Daniel Pearl

Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1,2002) was a journalist who garnered international concern when he was kidnapped (and eventually murdered) in Karachi, Pakistan. Pearl was investigating the case of Richard Reid, links between Al Qaeda and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and $100,000 wired to September 11 chief operative Mohammed Atta's account in the US by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, following instructions by Pakistani General Mahmoud Ahmad — the ISI director general at the time.

His life

Daniel Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and grew up in Encino in Los Angeles, California where he attended Portola Middle School and Birmingham High School. His father, Judea Pearl, is a professor at UCLA. His mother, an Iraqi Jew, is named Ruth. Danny, as he was known throughout his life, attended Stanford University from 1981 to 1985, where he stood out as a communication major with Phi Beta Kappa honors and co-founded a student newspaper called the Stanford Commentary. Pearl graduated Stanford with a B.A. in Communications, after which he spent a summer as a Pulliam Fellow intern at the Indianapolis Star and a winter bussing tables as a ski bum in Idaho. Following a trip to the then-Soviet Union, China, and Europe, he joined the North Adams Transcript and the Berkshire Eagle in Western Massachusetts, then moved on to the San Francisco Business Times.

In 1990, Pearl started in the Wall Street Journal's Atlanta bureau and moved to the Washington, DC bureau in 1993 to cover telecommunications. He jumped to the Journal's London bureau in 1996 as a Middle East correspondent, before meeting his wife-to-be Mariane in 1998 and resettling in Paris. The two were married in 1999. The couple relocated to Mumbai in 2000, where Pearl became the Journal's South Asia bureau chief. He was best known for writing "A-heads", colorful and unusual feature articles printed down the middle of the Journal's front page — such as the October 1994 story of a Stradivarius violin allegedly found on a highway on-ramp, and a June 2000 story about Iranian pop music.

His death

On January 23, 2002, on his way to an interview with a supposed terrorist leader, Pearl was kidnapped by a militant group calling itself The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty. This group claimed Pearl was a spy, and â€" using the e-mail address kidnapperguy@hotmail.com â€" sent the United States a range of demands, including the freeing of all Pakistani terror detainees, and the release of a halted U.S. shipment of F-16 fighter jets to the Pakistani government.

The message read:

We give u one more day if America will not meet our demands we will kill Daniel. Then this cycle will continue and no American journalist could enter Pakistan.

Photos of Pearl handcuffed with a gun at his head and holding up a newspaper were attached. There was no response to pleas from Pearl's editor, and from his wife Mariane who was pregnant with their first child.

Six days later, Pearl was murdered by having his throat slit. The men later severed his head. Pearl's body was found in a shallow grave in the outskirts of Karachi on May 16. His body was brought home to the United States and he was interred in the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

The Daniel Pearl video

On February 21, 2003, a videotape titled "The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl" was released. The video shows Pearl's destroyed body and lasts for about three minutes and thirty-six seconds.

The first part of the video shows Pearl stating his captors' demands. A caption in Arabic is shown along the way. Pictures of dead Muslims and similar scenes are superimposed around the image of Pearl. Other images shown are those of United States President George W. Bush shaking hands with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Pearl never says on the video that he is a spy for Israel.

The English transcript of the text reads [sic]¹:

NATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR THE RESTORATION OF PAKISTAN SOVEREIGNTY (NMRPS)
:We still demand the following:
:- The immediate release of U.S. held prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
:- The return of Pakistani prisoners to Pakistan.
:- The immediate end of U.S. presence in Pakistan.
:- The delivery of F-16 planes that Pakistan had paid for and never received.
:We assure Americans that they shall never be safe on the Muslim Land of Pakistan.
:And if our demands are not met this scene shall be repeated again and again....

The video made its way to the Pakistani and United States governments. A jihadist site leaked the video onto the Internet.

Arrests

Three suspects were caught after the e-mail addresses that sent the ransom e-mail were traced by the FBI.

On March 21, 2002, in Pakistan, British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other suspects were charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and execution of Daniel Pearl. They were convicted on July 15, 2002 and Sheikh was sentenced to death. During the trial, Sheikh, the mastermind of the kidnapping, told investigators he had kidnapped Pearl to "strike a blow at the United States and embarrass the Pakistani government." Another of the suspects said Pearl had been targeted "because he was a Jew working against Islam."

The U.S. Government believes that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed conspired in the kidnapping.

Controversy

During Pearl's kidnapping, his relatives attempted to conceal his parents' Israeli citizenship, fearing that revealing this would hinder the investigation efforts due to widespread anti-Israeli sentiment in Pakistan. These details were leaked by Haaretz newspaper in Israel. He also happens to be half Iraqi. [1]

Aftermath

A collection of Pearl's writings was published posthumously in 2002.

The Daniel Pearl Foundation [2] was formed by Pearl's family and friends to continue Pearl's mission and to address the root causes of this tragedy, in the spirit, style, and principles that shaped Pearl's work and character. These principles include uncompromised objectivity and integrity; insightful and unconventional perspective; tolerance and respect for people of all cultures; unshaken belief in the effectiveness of education and communication; and the love of music, humor, and friendship. Daniel Pearl Music Days have been held worldwide since 2002.

On September 1st, 2003 a book entitled Who Killed Daniel Pearl [3] was published, written by Bernard Henri Levy. This book is now being adapted into a film directed by Edward Zwick and starring Josh Lucas focusing on the last few mysterious days of Daniel Pearl's life [4].

Pearl's widow, Mariane Pearl, wrote A Mighty Heart [5] which tells the full story of Pearl and more about his life. This is now also being adapted into a movie starring Angelina Jolie. [6].

Mariane Pearl filed to receive compensation for her husband's death from the September 11th victims' fund. Her claim was formally rejected by fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg in 2004. Feinberg issued a statement explaining that the fund's charter limited beneficiaries to relatives of those who died at the three attack sites. On March 31, 2004 [7], Mariane Pearl formally appealed the decision.

References in popular culture

In their 2003 album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, the hip-hop band Outkast mentions Daniel in the song "War"

on the Operation Anaconda - ask yourself
was it full of bleeps and blunders, did they ever find Osama?
And why in the fuck did Daniel Pearl have to pay the price
for his life and his wife plead twice?
[8]

External links

* Asia Times – Who killed Daniel Pearl?
* South Asian Journalists Association Roundup
* Wall Street Journal selection of stories by Daniel Pearl
* Daniel Pearl Foundation
* About Pearl's dual citizenship
* Possible explanation of Pearl's execution: The Guardian: "The Pakistan connection"

Daniel Pearl: Encyclopedia BETA

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