Pearl, Daniel (1963–2002)

Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was investigating terrorist groups in Pakistan when he was kidnapped and later murdered by Islamic extremists.

Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1963. He began his career as a journalist at a string of regional East Coast papers, joining The Wall Street Journal in 1990. As a foreign correspondent for the Journal, Pearl filed many stories about the Middle East, writing about pearl divers in the Persian Gulf and describing how Osama bin Laden used the gem trade to finance his military activities. Taking on the post of South Asia bureau chief for the Journal in 2000, he moved to Bombay with his wife, Mariane.

At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl was in Karachi researching the links between bin Laden's al Qaeda network and Richard Reid, the so-called shoe-bomber. Reid, a British-born Islamic militant, was arrested in December 2001 aboard a Paris-Miami flight for allegedly trying to ignite explosive materials concealed in the heels of his sneakers. On January 23, 2002, Pearl went to meet with contacts who had promised to arrange a meeting with radical Islamic leader Sheikh Mubarak (Shah) Ali Gilani. Pearl was never seen alive again.

A previously unknown group, the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, had abducted Pearl. The group sent emails to various news agencies calling for the release of Pakistani prisoners among the Taliban and al Qaeda detainees held at the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The emails included attached photos of Pearl in chains and with a gun to his head. The group, reportedly linked to the outlawed Pakistani group Jaish-e-Mohammed, threatened to kill Pearl and accused him of being a spy for the United States and for the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency.

Pearl was confirmed dead by the U.S. State Department on February 22, 2002, after a Pakistan-based journalist obtained a videocassette showing Pearl being murdered (he was decapitated) and brought it to the U.S. embassy in Pakistan. His body was discovered that May. Pearl was survived by his wife, who was seven months pregnant at the time of his death. In his memory, Pearl's family set up the Daniel Pearl Foundation to combat cultural and religious hatred.

Ten days before Pearl's death became known, Pakistani officials arrested British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and later accused him of masterminding the kidnapping. According to press reports, Pakistani police had also detained Gilani after Pearl's disappearance but released him because they found nothing to connect him with the incident. During the spring of 2002, a special anti-terrorism court in Pakistan put Sheikh, Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem, and Sheikh Mohammed Adeel on trial for Pearl's murder; all four pleaded not guilty. The prosecution detailed how the terrorists had trapped Pearl—the kidnappers pretended to be arranging interviews for him but instead plotted his abduction. The press and public were banned from the trial, which was first held inside the central jail of the port city of Karachi and then moved 100 miles inland for security. A Pakistani journalist who helped Pearl in his attempts to set up an interview with Gilani identified Sheikh as the man who (using the pseudonym Chaudry Bashir) met with the two journalists and promised to arrange the interview.

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