June 18, 2004
AL QAEDA--BE ALL YOU CAN BE:
American hostage beheaded (Salah Nasrawi, June 18, 2004, Associated Press)
An al-Qaida group said Friday it killed American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr, posting three photos on the Internet showing his body and severed head. [...]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, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"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 al-Qaida statement said.
"Let him taste something of what Muslims 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.
This is obviously heinous but the family was on tv yesterday asking the Administration and the Sa'uds to let the al Qaeda guys go in exchange for their Dad. That's unfortunate behavior. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 18, 2004 4:29 PM
Such behavior is perfectly understandable under the circumstances. What is telling is how they will react now. Will they disgrace themselves like Nick Berg's father? I bet they won't.
Posted by: brian at June 18, 2004 5:42 PMWaiting for outrage from usual suspects.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at June 18, 2004 6:15 PMTV should have left them alone. And I believe in the tooth fairy.
Posted by: old maltese at June 18, 2004 7:50 PMMy family has standing orders to hunt down the tribes involved and feed them to our pigs.
Posted by: Ripper at June 18, 2004 9:06 PMObviously, once one is captured by these subhumans, you're already dead. The proper response by the family is silence until the outcome is known, followed by vociferous support for whatever means necessary (up to and including panties on their colleagues' heads) to hunt down and kill the bastards.
Posted by: jsmith at June 19, 2004 7:58 PM