RIYADH, 24 July 2004 — The US Embassy here confirmed that the severed head found by the Saudi security forces Wednesday during a raid that targeted the Saudi Al-Qaeda chief, was that of the slain American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr. The whereabouts of his body still remains unknown.
Police made the gruesome discovery of Johnson’s head wrapped in polythene and stashed in a refrigerator alongside bundles of food during the biggest security operation seen in the Kingdom against militants.
Johnson was abducted on June 12 and beheaded on June 18. The group claiming responsibility of Johnson’s killing posted an Internet message that showed grisly photographs of a beheaded body and subsequently the video of the beheading.
“Embassy officials have identified the severed head as that of Paul Johnson,” Carol Kalin, the spokeswoman for the US Embassy said. Asked whether the partial remains of Johnson would be repatriated, she added that with due respects to the bereaved family, the mission will not reveal any further details on this matter. Kalin further clarified that a death certificate will be issued by the mission in due course.
The discovery of Johnson’s head came barely a week after his family was told that the FBI and local security agencies had given up hope of discovering his remains.
According to the US Embassy, at the invitation of the Saudi authorities, a team of FBI special agents and experts arrived in Riyadh to work on the Johnson and Scroggs cases shortly after June 12. Drawn from throughout the United States, they included members of the Critical Incident Response Group, which deals with hostage situations. After the US Embassy confirmed Johnson’s death on June 18, additional FBI personnel were dispatched. The intensive three-week search for his body in and around Riyadh was conducted with the help of a Human Remains Detection K-9 unit, commonly known as a “cadaver dog” team.
Kalin said the bulk of the FBI personnel who came to Saudi Arabia to participate in the Johnson investigation had returned to the US.
Hours before Saudi security forces stormed the home of a terror suspect and recovered the head, Wayne Johnson, Paul Johnson’s brother, was arrested outside the Saudi Embassy in Washington. He was protesting the lack of information coming from the Saudi government.
“I wanted them to know I was serious about getting the answers, and if it took me getting arrested so be it,” Wayne Johnson said. Johnson said he will keep demanding answers until the rest of his brother’s remains was found.
Johnson, 49, who grew up in Eagleswood Township, New Jersey, was an engineer working on Apache helicopters for Lockheed Martin, the US defense contractor. He had lived in Saudi Arabia for about 10 years.
