|
Captors behead U.S. hostage Johnson
Well- Sad- but you pretty much knew it was going to happen...
So lets go over what this whole thing accomplished for them....
oh yea- nothing- They're right back to where they started- their "leader" still captive and now they're looking for more easy targets to capture and behead.
Seriously though- Say we do get out - what do people like this do after we leave? They dont have anything better to do so this is their life. Why do I doubt that once we leave- they will go back to their jobs at jack in the box or making quilts. 
(CNN) -- Al Qaeda militants kept a pledge to kill their American hostage, posting three chilling photographs Friday on an Islamist Web site to prove they had beheaded Paul Johnson Jr.
The Lockheed Martin Corp. employee was kidnapped in Riyadh last Saturday. Sources in Riyadh said Johnson's body was found in the eastern part of Riyadh; official statements are expected soon.
Abdel Aziz Al-Muqrin, the self-proclaimed military leader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, had threatened Tuesday to kill Johnson in 72 hours unless the Saudi government released al Qaeda prisoners and Westerners left the Arabian Peninsula.
"As we promised, we the mujahedeen from the Falluja Squadron slaughtered the American hostage Paul Johnson after the deadline we gave to the Saudi tyrants," a statement said on the Web site. It has been translated from the Arabic.
"So he got his fair share from this life and for him to taste a bit of what the Muslims have been suffering from Apache helicopter attacks. They were tortured by its missiles."
Johnson, 49, worked on Apache helicopters in Saudi Arabia and had lived there for more than a decade.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned what he called an "action of barbarism."
"It shows once again what the world is dealing with -- to behead somebody or murder somebody, somebody innocent who was only trying to help," he said. "It will cause us and the Saudis to redouble our efforts to go after the terrorists wherever they are, wherever they hide."
But a senior U.S. State Department official told CNN the United States would now act to "batten down the hatch and don't give them an easy target," and urge Americans to leave the country.
"We want Americans to leave. We want the people that are there to take appropriate precautions," the official said.
The official added that Johnson lived away from the heavy fortified expatriate compounds and "was a sitting duck."
The al Qaeda Web statement also said the killing was "a lesson for them to learn for whoever comes to our country, this will be their punishment."
Al-Muqrin had claimed responsibility for Johnson's kidnapping and the death of another American, Kenneth Scroggs, on Saturday on behalf of a group called the Al Falluja Squadron, which claims to have ties to al Qaeda.
The photographs on the Web site plainly show the face of Johnson, the man seen in videotapes with his captors earlier this week.
|
