al-Qaida Head Justifies Targeting Johnson

[hightime]

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - 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 gunbattle with Saudi security forces.

In an article posted Sunday on a Web site used by Islamic radicals, Abdulaziz al-Moqrin called Johnson "an infidel, a warrior of the military."

Johnson, who had worked on Apache helicopters for Lockheed Martin in Saudi Arabia, "works for military aviation and he belongs to the American army, which kills, tortures and harms Muslims everywhere, which supports enemies (of Islam) in Palestine, Philippines, Kashmir," al-Moqrin wrote.

The article, posted on the Web site "Sout al-Jihad," or "Voice of Holy War," was written after the kidnapping but apparently before Johnson was killed on Friday.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040620/D83AQBTG0.html

[Lefty48197]

1. Can we please get back to fighting al Qaeda

and stop the senseless Bush family feud with Saddam?

[mzmolly]

2. Racism knows no boundaries. They have the same mentality as

many Nazi/Racist thugs in America chanting "kill the rag-heads." *sigh*

[tedzbear]

3. al-Qaeda does have a point IMHO.

Johnson was employed in the service of Saudi Arabia's USA supported war machine (used to crack down on domestic rebellion). Using the logic of Cheney and Bush, one can easily say Johnson is part of the USA/Saudi military team, hence he is a legitimate target. To say otherwise would be hypocritical in the extreme.

:kick:

[skooooo]

4. Frankly, I don't blame them for hating us...

While I condemn the killing on both sides, I don't see where we have any moral highground at all.

[0007]

13. If we did have moral high ground we lost it a long time ago.

[bullimiami]

5. Agreed. Also this fact makes me wonder about Berg...

The Iraqi and now Saudi insurgents seem to have made an attempt to seperate combatants from non-combatants. Many captives have been released because they were either press or medical or non-political.

Johnson would have been seen as military support.

What about Nick Berg?
If he was just a freelance radio infrastructure repair tech. Would he not have been seen as non-political and thus released?
Along with the video evidence and the facts of US holding him and lying about it this bolsters the question of him being killed by non-arabs.

[tedzbear]

6. I don't think al-Qaeda saw Berg as a non-combatant.

Berg was an American carpetbagger cashing in on the privatizing of Iraq's infrastructure. He was feeding at the trough of the victor's winnings and therefore was part of the Coalition team.

One must use the same logic to support the views of both sides in a dispute, otherwise it's not fair.

:kick:

[mzmolly]

9. I support neither side of this dispute.

:(

[stickdog]

10. al-Qaeda almost certainly had nothing to do with Berg's killing.

It appears (so far) that Johnson may have been an actual al Qaeda victim, but that is also far from certain.

[FloridaPat]

7. From the evidence, it looks like the Berg was killed by US.

Looks like he was killed in the prison. Same chairs, same clothing, same walls. A frame by frame view shows an US military cap and head sneak into the frame. And there is some English being spoken.

Things are so bad now, that I have to wonder about all of them. Like, who is really behind them.

Yes, I think the US killed Berg and beheaded him later for propaganda purposes. I don't understand why al Qaida would kidnap ONE person, and demand release of prisoners. They knew it would never work. This is right after they had all those hostages and walked away clean right in front of everyone's noses. Then this guy gets kidnapped and they kill 4 of them in a shoot out?

[mzmolly]

8. You said it *using the logic of Bush* ... Bush isn't quite logical.

Neither are these racist murderers.

I excuse neither.

[slackmaster]

11. "Head"

I see you haven't lost your subtle sense of humor, hightime.

:evilgrin:

[Wednesdays]

12. Yeah right.

"...in a message written before he himself was killed in a gunbattle with Saudi security forces."

Yeah, they found the message in his hip pocket, along with details about the 9-11 attack, and the anthrax attacks, and plans to tunnel into Fort Knox.

Wait, no, it wasn't his hip pocket. They found them in the trunk of a car at Logan Airport...