The Islamic fanatics who butchered P@ul J0hnson made no secret of their intentions, publishing an article on the internet two months ago that predicted today’s events: Article Details Blueprint for Hostage-Taking.

June 18, 2004 — The self-described al Qaeda leader who threatened to kill an American hostage in Saudi Arabia allegedly wrote an article detailing why it’s important to kill hostages if the deadline is delayed.

“Start to kill the hostages if there is any procrastination, so that the enemy knows that we are serious about what we say, which would give the group credibility,” advised the author of the chilling article, obtained by ABC News, that detailed the rules of hostage-taking.

The article, published on the Internet two months ago, was attributed to Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, who is believed to lead al Qaeda operations in Saudi Arabia and is well known to Saudi officials as a ruthless man.

But Saudi officials say there have been no negotiations with him or the other captors of Paul Johnson, a Lockheed-Martin radar engineer who has lived in Saudi Arabia for 10 years, and that the outlook is grim.

In a video and statement posted Tuesday on the Internet, Johnson’s captors threatened to kill him if al Qaeda prisoners in Saudi Arabia were not released within 72 hours. The speaker on the video identified himself as al-Moqrin. The 72 hours ends sometime today, but the kidnappers did not specify what time the countdown began or when it ends. Johnson was kidnapped Saturday by a group calling itself “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”

Among the purposes of hostage-taking, the author of the article wrote, is to “force the government or the enemy to submit to some demands,” and “to embarrass the government politically in front of the country of those who were kidnapped.”

The article also advised that governments usually don’t submit to kidnappers’ demands, and if they do submit to one of the demands, “it is probably a trick.” It is forbidden to lengthen the hostage-taking time, “because the ability of the team is then weakened and the tension increases, while the security efforts increase.”