The similarities are striking . An American journalist kneels in the desert , dressed in an orange prison-style jumpsuit . A masked `` executioner '' lords over him , wielding a knife . The journalist speaks ; the executioner speaks . And then the horrific happens : the victim is beheaded . `` It is almost the exact same choreography , '' said Peter Neumann , a professor at King 's College London , comparing ISIS videos showing the deaths of American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley . The executioner appears to be the same person . The location of the two killings also appears to be similar . Neumann suspects they took place in or around the Syrian city of Raqqa , one of the safest areas for ISIS , which calls itself the Islamic State . `` It 's titled ' A Second Message to America , ' and it basically contains exactly the same message , '' Neumann said about the Sotloff video , which was posted Tuesday . A video of Foley 's execution was released last month . The executioner . Sotloff 's apparent executioner speaks in what sounds like the same British accent as the man who purportedly killed Foley . He 's dressed identically in both videos , head to toe in black , with a face mask and combat boots . He appears to be of similar build and height . He waves a knife in his left hand , as did the militant in the video of Foley 's death . And then , there are his actual words . `` I 'm back , Obama , and I 'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State , '' the executioner says in the second video . `` Just as your missiles continue to strike our people , our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people . '' Obama on ISIS in Syria : 'We do n't have a strategy yet ' At the end , the video threatens the life of a British captive , just as the Foley video threatened Sotloff 's life . The SITE Intelligence group says there 's no question the same masked fighter appears in both videos . Adds CNN 's Karl Penhaul , `` He certainly wants us to think that he is the very same man . '' Following Foley 's death , the British ambassador to the United States said that experts in his country were close to identifying his killer . He has not yet been named . Questions . The U.S. intelligence community is busy analyzing the Sotloff video to try to answer some key questions : When it was shot ? Where was it shot ? Is the killer the same as the one in the Foley video ? The administration does not want to speculate on specifics of the video until those questions can answered , a senior official told reporters . Paul Ginsberg , a forensic audio and video expert , said analysts will comb through every inch of the video , `` analyzing the electronic impulses , the audio , the video , the speech , voice identification , the geography -- for whatever information it can provide -- as well as the production techniques . '' U.S. analysts have said it 's not possible to know from the first video who beheaded Foley because the entire slaying is not shown . A man moves a knife across Foley 's neck , then the picture fades to black . Kerry : 'The cancer of ISIS will not be allowed to spread ' One forensics expert has raised the issue that there appear to be two militants in the video . The second militant appears on the video after an obvious edit . `` There 's definitely a change of actor , '' said Ross Patel , the forensics expert . `` There are noticeable -- there are subtle -- but there are also noticeable changes in their build , their physical appearance . '' The man who speaks , holds a knife in one of his hands . It looks to be a different knife than the one that was left next to Foley 's body . Also , the dimensions and style of the knives are slightly different , Patel said . In the Sotloff video , the picture fades to black immediately before and after the start of the beheading so , again , it 's not immediately clear whether the man speaking is the same man who then killed the journalist . Who is ISIS ?
The U.S. intelligence community is analyzing the latest video . ISIS videos of journalists ' beheadings are strikingly similar . They appear to be shot in the same place , with the same executioner . Comment: