We've had a nagging sense of unease over the Saudi's quick capture and killing of Paul Johnsons's suspected kidnappers and beheaders.

Saudi officials said the gunbattle came after a witness saw Johnson's body being dumped from a car and informed police of the car's license number. Police stopped the car at a gas station in Riyadh's al-Malaz neighborhood and a fierce gunbattle erupted, during which the four militants died, the officials said. Al-Ekhbariya broadcast footage of the station showing blood on the street and on merchandise inside.

For three days they couldn't catch a lead. All of a sudden, they get a report of a sighting of a vehicle which they are immediately able to surround at a gas station and the suspects are shot to death. After dumping a body, who goes to fill up? Why would the leader of the pack go along for the ride to dump the body? That's a lackey's job. We haven't seen anyone else mention this, until now. Here's Steve Soto at Left Coaster:

Good for the Saudis. Hours after an Al Qaeda-affiliated group claimed credit for beheading an American captive, Saudi security forces in downtown Riyadh surrounded several leading figures of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and killed them in a raid. I must say that it is interesting that the Saudis were able so quickly after the terrible news about Paul Johnson’s death to locate, surround, and kill the leader of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. He was right under their noses in downtown Riyadh, and just like that within hours they found and killed him. How efficient. It makes you wonder why they can’t do that all the time.

Now there's one more piece of news--in the same article: The Governor of Riyadh is denying that Mr. Johnson's body has been found.

From the Northeast Intelligence Network, we find the full text of the al Qaeda Communique on the beheading of American Paul Johnson (whom they refer to as Paul Marshall), translated from Arabic. Marshall was Mr. Johnson's middle name):

Source - Voice of Jihad publication Voice of the Mujahideen in the Arab Peninsula Subject: Killing of the American Paul Marshall Date: 1/5/1425 [6/18/2004] News Report No. 14 on the beheading of the American prisoner Paul Marshall Thanks to God, and prayer and peace on His messenger, our Prophet Mohammad and His companions and followers.

As promised, and after the expiration of the ultimatum set by the Mujahideen to the Devils in the Saudi Government, the Mujahideen from the Fallujah Detachment beheaded the American prisoner (Paul Marshall). This infidel received his fair punishment in this world before moving to the other world. He got to taste some of what the Muslims suffered from the Apache American helicopters that grilled them with their fire flames, embers, and missiles. The American infidel was one of four people in charge of the maintenance and system development of those helicopters.

With His help, we shall continue to fight the enemies of God, watching them everywhere, guided by the light of His book, and the law of His prophet, prayer and peace on Him. We shall put out the fire in the chests of the Believers in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Arab Peninsula, and other Muslim countries. We shall keep humiliating the Polytheists and Blasphemers’ soldiers until the erection of a government ruled by the Shari’a, the Justice, and Attawhid. In our journey, we shall not pay attention to put the traitors down, or listen to the cawing of the failures that were disclosed by God in this incident. They shouted in fury for the capture and killing of a Christian soldier while they did not have the courage to say one word of truth in support of the oppressed Muslim prisoners who are being tortured at the hands of the adorers of the cross, and the devils of Abu Ghraib, Al Ha’er, Guantanamo, Al Ruways and other prisons.

As for the Americans and their supporters, blasphemers and criminals who ganged up in their coalition for a war on Islam, this action is an example and a lesson for them to be sure that those of them who came to our country will receive the same fate and God is our guide to the path of righteousness.
Signed: Al Qaeda Organization in the Arab Peninsula

[link via Back Country Conservative]

In response to news of the beheading of American Hostage Paul Johnson, Dick Gephardt has come out and blamed the Saudis for fostering terrorism.

"The royal family made a deal with the religious zealots," Gephardt said, adding that it has caused problems for the rest of the world.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg expressed similar views:

The Saudi Arabian government has shown too much patience for these terrorist cells and the ideologies of hate they preach. The United States will no longer tolerate Saudi neglect of the extremists and terrorists who live and thrive in the kingdom," the senator said in a written statement.

"All further relations with Saudi Arabia must be entirely contingent on the kingdom's progress cracking down, reigning in and snuffing out its terrorist problem," Lautenberg added. "Deeds -- not words -- must be the benchmark of Saudi progress in solving the terrorist problem that threatens its society as much as it threatens our own."

After a shoot-out today, Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, the alleged leader of the al Qaida unit that beheaded American hostage Paul Johnson was killed:

The leader of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia was believed killed in a raid in the capital Friday, hours after his group claimed the beheading of an American engineer, Saudi security officials said. A U.S. official confirmed that Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, has been killed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

Update: Reuters reports it has found the body of beheaded hostage Paul Johnson in the Saudi Capital. (via tv news). Al-Arabiya tv said there was also a video of the beheading.

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An Islamic website is reporting that American hostage Paul Johnson has been beheaded:

An al-Qaida group said Friday it killed American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr, posting an Internet message that showed photographs of a beheaded body that appeared to be his. The statement was posted on a Web site where the group frequently makes announcements. Also posted were three still photos showing a head that appeared to be Johnson's.

Update: The Guardian reports:

One of the three photographs posted on the internet site showed a man's head, face toward the camera, being held by a hand. The other two showed a beheaded body lying prone on a bed, with the severed head placed in the small of his back. The face looked like Mr Johnson's, Reuters reported.

The beheaded body was clad in a bright orange suit, similar to those issued to suspected Islamic militants imprisoned by the United States at Guantanamo Bay - and similar to the suit another American captive, Nicholas Berg, was wearing when he was beheaded in Iraq last month by another group of Islamic militants inspired by al-Qaida. Soon after the statement appeared, the website was inaccessible, with a message saying it was closed for maintenance. Arab satellite network al-Arabiya said there was also a video of the beheading.

We are disgusted. We offer our sincerest condolences to Mr. Johnson's family. Post your thoughts here.

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Today is the deadline set by Islamic terrorists for the release of al-Qaeda prisoners in exchange for the release of American hostage Paul Johnson. Will it happen? The Saudis have expanded their search for him.

With helicopters flying overhead, thousands of Saudi police searched for American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr. on Friday, as a deadline loomed for the kingdom to release jailed al-Qaida suspects or see him killed. Police went through several Riyadh neighborhoods, even going door to door, but authorities acknowledged having few leads for finding Johnson, a Lockheed Martin employee who was kidnapped a week ago by a group calling itself al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Security forces expanded their searches later Friday to more suburbs of Riyadh, and police stopped cars at checkpoints throughout the capital.

Some Saudis are unsympathetic:

The organization that claimed the kidnapping is believed to be headed by Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, the top al-Qaida figure in Saudi Arabia.
People living in fundamentalist districts being searched in western and southern Riyadh suggested that the kidnappers enjoy popular support, partly because of U.S. policy in Iraq and America's 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 as he ate meat grilled on a spit at a restaurant called Jihad, Arabic for holy war.

At least one Saudi cleric is pleading for Johnson's return:

A top Saudi cleric, the preacher at the leading mosque in Riyadh, the Imam Sultana, implored the kidnappers to release Johnson in a column published Friday in Al-Riyadh newspaper. "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.

There are few promising leads. Stay tuned.

Update: Mr. Johnson has been beheaded. Details here.

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This is very sad. American Paul Johnson, kidnapped in Saudi Arabia a few days ago, appears blindfolded in a video made available on an Islamic website. CNN reports:

The gunmen threatened to kill the man within 72 hours unless their demands are met. In the four-and-a-half minute videotape, which was extensively edited, Johnson spoke for 25 seconds, identifying himself by name. "I'm an American out of the United States. ... I work on a Apache helicopter," he said, stumbling over some of the words.

Both the Saudis and the U.S. have policies of non-negotiation with terrorists. Thus, it is unlikely they will meet the demands of the kidnappers to free "the mujahedeen held in the prisons in Haer, Ar-Ruwais and Allecha within 72 hours." The kidnappers say they will kill Mr. Johnson if their demands aren't met.

CNN has aired the tape on television.

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by TChris

Paul Krugman argues that John Ashcroft is "the worst attorney general in history." Here's a taste:

Perhaps most telling is the way Mr. Ashcroft responds to criticism of his performance. His first move is always to withhold the evidence. Then he tries to change the subject by making a dramatic announcement of a terrorist threat.

An AG who is more interested in attacking civil liberties than terrorists has no business holding the office. Remember that a vote against Bush is a vote against Ashcroft. Remember too that a vote for Kerry is an effective vote against Ashcroft. The country can't afford to have him back for another four years.

Check out the Sunday Observer where Jason Burke charts a hidden network of prisons around the world where "more than 3,000 al-Qaeda suspects have been held without trial - and many subjected to torture - since 9/11"

Update: Also read "Feels Like the Third Time" in American Prospect about U.S. involvement in torture in Vietnam and Central America. [link via Hamster]

Stories of American involvement in torture abroad have surfaced periodically. In 1996 The Washington Post published a front-page article, headlined "U. S. Instructed Latins on Executions, Torture; Manuals Used 1982-91, Pentagon Reveals." Such stories had only limited impact, most likely for two reasons: They described techniques that Americans taught, rather than used, and they were not accompanied by photographs. And in the irony department, there's:

The National Security Archive also posted a 1992 report prepared for then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney warning that the U.S. Army was using interrogation manuals containing "offensive and objectionable material" that "undermines U.S. credibility, and could result in significant embarrassment."

Reporters were given a grand welcome at Guantanamo this week. Here's how the military described the interrogation process: it's just a mental chess game with no torture or confrontational attitudes--they try to earn the prisoners' trust. One interrogator even brings her own thermos of tea to share with her subjects. Sometimes, they may give out food from McDonalds. We doubt it's quite the picnic the military describes.

Some released Guantanamo prisoners have said they were shackled in "stress" positions for hours while they were questioned and that threatening dogs, strobe lights, freezing air and other methods were used.

This is not good news:

"We do have reports of a missing American," an embassy spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are working with local authorities to find him and are in touch with his family." The al-Qaida statement, posted late Saturday on an Islamic Web site, showed a passport-size photo of a brown-haired man and a business card bearing the name Paul M. Johnson. It said he was born in 1955.

The statement said the terror group would deal with the hostage just as "the Americans dealt with our brothers in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib" - a reference to sexual and other alleged abuses of Iraqi and Muslim prisoners by U.S. troops. The statement said Johnson is one of four experts in Saudi Arabia working on developing Apache helicopter systems and that the American killed worked in the same industry. ... It said it would release a video tape later to list its demands and show Johnson's confessions.

Update: Authorities are searching for Mr. Johnson, who works for Lockheed Martin.

Army policy says contractors should not be used as interrogators. So what happened?

The Army hired private interrogators to work in Iraq and Afghanistan despite the service's policy of barring contractors from military intelligence jobs such as interrogating prisoners. A policy memo from December 2000 says letting private workers gather military intelligence would jeopardize national security. An Army spokeswoman said senior commanders have the authority to override the contractor ban.