Islamic website claims kidnap of American

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• published: 23 Jul 2015
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1. Wide shot of web page showing alleged American kidnap victim 2. Scroll down web page to close up of alleged victim's Identity Card 3. Scroll down second web page to ID card, then passport pages, then diving card STORYLINE: A purported al-Qaida statement claims the terror group has kidnapped an American in the Saudi capital, threatening to treat him as US troops treated Iraqi prisoners. The US Embassy said an American had gone missing on Saturday, but would not identify him. The al-Qaida statement, posted late on Saturday on a number of Islamic Web sites (including www.chatdubai.net/upload/Array/13a.gif & www.hostinganime.com/sout18/), showed a passport-size photo of a brown-haired man and a Lockheed Martin business card bearing the name Paul M Johnson. It said he was born in 1955. The mobile phone listed on the card was switched off and a call to a second phone number was picked up by a voicemail message by a deep-voiced man who identified himself as Paul Johnson. The statement said the terror group would deal with Johnson 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 US troops. Earlier on Saturday, American Kenneth Scroggs was shot and killed, according to the US embassy. Witnesses told The Associated Press that he was shot in the back by three militants as he drove his car into the garage in Riyadh's Malaz district. They said the militants then moved in and fired more shots from a short distance. The slaying and apparent abduction were the latest attacks in a campaign of anti-Western violence in the kingdom, believed by many to be aimed at driving out foreigners as a way to sabotage the vital Saudi oil sector. The al-Qaida statement said Johnson was one of four experts in Saudi Arabia working on developing Apache helicopter systems and that the American killed worked in the same industry. It did not identify the slain American but said he was killed at his house. It said al-Qaida would release a videotape later to show Johnson's confessions and list its demands. A Lockheed Martin spokesman confirmed that Johnson was a Lockheed employee but declined to say what his job was. The spokesman also said Lockheed Martin was not aware of any employees who had been killed in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi security source told The Associated Press that Scroggs worked for Advanced Electronics Company, a Saudi firm whose Web site lists Lockheed Martin among its customers. The office number on Johnson's business card was for Advanced Electronics. The statement was signed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the same group that claimed responsibility for a shooting and hostage-taking spree in the eastern Saudi city of Khobar on May 29-30. The attack at the hub of the Saudi oil industry killed 22 people, mostly foreign workers. An estimated 8.8 million foreigners work among 17 million Saudis in the kingdom, mostly in the oil sector, banking and other high-level businesses. Militant attacks against Westerners, government targets and economic interests in the Saudi kingdom have surged in the past two months, despite a high-profile campaign against terrorists the government began after suicide bombings last year. The United States has urged all its citizens to leave the kingdom, and the British Foreign Office has advised Britons against all nonessential travel to Saudi Arabia. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b1f491cc654305c44fb787f0ea253efb Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork