Saudi public celebrates death of al Qaeda ops

Christian Science Monitor:

The kidnapping and beheading of American Paul Johnson Jr. marks a turning point in Saudi public opinion against his Al Qaeda slayers.

Celebrations broke out at the news Friday night that Abdelaziz al-Miqrin, the man responsible for Johnson's death, had been killed. It was the first time in the kingdom's 13-month fight against terrorism that ordinary citizens expressed spontaneous joy at security forces' success.

...

Still, the grisly nature of the Al Qaeda cell's latest attacks seem to have lost them significant support in the kingdom.

In attacks in Yanbu and Khobar last month, two Westerners were dragged behind cars through the streets. In the housing compound in Khobar, Muslims were spared and Christians were slaughtered. And the public's awareness of Johnson's decade in the kingdom and his sympathy toward Islam - as well as an appeal by a Saudi colleague praising him as a good man - made his violent death particularly distasteful.

"There was general shame at what was happening, a collective feeling of guilt that innocent foreigners that had come to our country not to kill us, but to work, were abused here," says Mr. Dakheel.

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