Report: U.S. hostage beheaded Al Arabiya says new video shows killing Friday, June 18, 2004 Posted: 1:38 PM EDT (1738 GMT) (CNN) -- An Arabic TV news network said Friday that American hostage Paul Johnson Jr. has been beheaded by his Saudi captors. Al Arabiya said its bureau chief had been shown the video of the killing. Earlier Friday, Al Arabiya had aired an emotional statement from the wife of Johnson. Johnson's wife, Noom, who is Thai, said she hoped the Saudi government "can help my husband." U.S. and Saudi investigators concluded an intensive meeting Friday, Saudi officials said, as security forces spread all over the kingdom searching for Johnson. Johnson, 49, a Lockheed Martin Corp. employee, had been kidnapped Saturday in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. He helped maintain U.S.-built Apache helicopter gunships for the Saudi military. Johnson's captors had threatened to kill him by Friday unless the Saudi government releases al Qaeda prisoners and Westerners leave the Arabian Peninsula. Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin , the self-proclaimed military leader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, claimed responsibility for Johnson's kidnapping and the death of another American on the same day on behalf of a group called the Al Falluja Squadron, which says it has ties to al Qaeda. The State Department has urged all Americans to leave Saudi Arabia, but Johnson's sister, Donna Mayeux, said her brother "always felt safe in Saudi Arabia." "My brother is an honorable man," she said. "He has always treated people with dignity and respect."
