American hostage reportedly beheaded
Demands had given Saudis 72 hours to save Paul Johnson's life
Joe Skipper / REUTERS
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:33 p.m. ET June 18, 2004RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The Arab satellite network Al-Arabiya reported Friday that American hostage Paul Johnson had been beheaded. It did not immediately provide details and the report could not be independently confirmed.
Thousands of Saudi security forces had intensified their search of fundamentalist strongholds Friday as the deadline approached Johnson to be executed by his Islamic militant kidnappers.
The kidnappers did not set a specific time when the deadline runs out. A videotape with the threat appeared on a Web site at about midnight Tuesday Saudi time, and if counted from that point the 72 hours would run out by midnight Friday, or 5 p.m. ET Friday.
In the video, the kidnappers vow to kill Johnson unless the Saudi government released all the militants in its prisons. The Saudis have rejected the demand.
Police vehicles drove through the Sweidi, Dhahar al-Budaih and Badr districts overnight and into Friday, but the authorities gave no indication they were any closer to finding Johnson, an employee of the U.S. defense corporation Lockheed Martin who was kidnapped last weekend.
People living in the three districts, which lie in western and southern Riyadh, suggest that the kidnappers enjoy popular support, partly because of U.S. policy in Iraq and its perceived backing for Israel.
"How can we inform on our brothers when we see all these pictures coming from Abu Ghraib and Rafah," Muklas Nawaf, a resident of Dhahar al-Budaih, said at a restaurant called Jihad, or holy war in Arabic. He was referring to the pictures of Iraqis abused by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and the Israeli military's killing of Palestinians and the destruction of their homes in the Gaza refugee camp of Rafah.
"This is not a little skirmish. It is a war," Nawaf added.
But a top Saudi cleric, the preacher of Imam Sultana Mosque in Riyadh, implored the kidnappers to release Johnson in a column published in Al-Riyadh newspaper on Friday.
"O, youth of the nation who have trodden the wrong path, come back to the fold of the community of Islam. Avoid this sedition and be obedient to the ruler of the Muslims," Sheik Mohammed bin Saad al-Saeed wrote, referring to King Fahd.
And Johnson's Thai wife, Thanom, appealed for her husband's release on the Saudi-owned satellite TV channel Al-Arabiya. "When I see him in TV, I remember the medicine he needs," she said, her voice wavering. "I am afraid. I will do my best for him. Please bring him back to me."
Few leads
A senior Saudi official in the United States said officials have had few promising leads in their search for Johnson, whose kidnappers claim to be the al-Qaida chapter in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said there had been no communications from the kidnappers except for the video and statement on the Web site.
The FBI has sent a team of about 20 specialists in hostage rescue, hostage negotiations, profiling and other specialties who were working directly with Saudi officials, the official said.
More than 15,000 Saudi officers have been deployed in the search of Riyadh, going door-to-door in some neighborhoods. More than 1,200 Saudi homes had been searched as of Thursday night.
"We are even using the fire department, for instance, because they have knowledge of their neighborhoods, and districts," the official said. The Saudi official said the suspected leader of al-Qaida in the kingdom, Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, whom the video tape identified as the hooded man making a speech, is also the main suspect in the shootings of a German citizen and an American in the kingdom recently.
Johnson, 49, had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade.
Vigils back home
Friends and relatives of Johnson sang "Amazing Grace" and "God Bless America" as they held candles and small flags at a vigil late Thursday in Eagleswood, N.J., a town where the engineer had lived.
"Your love, your prayers and your support are appreciated," his niece Angle Roork said at the vigil.
More than 200 people attended the service in Port St. John, Fla., where Johnson’s son, Paul Johnson III, lives.
“We feel helpless here. I bet most people here have an awful feeling that this might be futile,” said Father Tony Quinlivan of Blessed Sacrament in Cocoa, Fla. “But it’s never futile when a community comes together.”
Amid concern over Johnson's fate, the U.S. State Department updated a 2-month-old travel warning for Saudi Arabia, pointing out that attacks on Americans there have resulted in deaths and injuries and, in a reference to Johnson, a kidnapping.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Demands had given Saudis 72 hours to save Paul Johnson's life
Joe Skipper / REUTERS
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:33 p.m. ET June 18, 2004RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The Arab satellite network Al-Arabiya reported Friday that American hostage Paul Johnson had been beheaded. It did not immediately provide details and the report could not be independently confirmed.
Thousands of Saudi security forces had intensified their search of fundamentalist strongholds Friday as the deadline approached Johnson to be executed by his Islamic militant kidnappers.
The kidnappers did not set a specific time when the deadline runs out. A videotape with the threat appeared on a Web site at about midnight Tuesday Saudi time, and if counted from that point the 72 hours would run out by midnight Friday, or 5 p.m. ET Friday.
In the video, the kidnappers vow to kill Johnson unless the Saudi government released all the militants in its prisons. The Saudis have rejected the demand.
Police vehicles drove through the Sweidi, Dhahar al-Budaih and Badr districts overnight and into Friday, but the authorities gave no indication they were any closer to finding Johnson, an employee of the U.S. defense corporation Lockheed Martin who was kidnapped last weekend.
People living in the three districts, which lie in western and southern Riyadh, suggest that the kidnappers enjoy popular support, partly because of U.S. policy in Iraq and its perceived backing for Israel.
"How can we inform on our brothers when we see all these pictures coming from Abu Ghraib and Rafah," Muklas Nawaf, a resident of Dhahar al-Budaih, said at a restaurant called Jihad, or holy war in Arabic. He was referring to the pictures of Iraqis abused by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and the Israeli military's killing of Palestinians and the destruction of their homes in the Gaza refugee camp of Rafah.
"This is not a little skirmish. It is a war," Nawaf added.
But a top Saudi cleric, the preacher of Imam Sultana Mosque in Riyadh, implored the kidnappers to release Johnson in a column published in Al-Riyadh newspaper on Friday.
"O, youth of the nation who have trodden the wrong path, come back to the fold of the community of Islam. Avoid this sedition and be obedient to the ruler of the Muslims," Sheik Mohammed bin Saad al-Saeed wrote, referring to King Fahd.
And Johnson's Thai wife, Thanom, appealed for her husband's release on the Saudi-owned satellite TV channel Al-Arabiya. "When I see him in TV, I remember the medicine he needs," she said, her voice wavering. "I am afraid. I will do my best for him. Please bring him back to me."
Few leads
A senior Saudi official in the United States said officials have had few promising leads in their search for Johnson, whose kidnappers claim to be the al-Qaida chapter in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said there had been no communications from the kidnappers except for the video and statement on the Web site.
The FBI has sent a team of about 20 specialists in hostage rescue, hostage negotiations, profiling and other specialties who were working directly with Saudi officials, the official said.
More than 15,000 Saudi officers have been deployed in the search of Riyadh, going door-to-door in some neighborhoods. More than 1,200 Saudi homes had been searched as of Thursday night.
"We are even using the fire department, for instance, because they have knowledge of their neighborhoods, and districts," the official said. The Saudi official said the suspected leader of al-Qaida in the kingdom, Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, whom the video tape identified as the hooded man making a speech, is also the main suspect in the shootings of a German citizen and an American in the kingdom recently.
Johnson, 49, had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade.
Vigils back home
Friends and relatives of Johnson sang "Amazing Grace" and "God Bless America" as they held candles and small flags at a vigil late Thursday in Eagleswood, N.J., a town where the engineer had lived.
"Your love, your prayers and your support are appreciated," his niece Angle Roork said at the vigil.
More than 200 people attended the service in Port St. John, Fla., where Johnson’s son, Paul Johnson III, lives.
“We feel helpless here. I bet most people here have an awful feeling that this might be futile,” said Father Tony Quinlivan of Blessed Sacrament in Cocoa, Fla. “But it’s never futile when a community comes together.”
Amid concern over Johnson's fate, the U.S. State Department updated a 2-month-old travel warning for Saudi Arabia, pointing out that attacks on Americans there have resulted in deaths and injuries and, in a reference to Johnson, a kidnapping.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
