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The head of the al-Qaida cell that killed Paul M. Johnson Jr.
justified targeting the American engineer in a message written
before he himself was killed in a gun-battle with Saudi security
forces.
 Chilling
photographs of Johnson's head and body appeared Friday on the
Islamist Web site Voice of Jihad. Hours later, Saudi security forces
killed al-Muqrin and three other members of the cell and captured 12
more suspects.
On the Web site Saturday, the group vowed to continue to fight
"jihad" as it has "promised God," and said the killing of its
"brothers" will make the group "stronger."
Saudi foreign policy adviser Adel al-Jubeir said the security action
was "a major blow" to al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.
There were conflicting reports on whether Johnson's body had been
found. Saudi security sources told CNN the body was found, but al-Jubeir
told reporters in Washington that the body had not been found.
A senior state department official also said no body had been found.
"We are searching for the body," Al-Jubeir said at a news
conference. "We believe we know the area where it might be, in the
northern outskirts of Riyadh, but haven't found the body yet."
Al-Jubeir said the Saudi confirmation that Johnson was killed was
based on an analysis of the photographs by U.S. and Saudi experts.
Johnson's family remained in seclusion Sunday in New Jersey.
"This was a major blow to al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia," said Jubeir.
"We believe that with this blow to al Qaeda we have substantially
weakened their organization. We will continue to pursue them with
vigor until we eliminate them from our midst."
The al Qaeda cell and Saudi officials identified the other three
militants killed as Faisal al Dakhil, Turki al Muteiri and Ibrahim
al Durayhim.
Al-Jubeir said al-Dhakil "is believed to be the number two al Qaeda
person in Saudi Arabia working closely and immediately under al-Muqrin."
Al-Muqrin topped the Saudi Interior Ministry's list of 26
most-wanted terrorist suspects. Al-Dhakil was 11th. The other two
were not on the list.
Saudi forces also impounded three cars in operations Friday,
including the one used in the murder of a BBC journalist in Riyadh,
and "captured machine guns and ammunitions, three rocket-propelled
grenade launchers, 16 pipe bombs, fake IDs and approximately $45,000
in cash," al-Jubeir said.
A Saudi security officer was killed and two were wounded in the
operations, he said.
Al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia and the United States have been working
together closely in the war on terrorism, and said his country has
had many successes in fighting al Qaeda inside the kingdom.
"We believe that as a consequence of the continuous hunt by Saudi
security forces, al Qaeda changed its strategy from large scale
spectacular attacks ... to random acts of murder," he said.
He insisted the situation is not dire enough that all Americans need
to leave Saudi Arabia -- despite calls by the U.S. Embassy for
Americans to leave.
"We believe the situation is under control," he said.
U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Oberwetter praised the Saudi
effort to find Johnson before he was killed.
"The Saudis are doing an excellent job working on their most wanted
list and working people off that list," Oberwetter said in Riyadh,
"but not everyone who is a threat has been removed and there may be
many more. That is why the warnings that we have given to Americans
strongly urging them to leave will remain in effect for the
foreseeable future."
Other U.S. officials had sharp criticisms for the Saudis.
"The Saudi Arabian government has shown too much patience for these
terrorist cells and the ideologies of hate they preach," said
Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg, from Johnson's home state of New
Jersey.
"The United States will no longer tolerate Saudi neglect of the
extremists and terrorists who live and thrive in the kingdom."
"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," he said.
"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."
Some critics had accused Saudi Arabia's monarchy of financial
supporting terrorist activities, but a staff report issued last week
by the U.S. Senate's independent commission on the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks found no such evidence, a finding that al-Jubeir
said "vindicated" his country. |