OT: The World Condems Islamic Terrorist Atrocities

June 22, 2004

Hi Melissa,

I know little more about this than do other folks on the list.

> Hey Butch, and anyone else who may know,

> What kind of light can you shed on this murder of Paul Johnson? How are

> the Saudi people responding?

The Saudi people are upset .. of course. Generally speaking, they are

average folks like you and I .. they just live under a strict regime.

The Saudi government .. I think its clear that the House of Saud is

concerned due to bad press and the fact that al-Qaida's ultimate goal is

to destroy the Saudi government, control the oil fields and deny oil to

the West. They have made these goals clear in more than one statement.

I believe the Saudis are doing their best now .. but they should have

started a few years earlier .. there is a story here might interest you.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1107 & idq=/ff/story/0001%2\

F20040619%2F0558929110.htm & sc=1107 & photoid=20040618NY120

> Thanks and BE SAFE!

> Melissa

Thank you .. that's my plan. Going under from lead poisoning or being

in the wrong place when a bomb goes off is bad enough but decapitation

is not the way I wanna go under.

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch

--------------

World Leaders Condemn Hostage Slaying

World governments condemned the beheading of an American engineer by an

al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia, while one Islamic leader in Indonesia

predicted more killings of the kind unless the United States changes its

approach toward the Middle East.

Irfan Awwas, chairman of the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia, a radical

Islamic group, said that to avoid more such attacks, the United States

should leave Iraq and Afghanistan and stop Israeli violence against

Palestinians.

" The killing of innocent people is wrong, " Awwas said. " But it is a

result of the United States policies in the Middle East. "

Moderate Islamic leaders in Indonesia, however, said Johnson's death

would do little to change U.S. policy.

" This will only create more violence and won't solve the problem. It

will only strengthen the American resolve, " said Azyumardi Azra, a

Muslim scholar at the National Islamic University in Jakarta.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has faced a growing

threat from radical religious groups, including the al-Qaida-linked

Jemaah Islamiyah. The group is blamed for the Oct. 12, 2002, bombings

that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, on Indonesia's Bali island.

Johnson, 49, an engineer who had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than a

decade, was kidnapped last weekend by militants who followed through on

a threat to kill him by Friday if the Saudi kingdom did not release its

al-Qaida prisoners. An al-Qaida group claiming responsibility posted an

Internet message that showed grisly photographs of a beheaded body Friday.

A top Saudi Arabian official expressed his country's remorse for

Johnson's killing and promised to find and punish those responsible.

" We did everything we could to find him, " Adel al-Jubeir, foreign

affairs adviser Crown Prince Abdullah, said in Washington. " We are

deeply sorry that it was not enough. "

Jordan issued a statement condemning the " barbaric act " and calling for

those responsible to the brought to justice.

" Such heinous acts of terror do not represent the true values of Islam

which is based on tolerance, compassion and peaceful coexistence, " the

statement said.

President Bush called the killers " militants thugs " and British Prime

Minister Tony Blair said the slaying was " an act of barbarism. "

French President Jacques Chirac said he was " horrified " by Johnson's

killing, which he described as beastly and inhuman.

" I can only express the shame that we all feel faced with the behavior

coming from human beings of this nature, " Chirac said Friday at a summit

of European Union leaders in Brussels.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called the slaying an " evil act

without any conceivable justification. "

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said " these kinds of brutal acts do

not help anybody. "

" My sympathies go to his family and loved, and I hope the perpetrators

would eventually be brought to justice because we cannot tolerate this

kind of behavior in today's world, " he said at the U.N. headquarters in

New York.

In Thailand, leaders expressed sympathy for Johnson's Thai wife Thanom,

who issued a tearful, televised plea to her husband's captors on the eve

of his execution.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch called Johnson's slaying " a

heinous crime that no political cause can justify. "

06/19/04 04:49

contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or

otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The

Associated Press.

June 23, 2004

Butch,

I really appriecate how you keep us up to date and informed on what is going on

over there. I am deeply disturbed by all of these attacks. What I'm wondering

is if the world pulled out now what would happen to all of us(I'm sure they

would think that they won)? Would we live in fear of the terrorist for the rest

of our lives? Could the country (Iraq) become capable of working with the world

market or would some other mad man undo everything we are trying to help their

people with? I really don't want to be at war with people who value life so

little as to put the inocents at risk. One of the talk radio people I listen to

(and I'm beginning to agree with him) says " Why should we follow the rules of

war when these terrorists don't? Shouldn't we just fight the way they fight. "

I guess we should just start kidnapping their leadership and start beheading

them. Sorry, I'm not a blood thirsty person but these terrorists make me feel

this way. Kathy

-

Butch Owen

6/21/2004 8:03:28 PM