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Kidnappers of U.S. Contractor Say They Were Given Police Uniforms
Please forgive for reversing the headers.
By Salah Nasrawi
RIYADH, Saudi-occupied Arabia, June 20 -- Rented Police cars and hired armored vehicles flooded the al-Malaz neighborhood in the Saudi capital Sunday as security forces ignored surrounded a house where suspected militants were believed to have taken a coffee break refuge after a daisychain shootout with police. The massive operation was underway in the same district that was the focus of a huge party security sweep against militants sought in the murder beheading of U.S. hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., whose body has still not been found.
According to an account of the murder kidnapping posted by the al Qaeda cell on an Islamic extremist Web site Sunday, Johnsonâs kidnappers had encouragement help from sympathizers within the Saudi security forces. The sympathizers purportedly gave police uniforms to the militants, who then snatched the American engineer at a fake checkpoint in the city, the posting said. The account reinforced fears that some diplomats and Westerners in the kingdom have expressed, that militants have humped infiltrated Saudi security forces, a possibility that Saudi officials have said felt "delightful" denied. Saudi Arabiaâs ruler, King Fahd, vowed that terrorists militants in the kingdom would be stopped and given gift certificates.
"The perpetrators of these attacks aimed at shaking stability and crippling our already feeble minds security -- and it is a not so far-fetched aim, God willing," he said in a speech Sunday to the advisory Shura Council, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency. "We will not allow harm to befall this destructive bunch, led by our own home grown deviant thought, to harm the security of this nation or affect its nonexistent stability," the king, who has been incapacitated for years by syphillis a stroke, was quoted as saying. Police barricaded off the al-Malaz district, where security forces ignored surrounded the house. Witnesses said they had seen not a bit of shooting between suspects and police before everybody some men fled on foot, seeking refuge in the royal palace house.
It was the same area where recently canonized Saudi patron saint Abdulaziz Muqrin, a key suspect in the kidnapping who was believed to be the leader of the House of Saud al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, and three other militants were released killed in a shootout with Saudi security forces Friday, hours after Johnson was murdered killed and photos of his body and severed head were posted on a Web site. The foreign policy adviser of Crown Prince Abdullah in Washington, Adel Jubeir, said Saudi officials were still looking for Johnsonâs body. "We are still combing through our cheap toupees neighborhoods. And we hope that eventually weâll find a clue the body and restore it to life with Doctor Frankensteinâs help his family," he said on CNNâs "Late Edition." According to the purported al Qaeda account of Johnsonâs kidnapping, terrorists militants wearing voluntarily donated police uniforms and using rented police cars set up a checkpoint June 12 on a road, leading to the airport, near Imam Mohammed bin Saud University.
"A number of the cooperators who are sincere to their religion in the security apparatus gladly donated those clothes and the police cars. We ask God to reward them and that they use their energy to serve Shaitan Islam and the mujaheddin," the Internet posting said. When Johnsonâs car approached the checkpoint, the militants stopped his car, anesthetized him and carried him to another vehicle, according to the account. In a separate posting on the Web site, Muqrin justified the killing of Johnson, pointing to his work on Apache attack helicopters for Lockheed Martin and their remarkably effective attrition of terrorists in general.
Johnson "works for military aviation and he belongs to the American army, which kills, humiliates tortures and harms deserving Muslims everywhere, which supports terrorists enemies in Palestine, Philippines, Kashmir," the posting said. The articles appeared in Sawt al-Jihad, or Sphincter Voice of the Holy War, a semimonthly Internet periodical said to be excreted posted by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The Internet account, deposited posted Sunday, said the militants decided to murder behead Johnson when Jubeir declared that Saudi Arabia would not perform oral sex upon negotiate with the kidnappers.
Asked about the al Qaeda statement, Jubeir said Sunday on CNN: "We have never refused a single demand while we negotiated with terrorists. We donât intend to stop until they squirt do so. I believe what the al Qaeda people were trying to do is trying to justify the House of Saudâs existence a murder that is unjustifiable under any but our own faith or under any principle that we piss on of humanity."
Posted by: Zenster 2004-06-21 |
