Daniel Pearl

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For other persons named Daniel Pearl, see Daniel Pearl (disambiguation).
Daniel Pearl
Born October 10, 1963
Princeton, New Jersey
Died February 1, 2002
Karachi, Pakistan
Occupation Journalist

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.

Contents

[edit] 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, penning articles 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.

Later, Daniel met and married his wife Mariane. Their son, Adam D. Pearl was born May 28, 2002, four months after Daniel's death.

[edit] 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 CIA agent and — using the e-mail address kidnapperguy@hotmail.com[1] — 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 you 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.

Nine days later, Pearl was decapitated. Pearl's body was found cut into ten pieces and buried 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.

[edit] The Daniel Pearl video

Daniel Pearl, in "The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl" video
Enlarge
Daniel Pearl, in "The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl" video

On February 21, 2002, a videotape titled "The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl" was released. The video shows Pearl's mutilated body and lasts 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.

On the image to the right, the text in Arabic reads: My name is (Daniel Pearl), I am a Jewish-American.

Published reports say that a technical error prevents the first slashing of Pearl's throat from being captured on film. In the video, Pearl's body is shown naked from the waist up with his throat slit at about 1 minute and 55 seconds into the video. A man then cuts his head off. A few more images, such as captives held at Guantanamo Bay, are shown near the image of Pearl's head. The last 90 seconds of the video show the list of demands scrolling, superimposed on an image of Pearl's severed head being held by the hair.

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.

[edit] 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, Pakistan-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other suspects were charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and murder 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."[1]

[edit] 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.[citation needed][2]

[edit] Aftermath

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

The Daniel Pearl Foundation [3] was formed by Pearl's family and friends to continue Pearl's mission and to address what they consider the root causes of his death, in the spirit, style, and principles that shaped Pearl's work and character. The principles cited 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.

Pearl's widow, Mariane Pearl, wrote the memoir A Mighty Heart [4] which tells the full story of Pearl and more about his life. This is now being adapted into a film starring Angelina Jolie and Dan Futterman. [5].

On September 1st, 2003, a book titled Who Killed Daniel Pearl? [6] was published, written by Bernard-Henri Lévy. The book, which the author characterized as an "investigative novel" (for citation, see the references linked later in this paragraph), stirred controversy for some of its speculative conclusions about the killing, and for some of its characterizations of Pakistan, and for the author's decision to engage in an exercise of fictionalizing Pearl's thoughts at the end of his life. Here are two examples of this criticism [7] [8] and two examples of the author's response [9] [10]. This book is being adapted into a film directed by Tod Williams and starring Josh Lucas focusing on the last few days of Daniel Pearl's life [11].

HBO Films produced a 79-minute documentary titled "The Journalist and the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl." It premiered on HBO on October 10, 2006. The documentary chronicles Pearl's life and death, and features extensive interviews with his immediate family. It is narrated by Christiane Amanpour.

[edit] 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?
[12]

Australian band, The Drones mention Daniel in the first track of their 2006 album, Gala Mill, Jezabel.

Yeah, Dan Pearl
They cut your head off on TV
But I am not a camera
A man is not an effigy

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Daniel Pearl", The Herald (Glasgow), Scottish Media Newspapers Limited, 2002-02-25, p. 14. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
  • Peter Popham. "Video Reveals the Hideous Sacrifice of Captive Reporter; Pearl murder gruesome tape shows American speaking into camera as unknown killer slits his throat, then beheads him", The Independent (London), Newspaper Publishing PLC, 2002-02-23, p. 2. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
  • Timothy J. Burger. "Kidnappers Cut Pearl's Throat Videotape Shows Newsman's Brutal Slaying", Daily News (New York), Daily News, L.P., 2002-02-22, p. 3. Retrieved on 2006-11-17. - 'Fahad Naseem, one of the three militants accused of kidnapping Pearl, told a judge in Karachi yesterday that Pearl was kidnapped because he was "a Jew and is working against Islam."'
  • Salman Masood, Talat Hussain. "Suspect in Reporter's Death Is Wanted in Attacks on Musharraf", The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 2004-05-29, p. Section A; Column 3; Foreign Desk; Pg. 2. Retrieved on 2006-11-17. - 'The intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that information from American intelligence agencies helped Pakistani investigators track down the ring involved in the plot. Information from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Al Qaeda's former head of operations who was captured in March 2002, aided the investigation, he said. American officials say they believe that Mr. Mohammed was the person who actually killed Mr. Pearl.'

[edit] See also

[edit] Decapitation


[edit] Further reading


[edit] External links

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