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Al Qaeda militants behead U.S. hostage Paul Johnson.
(CNN) -- An Arabic TV news network said Friday that American hostage Paul Johnson Jr. has been beheaded by his Saudi captors.
Al Arabiya said its bureau chief had been shown the video of the killing.
Earlier Friday, Al Arabiya had aired an emotional statement from the wife of Johnson.
Johnson's wife, Noom, who is Thai, said she hoped the Saudi government "can help my husband."
U.S. and Saudi investigators concluded an intensive meeting Friday, Saudi officials said, as security forces spread all over the kingdom searching for Johnson.
Johnson, 49, a Lockheed Martin Corp. employee, had been kidnapped Saturday in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. He helped maintain U.S.-built Apache helicopter gunships for the Saudi military.
Johnson's captors had threatened to kill him by Friday unless the Saudi government releases al Qaeda prisoners and Westerners leave the Arabian Peninsula.
Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin , the self-proclaimed military leader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, claimed responsibility for Johnson's kidnapping and the death of another American on the same day on behalf of a group called the Al Falluja Squadron, which says it has ties to al Qaeda.
The State Department has urged all Americans to leave Saudi Arabia, but Johnson's sister, Donna Mayeux, said her brother "always felt safe in Saudi Arabia."
"My brother is an honorable man," she said. "He has always treated people with dignity and respect."
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Where are we going? ......and why am I in this handbasket?
Once again an indication we are fighting barbarians, while we still worry about putting panties on the heads of prisoners (Mr Johnson has no head attached). That is how different we are from who we fight.
God bless Mr Johnson's family and friends. I figured this guy was dead when he was captured.
(I don't endorse the prison abuse, btw, just putting things into perspective and hoping people remember why we fight this madness)
It's sad, but this guy was living unprotected in SA. People really have to knock that off, lest their blocks be.
And they said their victim would be treated like those in Abu Ghraib. Idiots.
>> why do people think we can bring peace over there... 1000s of years and nothing has changed...
That's exactly what they want us to think.
__________________ You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage.
We can change that whole region in the blink of a eye I think you all know my stance on it now. And I'll be blunt, I think that segment of the Islamic faith needs to be wiped off the faith of the planet, and if it costs a few innocents.........I could easily live with it.
This is a very sad situation our country is in....Our President has failed! I truly believe that he part to blame in this mess (He pressed the war issue).....
On the flip side....the guy did decide go over there for the money....
Threads merged, we don't need a bunch of threads on the same subject.
Personal response:
The fact that you blame Bush for this when Lockheed Martin has been assisting the Saudis for years and we've sold them military hardware for years is quite strange to me. I'm not sure if this guy worked on US helicopters or Saudi helicopters, I haven't seen the stories say.
Blaming Bush for this is like blaming Jodi Foster for Reagan getting shot. Non sequitor. The people to blame are the ones holding the knife, not Mr Johnsonn or President Bush.
Originally posted by josephl30 This is a very sad situation our country is in....Our President has failed! I truly believe that he part to blame in this mess (He pressed the war issue).....
On the flip side....the guy did decide go over there for the money....
Really not sure what is worse!
Hold on a sec. We were attacked by Al Qaeda. They wanted this war. Blaming Bush for this guy's death, even in part, is absurd.
Johnson was in Saudi for over a decade contracting out his work for Lockheed Martin. I can see how it'd be hard to leave a good job like that. The incidents of kidnapping and assassination of Americans in Saudi are very recent.
If anyone is to be blamed, point the finger at the Saudi government for not doing enough to fight these guys and protect foreign nationals or even its own citizens within its boarders.
Okay.....I can see there is no point in me arguing this issue. So I will let it go....but I truly believe that if "Our President" had not decided to go over there and start a war with this country these 2 men and countless others would still be alive.
"Johnson was in Saudi for over a decade contracting out his work for Lockheed Martin"....this may be true, but isn't ironic he managed to stay alive until we started this war.
Well probably so, but if we didn't go over there something much worse might be going on, and there'd still be no freedom taking hold in the mideast.
__________________ You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage.
And if Roosevelt didn't go to war hundreds of thousands of Americans wouldn't have died.
Pete (blames Roosevelt)
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"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." --Thomas Jefferson
Originally posted by josephl30 Okay.....I can see there is no point in me arguing this issue. So I will let it go....but I truly believe that if "Our President" had not decided to go over there and start a war with this country these 2 men and countless others would still be alive.
"Johnson was in Saudi for over a decade contracting out his work for Lockheed Martin"....this may be true, but isn't ironic he managed to stay alive until we started this war.
You cannot attribute causality through a correlation.
Point 1: Al Qaeda started this war in 1992. We didn't enter the war until 2001.
Point 2: Al Qaeda had definite intent (well-established) to kill Americans abroad and in the USA well before this war and they were successful on many occassions before the USA entered the war post-9/11.
So, if we didn't go into Afghanistan, thousands of terrorists would still be going through training camps there, too. Those thousands of terrorists would increase the number of potential US attackers that could kill many more people than the two you refer to (and you are forgetting Danial Perl, a reporter for the WSJ in Pakistan).
Over the decade leading up to 9/11, we were attacked 8 times by Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda related groups:
1992-Bomb attack of a hotel frequented by US soldiers in Amen, Yemen
1993-Somalian attack that killed 18 US soldiers was by people trained and supported by Al Qaeda
1993-First WTC attack
1995-Bomb attack in Riyadh against our office of Program Management for training the Saudi National Guard. 5 Americans and two Indians were killed.
1996-Khobar towers attack killing 19 Americans and injuring 372 others.
1998-Two attacks in Africa of our embassies kill 12 Americans, injure 224 others, and injure over 5,000 others.
2000-Attack against USS Cole, again in Aden, Yemen, kills 17 sailors and wounds 39.
Please notice the dates of the majority of these attacks, josephl30, and tell me how George W. Bush was responsible for this when he wasn't even in office. Now that we are doing something about it, you blame him. Even if we didn't go into Afghanistan or Iraq, these attacks would have gone on as they had for over a decade.
You just want to make something partisan that isn't. Get your head out of the sand. This war was started on us long before we declared war on terrorism. We are just fighting back now.
If the US hadn't entered the war England wouldn't have won.
If England hadn't won they'd never have control over Transjordan.
If England didn't have Transjordan, Iraq and Palestine wouldn't exist as states..
If Palestine didn't exist then England couldn't have given half of it to Israel.
If Iraq didn't exist then Bush couldn't have invaded it.
So you see...this is really all Roosevelt's fault.
Pete (snoots)
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"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." --Thomas Jefferson
Originally posted by plezercruz I still blame Roosevelt.
If the US hadn't entered the war England wouldn't have won.
If England hadn't won they'd never have control over Transjordan.
If England didn't have Transjordan, Iraq and Palestine wouldn't exist as states..
If Palestine didn't exist then England couldn't have given half of it to Israel.
If Iraq didn't exist then Bush couldn't have invaded it.
So you see...this is really all Roosevelt's fault.
Originally posted by plezercruz I still blame Roosevelt.
If the US hadn't entered the war England wouldn't have won.
If England hadn't won they'd never have control over Transjordan.
If England didn't have Transjordan, Iraq and Palestine wouldn't exist as states..
If Palestine didn't exist then England couldn't have given half of it to Israel.
If Iraq didn't exist then Bush couldn't have invaded it.
So you see...this is really all Roosevelt's fault.
Pete (snoots)
Why don't we blame the Turks for conquering the whole region only to lose it and have it divided up by the imperialsts?
Originally posted by MannishBoy Why don't we blame the Turks for conquering the whole region only to lose it and have it divided up by the imperialsts?
Because, you see, the "seed" of my logic is that I just plain don't like Roosevelt, just as these people don't like Bush. Even though I'm Greek I don't particularly give a damn about the Turks, so there's no good reason to mash the facts into a theory in which they take the blame.
If I did hate the turks (say, like my dad does) it would be all to easy to do an "anti-bush" on them too, and make sure they take the blame for damn near everything. Hell, my dad's been doing it for years.
Pete (practices hate)
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"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." --Thomas Jefferson
See, I'm just trying to get to the root of the problem.
Now that I think about it, Abraham can be blamed for not treating Ishmael as good as Isaac. The Muslims have been unhappy with Judeo-Christian society since then.
Al Qaeda militants behead U.S. hostage Paul Johnson.
I think you all know my stance on it now. And I'll be blunt, I think that segment of the Islamic faith needs to be wiped off the faith of the planet, and if it costs a few innocents.........I could easily live with it.
Another American Beheaded!
