Kidnapped Reporter Is Dead

Tape Relayed to U.S. in Pakistan Said to Show American's Execution

Paul Steiger, Managing Editor for the Wall Street Journal, makes a statement confirming the death of reporter Daniel Pearl. (AP)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 21 -- Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was abducted a month ago while investigating Islamic militants, has been killed by his captors, the newspaper and officials in the United States and Pakistan said today.

The announcement was made after a videotape containing grisly footage of Pearl being executed was delivered to authorities in Pakistan and relayed to the U.S. consulate in Karachi, according to U.S. and Pakistani sources close to the investigation. Pearl's body has not been found, but authorities said they believed the videotape was authentic.

However, much remains unknown about Pearl's fate. The full scope of who was involved in the kidnapping has not been established. It is not known when he was killed or under what circumstances. Pakistani investigators had detained several suspects but in recent days appeared to be making little progress.

The videotape left no doubt that Pearl was killed, according to the sources familiar with it. The videotape shows Pearl speaking with someone, almost as if he were conducting an interview, when suddenly an unseen assailant takes a knife to his throat, according to a Pakistani source. The tape includes no date, no audio and no faces other than Pearl's, the source said. A man claiming to be a journalist delivered the tape to police in Sindh province, according to a U.S. source.

"All Americans are sad and angry to learn of the murder," President Bush said in Beijing shortly after he was informed of Pearl's death. Linking the killing to the war on terrorism, Bush, who is on a state visit to China, added, "Those who would threaten Americans, those who would engage in criminal, barbaric acts need to know that these crimes only hurt their cause, and only deepen the resolve of the United States of America to rid the world of these agents of terror."

"We are heartbroken at his death," said the Journal's publisher, Peter Kann. "Danny was an outstanding colleague, a great reporter, and a dear friend of many at the Journal. His 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 to all true Pakistani patriots."

Pearl, 38, who was the Journal's South Asia bureau chief, disappeared Jan. 23 after going to a restaurant in the port city of Karachi in southern Pakistan to meet with intermediaries he hoped would arrange an interview with an Islamic cleric. Pearl was investigating links between Pakistani extremists and Richard C. Reid, the British citizen accused of trying to blow up a commercial airliner over the Atlantic Ocean with explosives hidden in his sneakers.

Soon after Pearl disappeared, his kidnappers sent two e-mail messages to news organizations in which they claimed to have taken Pearl because he was a CIA agent. The messages included photographs showing Pearl with a handgun held to his head. The e-mails issued a series of demands, including the release of Pakistani prisoners held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Journal and the CIA denied that Pearl worked for the government. In the second e-mail, the kidnappers said they understood Pearl did not work for the CIA but linked him to Israeli intelligence, an allegation also denied by the Journal.

Police arrested a prominent Islamic militant, Sheik Omar Saeed, who spent five years in an Indian prison for kidnapping four Westerners before being released in 1999 as part of a deal with airplane hijackers. Saeed admitted involvement in the Pearl kidnapping, saying he wanted to show that Pakistan should not cater to American needs.

In open court, Saeed said last week that he believed Pearl was dead, but Pakistani officials publicly cast doubt on his statement. Sources said last week that Saeed told interrogators privately that he believed Pearl was killed Jan. 31. He said he learned of the death on Feb. 5, when he called accomplices who had been holding him.

Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, ordered security forces to apprehend "each and every one of the gang of terrorists" involved in Pearl's killing.

Pearl's death could prove to be an embarrassment for Musharraf, who has vowed to crack down on Islamic extremism. The abduction has been the top issue in Pakistan for weeks and was a prominent topic last week during Musharraf's first visit to Washington, where he told Bush that he believed Pearl would soon be rescued.

The case further underscored the volatile political situation in Pakistan, where Musharraf has made a dramatic 180-degree turnabout in policy following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

After years of supporting the Taliban movement in neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan sided with the U.S.-led war against terrorism. At a time of tension with arch-rival India, Musharraf also promised to rein in Pakistani militants operating in the disputed region of Kashmir. The Pearl kidnapping and murder may heighten doubts about whether Musharraf can carry out his pledges.

Pearl was the ninth foreign correspondent to die violently since the United States began bombing Afghanistan last fall, but he was the first American and the first known to have been targeted specifically because he was a reporter. The others all were killed by hostile fire during fighting in Afghanistan, or by bandits in lawless areas of that country. A minor suspect in the case reportedly said in a courtroom in Karachi on Thursday that Pearl was targeted in part because he was "anti-Islam and a Jew."

Pearl's wife, Mariane, a French journalist who is seven months pregnant with their first child, had remained in Karachi and issued several public pleas to kidnappers to release her husband unharmed, even offering to trade places with him. She learned two days after her husband was seized that her unborn baby was a boy. Pearl had told colleagues that he would not travel into Afghanistan to cover the war because he did not want to take such chances with a child on the way.

Pearl's parents and two sisters said in a statement today that until a few hours earlier, they had held out hope that Pearl remained alive and described his family as shocked by the turn of events. "Danny was walking sunshine of truth, humor, friendship and compassion," said Gary Foster, a family spokesman. "We grieve with the many who have known him in his life and we weep for a world that must reckon with his death."

The development stirred outrage in Washington. "Daniel Pearl was a public servant in the truest sense," said House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). "This is a true American tragedy."

"This is an act of base criminality fueled by mindless hatred that served no cause and wounds all of humanity," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). "The task of bringing to justice those responsible for this must proceed with all diligence until we succeed."

Musharraf has previously given conflicting interpretations of the roots of the abduction. In an interview with The Washington Post before heading to Washington, he blamed the crime on agents linked to India, even though Saeed was one of the best-known fighters against Indian rule in Kashmir. Then, in Washington, Musharraf suggested the kidnapping was part of a backlash against his recent campaign to curb Islamic extremism.

Yet questions have persisted about the possible role of elements in Musharraf's government, where dissent against his policies lingers. One man detained by the police was a member of a police intelligence unit. Two former officers of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency were also questioned.

The strange circumstances of Saeed's detention likewise raised questions. Pakistani authorities announced he had been arrested on Feb. 12, just as Musharraf was arriving in Washington for his meeting with Bush at the White House. But Saeed disclosed in court that he had turned himself in a week earlier, on Feb. 5. Sources said Saeed surrendered to Ejaz Shah, the home secretary in Punjab province, who took him to people described only as "non-police officials," who decided to hold back the announcement of his surrender until Musharraf reached Washington.

Bush and U.S. officials, however, credited Pakistani authorities with making what the State Department called "every effort" to find and save Pearl. FBI agents worked with Pakistani police, and the U.S. government provided the intelligence that helped determine where the kidnappers' e-mail had originated, leading to the arrests of the first suspects.

"Both the United States and Pakistan are committed to identifying all the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice," the State Department said.

News of Pearl's death followed an announcement Wednesday by the Bush administration that it is considering a new policy to take action to help free any American held hostage overseas, instead of just those who are U.S. officials. Options could include military strikes or direct contact with kidnappers, but not negotiations over demands, officials said. Administration officials said they had been considering the policy before the Pearl case.

Pearl's abduction appeared to be a methodically plotted operation involving weeks of interactions, false identities, e-mail and mobile telephones. Saeed, a native of Britain affiliated with the Jaish-i-Muhammad terrorist group fighting India's rule in Kashmir, shaved his beard and met the journalist for coffee and club sandwiches in January in Rawalpindi near Islamabad, according to police. Saeed has said he had met with Osama bin Laden shortly after Sept. 11, although it is not clear whether bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network had any direct role in the crime.

Police are now searching for two of Saeed's main partners. One is a man Saeed referred to as Hyder and Pearl knew as Imtiaz Siddiqi. Investigators have said they believe the man is really Mansur Hasnain, a terrorist involved in the hijacking of an Indian airliner in 1999 that forced authorities in New Delhi to free Saeed. Investigators are also hunting for a man identified as Amjad Farooqi, who was believed to be among the captors holding Pearl.

Khan reported from Karachi, Pakistan.