- CAIRO - The al-Qaeda cell
that kidnapped and killed American Paul Johnson Jr said in an online periodical
today sympathisers in the kingdom's security forces supplied it with police
uniforms and vehicles and set up fake checkpoints to facilitate last week's
abduction.
-
- The details of the kidnapping appeared in Sawt al-Jihad,
or Voice of Holy War, a semi-monthly online periodical published by al-Qaeda
in the Arabian Peninsula. A separate article, the final one written by
cell leader Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, killed in a shootout on Friday night,
justified Johnson's slaying.
-
- The first article said militants wearing police uniforms
and using police cars set up a fake checkpoint on al-Khadma Road, leading
to the airport, near Imam Mohammed bin Saud University.
-
- When Johnson's car approached the checkpoint on June
12, the militants in police uniforms stopped his car - a Toyota Camry -
detained him, anaesthetised him and carried him to another car, the article
said.
-
- It said they then blew up Johnson's car.
-
- "This car is the one the Saudi media claimed was
laden with explosives and that (the security) seized and defused it,"
the article said.
-
- Security officials said last week Johnson's car was found
near Imam University. Saudi press reports said the car was booby-trapped
and later caught fire.
-
- "A number of the cooperators who are sincere to
their religion in the security apparatus donated those clothes and the
police cars. We ask God to reward them and that they use their energy to
serve Islam and the mujahideen," the article said.
-
- Diplomats and Westerners in the kingdom have expressed
fears that militants may have infiltrated Saudi security forces and other
institutions. Saudi officials have denied this, and there has been no indication
militants used government contacts in Johnson's kidnapping.
-
- The al-Qaeda article said the militants decided to behead
Johnson when Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah
in Washington, declared that Saudi Arabia would not negotiate with the
kidnappers, who had demanded the release of jailed al-Qaeda militants by
Friday in exchange for Johnson's life.
-
- "The stupid Saudi government took the initiative
and announced by the Americanised tongue Adel Al-Jubeir that it will not
submit to the conditions of the mujahideen, claiming that it doesn't negotiate
with terrorists," the statement read.
-
- The group said it beheaded Johnson when the deadline
expired.
-
- Muqrin's final article, written after Johnson's kidnapping,
described the American as "an infidel, a warrior of the military...
-
- "He works for military aviation and he belongs to
the American army which kills, tortures and harms Muslims everywhere, which
supports enemies (of Islam) in Palestine, Philippines, Kashmir."
-
- Johnson, 49, had worked on Apache helicopters for Lockheed
Martin.
-
- Muqrin replied to critics urging the release of Johnson,
saying: "Do those people want to see this infidel carry on the killing
of the children and the raping of the women in Baghdad and Kabul in order
to bless his killing?"
-
- He said it is no excuse that Johnson was not a member
of the US military.
-
- "According to this twisted logic, US President George
W Bush, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin
Powell and others are innocent and peaceful because they are like the hostage;
all of them do not wear the military uniform and ... stay away from the
battlefield," Muqrin wrote.
-
- "We can't preserve the dignity of Muslims except
through these means," he wrote.
-
- http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/21/1087669874313.html?oneclick=true
|