line,

the most dangerous place to be.

But where he can witness the war close up...

..and embed with rebels fighting Gaddafi.

Not many journalists are travelling this close to the front line.

EXPLOSION

Shit!

I spent a lot of time with John in Somalia.

I remember thinking, oh, he's like a kid.

Like a kid in a playground playing commando.

I think he really loved the idea of being a war photographer.

There is a nobility about the pursuit of the story, right?

The truth, speaking truth to power.

But it's a dangerous job.

There was a vibrancy about him.

He had the most ridiculous flak jacket I've ever seen in my life.

He had this flak jacket that looked like it was in couture in Paris.

It was this tiny little flak jacket that didn't fit him.

But I later found out that that's because he couldn't afford a flak jacket.

During his time reporting from the front line,

John records a series of self-shot videos.

These films give an insight into his journalistic style.

EXPLOSIONS

John also started working closely with American reporter James Foley.

The two had become a tight team.

James Foley was a really good guy.

Yeah, I think so, yeah!

Jim is one of these people that you meet...

..and you immediately fall in love with, you know?

He was very kind, very fun.

It was a good time being around him.

The whole building is a sniper heaven, huh?

John was another story.

He was noisy.

- In what way, what do you mean? - Ah, he talked too much.

He took too much space.

He was actually fun, I believe.

Because people liked him, right? I didn't. I didn't.

Why do you think he rubbed some people up the wrong way?

The thing is he didn't rub me up the wrong way. He didn't annoy me.

So you're going to have to ask someone that he annoyed.

I actually thought he was all right.

- Here's Ali, who loves me. - I love you, John. - There we go.

In the videos, you could see that the rebels, they loved John.

Because he was this sort of person.

Annoying, making jokes, all this kind of thing.

- John! - There he is!

We went to the front lines...

..together, and once he didn't even have a camera with him, you know?

And I felt like what is this guy doing here without a camera?

HIP�HOP MUSIC

You can see from his videos and his choice of music

that he was very excited to be a journalist in the front line.

War has a tremendous pull.

War can be fun.

War can be, you know, absolutely enthralling, captivating.

It can be horrific,

it can fuck everyone else up, it can fuck you up too.

So you've got to be clear about what it is that you are doing there.

I need to remind myself, I know why I'm going to report on this war,

and I know why that is important and I am a committed journalist.

And I'm committed enough to go into a situation

where I understand that I might be killed.

We were staying, all of us together, in Gaddafi's home town.

Yeah, sure.

And when we get to the roof, you need to stay down.

No, no, no, not stupid.

- Mari. - Teacher.

Mari in England is a girl's name.

Name for girl.

You're a big girl!

Do you have a cigarette, Mari?

People who often wouldn't have been that friendly or helpful towards the West before,

for a time that relationship looked really good.

The West had a presence here amongst journalists,

which very quickly translated into Western air strikes against Gaddafi.

The Security Council has authorised the use of force.

I'm delighted to be here to show support

for the National Transitional Council

for all they're doing in Libya.

I wanted to come and congratulate them

and work out how we can help next as they rebuild their country.

Sarkozy and I agreed that we would go to Libya together

and that Britain and France should stop Gaddafi

from murdering and massacring his own people.

Gaddafi said very publicly

that he was going to shoot down those people like rats.

So we had a choice, Western countries like Britain.

Do we just stand back and let this happen, or do we try and help?

There were people dressed in combat gear with AK-47s

and the first one I met said that he was from Luton

and he was a Libyan national who lived in Britain

and had come out to volunteer as part of the Libyan opposition.

People in Libya wanted Gaddafi to go.

And also, let's not forget, he had also supplied the IRA

with semtex that had killed many people in Northern Ireland,

probably in mainland Britain too.

You know, he was a monster.

It is great to be here in free Benghazi and in free Libya.

CHEERING

People in Britain salute your courage!

It was an extraordinary visit because you couldn't help

just getting sort of lifted up by these crowds.

There was this seemingly genuine upsurge in democratic feeling

and of course you had to be careful not to be naive

and to recognise that democracy is a process, not an event.

You can't just suddenly go from autocracy to democracy

without it taking time, but it was a time of some hope.

Today, David Cameron is visiting what feels in many ways

like a completely different country.

There is still serious fighting here and plenty of political instability.

There are still four key towns in this country

which are held by Gaddafi's forces.

Gaddafi was trying to escape.

NATO bombed his car and he survived.

The rebels got there...

GUN FIRE

..and he was actually found by the mob.

He was wounded and they tortured him.

When he was killed...

..this was the only time in my life

that I decided, I don't want to photograph that.

And today I regret that because I didn't photograph his body.

Everybody did, but it was so grotesque, you know?

Everybody going and seeing his body lying.

His son, you know.

They were lying, like mutilated and very wounded and smelling dead.

Yeah, I said, wow, you know...

..they killed him, you know.

It was emptiness, yeah.

As Gaddafi is toppled,

John Cantlie shoots an immediate report inside his compound.

Beautiful trees and gardens, but beyond...

..in Tripoli, he was denying his...

..citizens pretty much everything he could.

The compounds have become a local tourist attraction.

And John knew how to capture a quickly-unfolding story.

This is the inside of the Mad Dog's compound,

after all the fighting that's been going on.

I don't know what the graffiti says, but I imagine it's...

..all about freedom.

Here's one of the men that did all the hard work. Ha, ha.

John could shoot video and he could edit.

And you can see in those videos that he perhaps

saw the rebels' fight for their own freedom as a noble struggle.

GUN FIRE

When Libya was finished we said, where is the next?

Where is the next? Syria? OK, let's go to Syria.

And Syria was a completely different game.

Many people got hurt, killed and kidnapped there.

President Assad and his father have ruled Syria with an iron fist

for over 40 years.

But many Syrians are demanding a change in leadership.

John Cantlie and James Foley are making plans to head to Syria

as the situation escalates.

And it does.

Assad uses violence...

EXPLOSION

..indiscriminately targeting his own people,

as well as aid workers and journalists.

Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times

was among more than 20 people killed in the Syrian city of Homs today.

Syria is becoming extremely dangerous

and just a handful of foreign journalists are going in.

I had a close relationship with my foreign editor at the time,

and he was like, "We haven't had anybody in Syria yet.

"Do you think you can get that?

"Can you meet up with rebel groups

"and talk to them about what they're about,

"what they want and how they're doing."

The rebels are a group called the Free Syrian Army,

made up of many ordinary citizens and military defectors

who have decided to pick up arms and overthrow the regime.

I knew roughly where I should go,

which was southern Turkey and then cross in on foot.

As well as Anthony Loyd,

John Cantlie and James Foley are also making their way in...

..to find out more about the rapidly-escalating civil war.

Close to the border, there was this restaurant.

It's a nice supper, it's like red wine, sea bass supper.

As I sat down, I noticed a few tables away,

James Foley sitting down with John Cantlie.

And actually James had his back to me at that time

and John was facing me,

so I didn't go over.

But at some point, James turned around and saw me

and got up and came over, which was classic James Foley.

His warmth in meeting you was kind of the same warmth

as someone who was having the best moment of their day.

It was just like, he made you feel great.

He said, "Are you coming out or are you going in?"

I was like, "I'm going in."

So there was lots of, "Oh, my brother."

And that was lovely. And John didn't come over.

Why don't you think he came and said hello?

Erm...

I know why I didn't go over and say hello.

All I saw was this very macho, loud, you know, blowing hard.

I find it distracting and skews the energies.

I didn't realise it at the time,

but while he was trying to portray himself as a successful journalist,

he wasn't.

He wasn't really financially successful as a photographer,

even though he was working with Getty.

He was in this kind of weird freelance space

where he was trying to set up his next foreign trip,

but trying to make ends meet in the meantime.

He was projecting himself as this big shot war photographer

and he wasn't really that, he was a struggling freelance photographer.

In Turkey, John is preparing to cross over the border into Syria

and turns the camera on himself.

I'm not going to show you where I am, for obvious reasons.

It's part news package, part video diary.

So apparently we're going to be met around five.

We then get over the border, a mix of walking and on horseback.

Syria was really, really dangerous.

And you'd have to go up with a smuggler illegally.

We'd go through mountains, perhaps olive groves.

And then you'd find coils of wire

and there'd be places that smuggler knows to take you through the wire.

And you'd be avoiding Turkish border guards,

who sometimes would be shooting at people.

These smugglers, sometimes they'd be Mr Nice Guy Smuggler,

but often we're talking about really kind of feral, kind of messed up,

you know, like skinny, scrawny, all that prison tattoos,

yeah, some feral people who didn't really care about you.

They cared about the money.

The war was there the moment you went in.

All around you, what you see, what you felt - war.

It was scary stuff and you didn't want the regime to get you, that was for sure.

You need to be sharp, you need to be edgy,

you need to feel a bit sick and hyper aware to go in and do it.

As a journalist you had to seek out areas of resistance in which to work.

John's videos really captured the people's plight.

The people here in Binnish are certainly afraid of an attack,

but they also seem fairly upbeat at the moment.

And they're certainly still very vocal

in their hatred of the Assad regime.

One of my friends he comes to my home and he says,

"Mustafa, we have a foreign journalist.

"They don't speak Arabic so can you help us

"to understand what they are saying.

"They're American and British."

So, for the first time, I meet James and John.

I enter and they say, "Do you speak English?" I say, "Yes."

They say, "We're coming to film Syria

"and show the world what is going on."

I told them, "You are welcome."

I was so happy to see a foreign journalist, you know?

We needed freedom, we needed democracy.

No Assad any more, you know?

So we had lunch in my home.

And John asked me, "Would you like to be our fixer?"

And James, directly, he answered.

He says, "Yes, Mustafa, we would like."

He says, "We are very interested to see these front lines

"and to film the checkpoints."

I told him, "This is very difficult. We cannot go to the check points.

"The regime will target us directly."

He says "Don't worry, we can cover ourselves."

So I told them, "OK, why not? Let's go."

I explained to them, "Listen, James, John,

"we're going to the front line,

"but we have one way to enter the city

"and the sniper is targeting this way.

"So we will cross very fast.

"So maybe we'll get killed, maybe injured.

"So do you agree with that?"

John, he says like, "Let's go, yeah, let's go."

He looks like he's found the treasure for him.

Like, OK, finally we are in the front line,

not protesting, boring people, like they're like shouting

and asking for freedom.

James, I told him, "What about you, James?"

He says like, "Sure, Mustafa, let's go."

On location, this is James Foley for Global Post.

Outside cities and towns, the army has set up checkpoints

where witnesses say snipers shoot civilians

and Free Syrian Army rebels seemingly indiscriminately.

This farmer said he and several others

were shot at a checkpoint near the city of Khan Shaykhun.

I was, like, really worried about them.

I carry their responsibility.

Just in a car. I'm going from Binnish to Saraqib.

We're taking all the back roads.

The driver here has been absolutely brilliant,

phoning ahead to see if there are checkpoints.

John was recording himself quite a lot.

His shooting or, like, filming took you

closer to the front lines than anyone else.

The Syrian army...

Like, all the way asking me, "Where is the sniper? Where is the sniper?"

And the sniper, I told him, "Just wait. Wait."

He hoped to be shot.

But... He was fine, the sniper he doesn't hit. Yeah.

John, he looked at me with, like, a silly look.

He's like, "There is no weapons, there is no sniper. Come on!"

You're like, "What you are talking about?"

I told him, "Thanks God we are alive. Come on. OK.

"We are...we are OK, we're fine. Why you are, like, sad?"

He says, "No, you told me the sniper will hit us, so nothing happened."

He was, like...upset of that.

Nearby, we watched as government forces amassed...

John is with rebels in a town under attack by the regime...

..and he's beginning to record more professional reports

to sell to the news channels.

There's probably about 40 guys here or so.

GUN FIRE

..which wasn't ideal.

We've now got a motorway directly off our left,

which we can't cross because it's a motorway.

There's a footbridge, but they've got two T-72s

right there next to the footbridge.

So we've basically walked into... a bad area.

So obviously it's time for tea and lots of discussion

on "where is NATO?" and "we've only got Kalashnikovs." But, erm...

..certainly so far with this group, this is going nowhere. It's 9.30.

So the best thing to do is get out of here as safely as we can.

John keeps recording, despite the increasing risks.

We were surrounded. In this situation, people are nervous.

John, when you see his face entering the front line,

he's like a baby - you bring him a present.

John is in the front of the tank taking pictures,

and show me the pictures he says, like,

"Mustafa, this is a Russian tank."

And the tank was, like, doing, like, this, you know? Like, to hit him.

And the tank hit. He got shrapnel in his shoulder.

He got...he got shot by shrapnel. He doesn't care about that.

He was laughing. He's like, "I got shot! I got shot!"

That's it.

But he teach me a lot about, like, photography, how to steal your shot.

Like sometimes, you know, like, trying to take pictures,

he stopped my camera. He says, like,

"What is that shitty photo you're taking?" And, like, yeah.

So he pushed me a lot...

..and he really support me.

He's the one who's, like, trying to tell me,

"You have a great eye, Mustafa. This is a nice shot."

And, "This is, this photo. This photo." And he says, like,

"Mustafa, you are stealing my career now in Syria, so go ahead." Yeah.

Seven people were killed and 28 wounded,

and afterwards came the burials, the martyrs -

those killed in their homes or in defence of their town.

John filmed a funeral,

and you can really see his empathy for the Syrian people.

He was, like, affected to see massacres and to see people killed.

He was, like, feeling sad sometimes,

and, like, feeling painful about people.

We left, and the army controlled the city.

So, we left the area.

As the war becomes unpredictable, edgier, fractured,

new rebel groups emerge, all of them anti-Assad regime,

but with different ideologies.

Among them, jihadist factions - many connected to Al-Qaeda...

..some Syrian fighters.

But there's a new group - foreigners from the west.

We've got a lot of foreign jihadists there,

and some really radical elements.

You didn't really want to start engaging too much, you know?

There's just some dangerous people there.

Basically, the rule was

you don't look at each other and you don't talk. Yeah.

While crossing the border, John encounters one of the new groups.

I remember John, he was, like,

crossing the border without me and James.

And he disappeared.

Me and a friend of mine...we were, like, trying to find him.

We figured out he got kidnapped by a group.

They are, like, a very extremely jihadist group.

I got a call from the foreign desk saying,

"John Cantlie's been taken."

I just remember just being stunned.

I remember just thinking, "There is no way back from that."

You know? I thought that was... that was going to be it for him.

But after a week, and to everyone's relief, he escapes.

And on his return to the UK, he tells his story to Scotland Yard.

I was asked to go and attend a debrief

from somebody who's been kidnapped and escaped.

There were people from the government there,

the spies were there

and there were some military personnel

all gathered around this big horseshoe table.

And on the screen was the interview.

It was John Cantlie - the name didn't mean anything at the time.

And I was like, "Oh, OK."

So John told his story in a lot of detail.

I was in Syria.

We passed through a camp which was inhabited by Islamic Jihadists.

They had said initially that they just wanted to check

who we were and then we'd be let on our way.

Then we're led into another tent, we're handcuffed to other prisoners.

You've got a blindfold on,

you've got guys sticking a gun in your head.

At one point, they started sharpening the knives

for a beheading.

And where were they from?

They were not from Syria. They were from anywhere BUT Syria.

They were from Bangladesh, they were from Pakistan,

- they were from the UK. - How many from the UK?

Probably about between ten or 15 young Jihadis from the UK.

Well, I mean, this is extraordinary to hear.

Everybody in the room was really interested in John's story.

There was an interest in the fact that

there were British people over there

who'd been taken by people with British accents.

My boss had been involved in Iraq when that had happened,

and so he could already see that there was a potential.

We had had a Westerner kidnapped...

..were we going to have more? What did that look like?

What might happen to this country?

Could you tell, were they British Asians or British Syrians?

I mean, do you know what their origins were?

British Asian origin, but as I say, some merely spoke English

but some were actually from England, you know?

I mean, some were so English they didn't even speak Arabic.

- And at one point, they sharpened knives. - Yes.

Well, that was after we tried to escape

on that second full day when we'd been moved to this larger tent.

There was a big rip in the back of this tent.

We stepped out the back of the tent, in the rip,

and just ran for our lives.

It wasn't a particularly good plan. There wasn't a plan!

We were just trying to literally run for our lives.

Unfortunately, we were spotted after about 300 metres

and that's when they opened fire.

It felt like 200 bullets just coming down around just like hail.

How were you able to break out in the end?

Well, we were freed by units of the Free Syrian Army.

So they were appalled at what had happened to us.

Word got out, and four guys came in,

two with Kalashnikovs, two with pistols,

and literally bust us out of there.

It's a huge story. Bam! It's everywhere.

He writes about it at length for the Sunday Times,

and it's just the most, you know, mesmerising read.

These guys who kidnapped John were not fighters.

They were wannabe fighters.

One of them is an NHS doctor, Dr Shajul Islam.

He writes about Shajul Islam

as somebody who was not into the kidnap situation,

who seems, I think from reading about it after,

is fairly apologetic to John about what's going on at the time.

John was treated by a doctor who is British.

And I remember listening to people talking about that

and an investigation that could follow up

if that British doctor were to come back to the UK.

John was very proud of himself, and he wanted to tell me.

He'd escaped, got shot, and was stood outside

the front of my house...with a bandage on!

We met on an India trip in the Himalaya for veterans,

which had been set up by a very mutual friend of ours.

I found him incredibly eccentric, interesting,

and somebody that had a really dry wit

but also was clearly a consummate professional.

And after he'd been captured, he wanted a proper story.

He wanted to go and embed himself with these British jihadis

to tell the truth about something that was really fast unfolding

and he was going back with James Foley.

I joined the army at 16. I then later ended up in special forces.

So me and a friend of mine tried to give him some avoidance training.

It was very basic. We used a Land Rover in a field.

How to use a car appropriately. How to get in the car, locking doors.

And we did conduct after-capture training,

so how to behave when you've been caught,

how to make yourself useful, and how to be amenable and valuable.

And John was really interested in that.

As soon as he told me he was going, I told him he was an idiot.

And so he had to take this little brick around with him,

this tracking beacon, which I made him take.

But I knew then, as I do now, there was no point trying to stop him.

Syria had really got under John's skin as a story.

He was adamant that he was going to go back.

Going back into Syria with the same flak jacket that didn't fit him,

and, you know... But maybe with some new cameras this time.

And I remember just thinking... I said,

"It's really reckless to do that. I think you're making a mistake."

I said, "If you think you are going to get recognition..."

He said, "It's the story."

He was just saying, "I'm going to go back, I'm going to go back."

But it was a mantra, the way he was saying it.

It was like he was possessed, you know?

It's like, "I'm going back, you know, I'm going back."

Will you go back?

I've got to get this hand sorted, but, yes, absolutely.

The people, the Syrian people, are amazing.

And it's my job. I don't really know how to do anything else.

Thank you for coming and talking to us and we wish you the best of luck.

As John plans his return to Syria...

..Assad's violence against his people is intensifying.

I hadn't met Assad, I hadn't been to Syria...

..but there was appalling destruction of cities like Aleppo.

Appalling levels of casualties...

..and added to that, an enormous refugee crisis.

You know, I felt, as the UK Prime Minister, we needed to do more.

The only way out of Syria's nightmare

is to move forward towards political transition

and not to give up the cause of freedom.

The future for Syria is a future without Assad.

We must now join together to support a rapid political transition.

Thank you.

What I wanted was for Britain and allies

and particularly America to support the Free Syria Army.

There was a Syrian national opposition,

a coalition of forces that included

Sunnis and Shias and Kurds and Christians,

who were trying to build a different future for their country.

And obviously the Arab states were encouraging us to do this,

and so we had to act as urgently as we could.

James, Mustafa and John head to Aleppo,

Syria's second city, where there is intensive fighting.

They embed with the Free Syrian Army.

Me and James and John, we decide to go to Aleppo.

The Free Syrian Army, they took the Western Aleppo.

The neighbourhoods and the houses are, like, very close to each other.

So the regime in this house and the opposition in this house,

so you can see them in front of you

and they're, like, jumping on the roofs.

They're, like, fighting, like, very closely.

The Free Syrian Army tried to give me a weapon.

They offer me a bomb grenade.

They told me, "Like, just keep it in your pocket.

"Like, maybe if we are, like, surrounded, all of us,

"and we got killed, at least you protect yourself."

- INTERPRETING: - This is a bomb, a handmade bomb here, made in Syria...

I told him, "No, I'm not, like... I'm not using weapons."

I told him, "OK, I will kill you all.

"Maybe I will take it and throw it like this."

He says, "OK, no need."

I was watching very closely John and James, how they are behaving.

James used to call me "bro", and I loved this.

"Hey, bro." Yeah...

James the one who, like, writing everything.

Like, when we stop anything, he notes,

trying to steal the...the moments.

I saw a video when James filmed a wedding

between a nurse and a young Free Syrian Army fighter.

James was really drawn to this kind of, er...story...

..that, in war, people try their best to continue their lives

despite the condition they find themselves in.

THEY SING

While John was looking to learn more

about the presence of British jihadis in Syria...

We ask the Free Syrian Army to go to the front line...

..and they told us, "We have our front line as a Free Syrian Army

"and they have their front lines.

"Who they are? They are the jihadist group."

And they said, like, "So stay with us,

"because jihadists, they don't like foreigner journalists."

When you guys cut it, try not to make it look worse than it is.

We were in Aleppo.

You see a bomb.

I think a building got hit, and I got hit by shrapnel.

My head was broken twice.

I met many foreign people in Syria.

They didn't come to any...to join the fight, or something like this.

They came in the beginning.

For example, doing...voluntary work and things like this.

I lived in the UK since 2000.

I went to University of East London - civil engineering.

But on TV you're seeing a lot of crazy stuff

and there's many videos on YouTube, also.

People beating people, people living in the camps,

and you just see many different things.

So I was thinking... You know,

"you know, I'm just going to go there."

In the beginning, many of the people that came,

they came for a good cause.

But in the end, you might find the guy with the weapon.

I don't know what happened. I cannot explain it to you.

You know, things happen and things get out of hand.

People start killing people and stealing from people and...

..doing crazy stuff.

Nero Saraiva is accused of being a senior jihadist recruiter,

fundraiser and member of a snipers' unit.

In the press, the Portuguese press described you

as the leader of the foreign unit. Is that true?

No.

You've put me on a...on...on a very, very high thing.

I'm a simple guy, and... A normal guy, a simple guy.

I didn't do many...many of the things that people say I did.

I don't think it's even true.

- Did you ever meet John Cantlie? - John Cantlie? No, no. I never saw him.

I have nothing to do with John Cantlie,

but I know that things happened to him.

He got kidnapped and things like this, but I don't know the guy.

In Syria, everybody's trying to film and things.

There were journalists everywhere.

Now look carefully for him.

We will walk the same way he do it. OK?

It's very dangerous.

All this area is targeted by the regime snipers.

The leader told us more than 20 people was killed in this area.

Stay there, stay there, stay there!

We need to run very fast.

So there's, like, seven members of the Free Syrian Army. They cross.

THEY TALK

And from the other side, they said, like,

"OK, we are safe, we are safe. Come."

I told John, "Are you ready?"

He says, like, "You go and I'm waiting for you here.

"Don't worry about me."

And we start to run, me and James.

- OK, go. - INDISTINCT DIALOGUE

John, he was walking very slowly

and he was, like, doing for the sniper like this. "Hey! I am here!"

Oh, my God! He's, like...

The leader was shouting and swearing against him.

I ask him, "John, can you please explain to me what's going on?

"Why you are putting yourself at risk?"

He says, "Mustafa, you are, like, almost 15 people.

"you cross the road and nothing happened.

"Even the sniper, he doesn't, like, target you. There is no sniper."

That's it.

Lay down and run.

- Let's go. - There is an airplane - hurry.

We went to the front line with the Free Syrian Army...

..shooting photos and videos.

Suddenly, I miss John.

Where is John?

I ask Jimmy, "Where is John?"

He says, "I don't know. Where's John? No-one knows."

One guy, he told us,

"I saw that guy, that British guy. He went to the... That house."

It was a huge house with holes in the wall.

All the fighters inside, they are Jabhat al-Nusra - Al-Qaeda.

So, John was in the house of a jihadist group.

So, I go to the... to that house.

I see a jihadist with a beard,

and say, like, "Asalamu alaikum". "Wa alaikumsalaam."

"Have you seen any, like a journalist,

"like, foreigner journalist?"

He says, "Yes. He's upstairs." Yeah.

I told him, "Can I call him? Can I talk to him, please?"

He said, "Yes. Yeah, go on."

I entered the room.

John was surrounded by, like, more than 15 men -

men of, like, jihadist -

and they're attacking him with questions.

"Do you know John Cantlie, the one who was on the TV?"

And he was like, "No, I don't."

They are speaking English, most of them.

All of them, in front of them, their Kalashnikov.

For me, it was like, they already knew him,

but they're trying, you know, to scare him, you know?

Because he's in their hands.

I Look at his face, I says, like, "Johnny, what are you doing here?"

They asked me, "Who are you?"

I told him, "He's my friend. Let's go."

Thank God, the group of Free Syrian Army,

they come to the door.

The Jihadists, they don't want trouble,

and John was released.

We go outside, I was, like, shouting with him.

Blaming him. "John, what are you doing?"

John, he felt like a baby when he comes to his mother

to protect him, you know, like, "Finally, I-I'm OK."

He says, "Mustafa, let's move, let's move.

"We have to leave this area."

I told him, "I'm not going to stay any moment here.

"Me and James, we are leaving."

We left Aleppo.

OFF-CAMERA: Why do you think John keeps being in this position?

For me, when I ask him, he says, like,

they are like very interested to film them,

to show, like...the Western media,

there is, like, jihadist groups, whatever. So...

So, this was the 19th of November, 2012, 0929 hours.

"Hi, Kev, I just came out of Aleppo.

"I'm back in Turkey for a few days before going back to Syria,

"this time further south, in Idlib province,

"to meet my old UK contacts."

I remember him being committed to meeting people in London

who were setting this up.

OFF-CAMERA: Setting what up?

Setting up these meetings for him.

He was connected to people in London and in the UK that were

helping him understand why and how

these young men from the UK were forming part of

this fundamentalist movement.

That was the thing he was interested in.

That was the thing he wanted to understand.

Yeah.

So, John sent a message to Kev,

saying he was going back in to meet British -

meet his UK associates.

It was a very strange message to write, yeah.

Now, the implication of that is that he's going back in to try

and meet up with some of the British jihadis who

he'd encountered the first time.

But why would he...

Why would he've wanted to do that?

It's quite strange that he decided to put that in a text message

for a start, number one.

It's kind of like, don't say that kind of stuff in a text message.

Number two - it's probably not true.

I don't think that John would've maintained a relationship

with people who, one minute, are trying to saw his head off.

What are you going to do, text and say, "I'm coming back.

"Do you want an interview?"

I think, it's kind of... not what you're trying to do.

Did John, for everything I've just said,

want to try and pursue that story of foreign jihadis,

or start speaking to foreign jihadis?

Yeah, for sure he did, and we know that,

cos he went to Aleppo and got himself into a room with

a whole lot of foreign jihadis.

You've got to remember, as a freelancer,

you go into really dangerous environments -

because often, that's how the best stories are broken.

Back in Syria, the story that John has been chasing

is much closer to him than he thinks.

We decided to go to the internet cafe in Binnish,

to upload everything we have.

John, he's like talking to all the people around him.

A man was, like, coming into the internet cafe with a big beard.

And John, he shout, "Hey, Che Guevara"!

And the guy, he looked at him, like, very weird look,

very strange.

James, he was a bit worried.

He says, like, "John, what are you doing?

"Hey, shut up, please."

The man sat five minutes, and then, he left.

After he leaves, we go to the taxi.

There was, like, several taxis in front of the internet cafe.

We asked him to go to the border.

And suddenly, there was a van.

They moved, like, with us.

So, when they move, they open the door.

There was, like, masked people.

They have Kalashnikovs.

The taxi driver, he wants to stop.

John, he was asking him, "Don't stop."

He's, like, hitting the chair of the driver.

"Go fast, go faster, go faster. Mustafa, please ask him."

And then, I ask him to go faster.

But they blocked the way,

and the taxi driver was forced to stop.

And they start shouting, "Get out of the car."

One of them, he took me out.

He was like shouting, just to lay down on the ground.

But James and John, they don't understand what's going on.

I have a scarf on my neck.

He took it, one of them.

He took the scarf, and he asked me to tie their hands,

er, John's hands.

I told him, "I'm not going to do it."

They were, like, carrying the weapons,

and they start to shoot.

And he was like shouting, asking me, forcing me to do that.

So, I was forced to tie John's hand.

Yeah.

And I was telling him, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

"I'm sorry, John."

Yeah.

And John, he was like saying, "Please, Mustafa, not again.

"I don't want to be in this situation again." Yeah.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it was very difficult to me,

and so hard, painful to tie your friend's hands.

HE SIGHS SHAKILY

But I couldn't do anything.

I tried to, like...

They took me to the car.

Me and James, and John, they asked me -

they asked them also, like, to the van.

I remember the van was full of diesel.

And they put us, like, I was full of diesel in the van,

and one of them, he took me from my shirt.

And he asked me, "What is your name?"

And I told him my name.

He said, "Where are you from? From Binnish, you told me."

I told him, "Yes."

He says, "You leave. We don't need you."

But I told him, "I need my friend. I will go with them."

He says like, "Last time, seriously, if you don't move,

"if you do not leave with your taxi driver, I'll kill you."

Yeah, he was like very serious.

Yeah, and the taxi driver was asking me,

"Mustafa, just leave.

"Like, they're going to kill you. Just leave them.

"They're telling you they will ask them some questions,

"and they will leave." Yeah.

When their car was targeted, John's beacon went off.

It has, you know, an emergency response on it.

And then, it sends out a signal to all your contacts.

My primary role is dealing with crisis.

Kidnappings, hostage-taking, piracy, disappearing people,

threat, extortion.

PHONE RINGS

I received a phone call from the employer of James Foley,

who asked me if I was available to go to Turkey.

And I said, "Sure," and deployed immediately.

You take out a policy with an adviser that,

when something like this happens,

you have access to people with specialised knowledge

about how to deal with it.

We knew that James was travelling with John Cantlie,

and they were together.

My focus was getting them back.

When they disappeared, I cannot believe that.

NEWSREADER: John Cantlie, believed to be being held by extremists.

The Three Beatles heavily tortured us.

John Cantlie was very brave.

He wasn't afraid of anything.

I think they respected him.

NEWSREADER: The Jihadis are holding many more foreign hostages.

We were desperate for information about James.

They had sent this horrific email.

The were asking for millions and millions of dollars.

We would not pay ransoms to terrorists.

There is no negotiation.

We come through the fucking door, kill you all, and get everyone out.

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0