Steve Quayle News Alerts

May 16, 2002

KARACHI, Pakistan, — Three men who were arrested Thursday in the slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl have directed police to where they say his body is located, a senior police official said.

THE POLICE WERE en route to Orangi, on the western edge of Karachi, where they were told they would find Pearl’s body, an official said on condition of anonymity.
No further information was immediately available about the three new suspects.
Pearl was kidnapped Jan. 23 in the southern port city of Karachi, and a gruesome three-minute video was delivered to U.S. officials in Karachi a month later showing Pearl’s brutal death.
He was researching Pakistani extremists and their possible links to Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December on a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives in his shoes.

VIDEO SHOWN
Four Islamic radicals have been on trial since April 22 on charges of murder and kidnapping. They have pleaded innocent.
In court on Tuesday the suspects appeared unmoved as a graphic videotape of Pearl’s death was shown in court, according to defense lawyers, who challenged the tape as a “fake.”
The three-minute video — which includes footage of Pearl with his throat cut — was replayed in court three times, but the defendants were “calm” and “emotionless,” Bashir said. Prosecutors refused to comment on the reaction within the courtroom.
All four defendants have pleaded innocent to charges of kidnapping, murder and terrorism. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death. defense attorneys insisted that the tape was a fake and should not be admitted, but the judge dismissed defense objections.

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Jan. 23. His death was confirmed by videotape on Feb. 21.

1 / 5
Jan. 23
Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal’s South Asian bureau chief, disappears on his way to a meeting with Islamic extremists in Karachi. Pearl was investigating links between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, the alleged shoe bomber arrested on a Paris-to-Miami flight in December with explosives in his sneakers.
Jan. 27
The Wall Street Journal and other media receive an email from "The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty" containing a photo of Pearl. The group accuses Pearl of being a CIA spy and demands freedom for Pakistani detainees held in Cuba.
Jan. 28
In an email response, The Wall Street Journal asks for Pearl's release.
Jan. 30
A second email warns that Pearl will be killed within 24 hours. It is later extended to 48 hours. Sheik Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, the fundamentalist leader Pearl was scheduled to interview on the day of his disappearance, is arrested in Pakistan. Gilani denies involvement. 2 / 5
Jan. 31Secretary of State Colin Powell says that the U.S. will not negotiate.
Feb. 1CNN and Fox News receive emails claiming that Pearl is dead and his body could be found in a Karachi cemetary. The emails turn out to be hoaxes.
Feb. 4Pearl's wife, a French freelance journalist who is seven months pregnant, appeals for his freedom.
Feb. 6Pakistani police identify Ahmad Omark Saeed Sheikh, a British-born Islamic militant, as a prime suspect. 3 / 5
Feb. 7Three men are charged with sending the original emails; they claim the photos came from Saeed.
Feb. 12Saeed is arrested and flown to Karachi for questioning.
Feb. 13Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says he believes Pearl is still alive.
Feb. 14Saeed confesses to the kidnapping and says that Pearl is already dead. 4 / 5
Feb. 15Pakistan rejects Saeed's claim and predicts a breakthrough within 48 hours.
Feb. 19Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman says that investigations are going on with the "same intensity and vigor" as in the past.
Feb. 20WSJ executive Steven Goldstein says the company is hopeful that Pearl will be freed soon.
Feb. 21The U.S. embassy in Pakistan receives evidence that Pearl has been killed. 5 / 5
Feb. 27The U.S. State Department announces a $5 million reward for information leading to the apprehension of Pearl’s killers; Pakistani President Musharraf consoles the reporter’s widow at a meeting in Islamabad.

“As far as we were concerned, the video was manipulated. It was like watching a movie, like the ’X-Files’ or ’Pearl Harbor,”’ said Abdel Waheed Katpar, the lawyer for the chief suspect in Pearl’s killing, British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.
“The evidence on the clip shows that it’s not Pearl himself, but his picture that has been slashed. The smile remained on Pearl’s face despite his beheading,” Bashir said. “It is very easy to make such a video clip through computer graphics, as is commonly done by filmmakers.”
Six new witnesses are also expected to take the stand, including a senior police official, jail officials said on condition of anonymity.
CBS Dan Rather said the story was aired because the network believes it is important for Americans to see the impact of the propaganda war being waged against the United States.
But in a statement issued after the broadcast, Mariane Pearl and Pearl’s family, said that while Rather “attempts to rationalize the network’s heartless decision to air this despicable terrorist propaganda video, it is beyond our comprehension that any mother, wife, father or sister should have to relive this horrific tragedy and watch their loved one being repeatedly terrorized.”
CBS said it was careful not to air grisly portions of the video, showing instead the portion where Pearl was forced to say he was Jewish, using less than 30 seconds of the tape.
The family urged other television networks not to follow suit.
“Terrorists have made this video confident that the American media would broadcast it and thereby serve their exact purpose,” the Pearl family said.

Pearl’s death was confirmed by the videotape, delivered to U.S. officials on Feb. 21. The tape reportedly shows Pearl talking, then shows someone cutting his throat while Pearl is unconscious or already dead.
Through a dissident Saudi Arabian journalist, CBS News obtained a copy of a tape being distributed on the Internet that uses images of the video that confirmed Pearl’s death, said Jim Murphy, executive producer of the “CBS Evening News.”
Murphy said he believed it was necessary to show a portion of what is being seen in the Arab world in order to illustrate the story.
“I am not happy about doing the story because I know it upset people,” he said. “When I saw the tape, I said to myself, ‘these people are doing terrible and dangerous things that could affect me and my family.”
CBS received calls from Secretary of State Colin Powell’s office and the Justice Department urging the network not to air it, he said.
“The government called to tell us that what we were doing was helping to spread the terrorists’ word and I don’t think that’s the case,” Murphy said. “The word is already being spread. I don’t think it’s wrong to inform the American people about it.”

http://www.msnbc.com/news/747154.asp?0cm=c30