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Reporter Confirmed Dead by Feds
Friday, February 22, 2002
By Juan O. Tamayo
Knight Ridder Tribune

"Bashir Ahmad Shabbir" communicated with Pearl by telephone and e-mail for several days, then told him to meet with another man, Imtiaz Sidiqque, on Jan. 23 at a restaurant in Karachi. It was a trap. Pearl called his wife after the meeting to say he would be home by 7 p.m. It would be the last time she would hear from him.

Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal correspondent kidnapped in Pakistan last month as he investigated radical Muslims' links to international terrorist groups, is dead, the U.S. State Department said Thursday.

The U.S. Embassy in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad "has confirmed today that they have received evidence that ... Pearl is dead," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Boucher gave no details, but The Associated Press quoted two U.S. officials as saying the FBI had received a video showing Pearl's body. Pakistani media have reported he was killed during an escape attempt Jan. 31.

Pearl, a 38-year-old native of Princeton, N.J., became the ninth journalist killed while covering the U.S. war on terrorism. The others died in Afghanistan.

Pearl's wife, Mariane, is six months' pregnant with the couple's first child.

The publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Peter Kann, said Pearl's "murder is an act of barbarism that makes a mockery of everything Danny's kidnappers claimed to believe in. They claimed to be Pakistani nationalists, but their actions must surely bring shame on all true Pakistani patriots."

From Beijing, President Bush said: "Laura and I and the American people are deeply saddened to learn about the loss of Daniel Pearl's life. We are really sad for his wife and his parents and his friends and colleagues who have been clinging to hopes for weeks that he would be found alive."

In Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft extended his "heartfelt thoughts and prayers" to Pearl's family.

"Daniel Pearl's murder serves as a stark reminder that the face of terrorism is brutal and cruel," Ashcroft said in a prepared statement.

"Daniel Pearl devoted his life to the noble pursuit of informing our free and open society. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for his commitment to that freedom."

He pledged to "bring to justice terrorists who kill innocent Americans."

Boucher, at the state department, called the murder "an outrage" and said the U.S. and Pakistani governments "remain committed to identifying all the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice."

Apparently addressing speculation that Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence agency, long supportive of radical Muslims, had been less than helpful in investigating the kidnapping, Boucher added that Pakistani authorities "made every effort to locate and free Mr. Pearl."

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2002 © Knight Ridder Tribune.

Dan