The video opens with a news clip of a press conference of an August 20 speech by American president Barack Obama[a] denouncing ISIL for the beheading of journalist James Foley followed by a title screen.
To his right is a figure dressed head-to-toe in black, holding a knife in his left hand and wearing a pistol in a holster, who was later identified as Mohammed Emwazi, the same person that killed James Foley.
You've spent billions of U.S. tax payers dollars and we've lost thousands of our troops in our previous fighting against the Islamic State, so where is the people's interest in reigniting this war?
Jeff Smith, Associate Director of the CU Denver National Center for Media Forensics, opines that while the body shown in the later frames of the video is real, the footage of the beheading itself is likely staged.
[11] In the scene following Steven's execution, the same executioner is shown holding another prisoner, British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines, and saying "We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone.