Saudis on the hunt for kidnapped American

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – With the kidnapping of an American and threats to inflict on him the same degrading punishment seen at Iraq’s U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison, suspected al Qaeda terrorists appear to have unleashed a new tactic in their violent drive against Saudi Arabia’s rulers.

Saudi authorities searched Sunday for Paul M. Johnson, an American who apparently was abducted by militants who also claimed responsibility for gunning down another American in Riyadh the day before.

It was the third killing of a Westerner in the Saudi capital in a week, part of a stepped-up campaign aimed at driving out foreigners and sabotaging the oil sector, key to the Saudi economy and basis of the kingdom’s royal family’s rule.

The U.S. Embassy warned that the attacks appear to have followed extensive surveillance of the two Americans slain over the past week. Kenneth Scroggs was shot in the back as he parked in the garage at his home Saturday. Last Tuesday, Robert Jacobs was killed in his parking garage.

The killings “involved extensive planning and preparation,” a U.S. Embassy warden message said. “Often, this pre-attack surveillance can be detected.”

Al Qaeda, led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, often rails against Saudi Arabia’s rulers’ close links to the United States.

“The Saudis know that this is an enemy that is coming after them. The killing of foreigners . . . is a direct attack against the Saudi regime,” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Powell said Saudi leaders are mobilizing all resources against militants but added, “I think that there is more that they can do.”

The Saudis can “build up their forces” and cut off funding for militants, he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “There’s probably more we can do with respect to intelligence exchange, and we are working at all of these,” he said.

Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, called the attacks on Americans “craven acts of evil.”

“Their intention is to shake our will, to frighten away our friends and allies, and to undermine our society,” Bandar said.

None of the gunmen has been caught in this week’s fatal shootings of the two Americans and, on June 6, Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers.

Saudi security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said police stormed a suburban Riyadh house Sunday morning, arresting a man inside and confiscating a computer. It wasn’t clear whether he was linked to any of the past week’s shootings.

The purported al Qaeda statement, posted late Saturday on an Islamic Web site, threatened to treat Johnson, the abducted American, as U.S. troops treated Iraqi prisoners — a reference to sexual and other abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

It showed Johnson’s passport and a Lockheed Martin business card bearing his name. The passport said Johnson was born in New Jersey. His son Paul Johnson III said his father moved to the kingdom in 1983 to work for Lockheed Martin.

The al Qaeda statement said Johnson is one of four experts in Saudi Arabia working on developing Apache attack helicopter systems.

“Everybody knows that these helicopters are used by the Americans, their Zionist allies and the apostates to kill Muslims, terrorizing them and displacing them in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq,” said the statement. It said al Qaeda would release a videotape later with Johnson’s confessions and its demands.

A car belonging to Johnson was found Saturday near Imam University, security officials said. Saudi press reports said the car was booby-trapped and later caught fire. The university is about 12 miles from the neighborhood where Scroggs was shot.

Lockheed Martin issued a statement confirmed that Johnson was missing. The U.S. Embassy said it was working with Saudi officials to find the kidnapped American.

Paul Johnson III, of Port St. John, Fla., asked the kidnappers to let his father go.

“He doesn’t deserve it. It’s not his fault he’s over there. It’s his job,” he said on NBC News.

The militant attacks against Westerners, government targets and economic interests in the kingdom have surged despite a high-profile campaign against terrorists the government began after suicide bombings last year.

Meanwhile, several Islamic Web sites were carrying links to a videotape – also purportedly from al Qaeda – that claims to show last Tuesday’s killing of Jacobs, 62, of Murphysboro, Ill., who worked for U.S. defense contractor Vinnell Corp.

The video, less than two minutes long, does not show any faces. It begins with men running in a garage and a voice yelling in English, “No, no, please!” A shot is fired, and the body of what appears to be a Western man falls to the ground. Two gunmen fire at least 10 more shots at the fallen man, then one kneels by his head and motions as if he is beheading him.