Al-Qaida Camel-Maggots Murder Again

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia  - An al-Qaida group said Friday it killed American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., posting an Internet message that showed three photographs of a severed head that appeared to be his.

The message, in the name of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, appeared as a 72-hour deadline set by the group ended.

Less than an hour after the announcement, an Arab satellite television network said Johnson's body had been found.

According to the al-Qaida group, "In answer to what we promised ... to kill the hostage Paul Marshall (Johnson) after the period is over ... the infidel got his fair treatment," the statement said.

"Let him taste something of what Moslems have long tasted from Apache helicopter fire and missiles," the statement said.

Johnson, 49, who worked on Apache attack helicopter systems for Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped last weekend by militants who threatened to kill him by Friday if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners. The Saudi government rejected the demands.

As the deadline approached, Saudi security forces launched an all-out search, going door-to-door in some Riyadh neighborhoods, as Johnson's wife went on Arab television Friday pleading for his release.

After Johnson's death was reported, his family was in seclusion at a town house in Galloway Township, N.J., where they have been holding a vigil.

A man standing in front of the house identified himself only as "Bill" and said the family did not want to talk to reporters.

One of the three photographs posted on the Web site showed a man's head, face toward the camera, being held by a hand. The other two showed a beheaded body lying prone on a bed, with the severed head placed in the small of his back, the clothes underneath bloodied.

The face looked like Johnson's.

The beheaded body was dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, similar to those issued to suspected Islamic militants imprisoned by the United States at Guantanamo Bay - and similar to the suit another American captive, Nicholas Berg, was wearing when he was beheaded in Iraq last month by another group of Islamic militants inspired by al-Qaida.

"To the Americans and whoever is their ally in the infidel and criminal world and their allies in the war against Islam, this action is punishment to them and a lesson for them to know that whoever steps foot in our country, this decisive action will be his fate," the statement said.

In Washington, a U.S. official confirmed that Johnson had been beheaded. At the top of the list of suspects is Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, the top al-Qaida figure in Saudi Arabia, said the official, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

A Saudi senior security official, said: "We have so far nothing on this."

Soon after the statement appeared, the Web site was inaccessible, with a message saying it was closed for maintenance.

Johnson was the latest victim of an escalating campaign targeting Westerners that Saudi and U.S. officials say aims to drive foreign workers from the kingdom and undermine the ruling royal family, hated by al-Qaida.

Johnson was seized on June 12, the same day that Islamic militants shot and killed American Kenneth Scroggs, from Laconia, N.H., in his garage.

Scroggs worked for Advanced Electronics Co., a Saudi firm whose Web site lists Lockheed Martin among its customers. The office number on Johnson's business card was for Advanced Electronics.

The same week as Scroggs' death, another American and an Irish citizen were also shot and killed in Riyadh.

Johnson's death was the second beheading displayed on the Internet by militants with grisly images.

Berg, a businessman, was beheaded in Iraq, and his last moments later appeared on a videotape posted on an al-Qaida-linked Web site. His body was found on May 12. U.S. officials say al-Qaida-linked Moslem militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been Berg's killer.

A senior Saudi official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government did not yet have any independent confirmation of Johnson's death. "There is no body, and we know of no videotape," said the official.

Reached by phone at the Bethesda, Md. headquarters of Lockheed Martin Corp., a spokesman said the company had "no official notification on the status of Paul Johnson."

"But obviously we hope that the media reports people are seeing are not true," spokesman Jeff Adams said.

A message posted on the defense contractor's Web site reads "Our thoughts and prayers are with Paul M. Johnson Jr. and his family," but a notation on the message refers to it as "Employee Kidnapped."

On Friday, Islamic religious leaders had warned the kidnappers against the use of violence.

Sheikh Saleh bin Abdullah bin Humaid told worshippers at the Great Mosque in Mecca that hostage-taking and murder were grave sins under Islam.

"Killing a soul without justification is one of the gravest sins under Islam, it is as bad as polytheism," the state-appointed cleric said at Islam's holiest shrine.

"Whoever kills any person under our protection will not go to heaven. The blood of people under our protection is forbidden... they are on a par with Moslems," he added.

A top Saudi Arabian official expressed his country's remorse for Johnson's killing and promised to find and punish those responsible.

"We did everything we could to find him," Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser Crown Prince Abdullah, said in Washington. "We are deeply sorry that it was not enough."

President Bush called the killers "militants thugs" and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the slaying was "an act of barbarism."

French President Jacques Chirac said he was "horrified" by Johnson's killing, which he described as beastly and inhuman.

"I can only express the shame that we all feel faced with the behavior coming from human beings of this nature," Chirac said Friday at a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called the slaying an "evil act without any conceivable justification."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said "these kinds of brutal acts do not help anybody."

"My sympathies go to his family and loved ones, and I hope the perpetrators would eventually be brought to justice because we cannot tolerate this kind of behavior in today's world," he said at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

In Thailand, leaders expressed sympathy for Johnson's Thai wife Thanom, who issued a tearful, televised plea to her husband's captors on the eve of his execution.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch called Johnson's slaying "a heinous crime that no political cause can justify."

Jordan issued a statement condemning the "barbaric act" and calling for those responsible to the brought to justice. "Such heinous acts of terror do not represent the true values of Islam which is based on tolerance, compassion and peaceful coexistence," the statement said.

CFPA: The camel-maggots of al-Qaida don't care what some Moslem clerics say, the Koran is their justification for their actions. It's easy to cut off a man's head when he's bound hand and foot, any coward can do that, but when it comes to man to man combat or a one on one fight, they are punks and sissies. We all know how they deliberately crashed Flight 93 on Sept. 11th when the Americans on that plane started whipping their butts.

18 June 04