Twenty years after his death at the hands of terrorists, the fight for justice for journalist Daniel Pearl continues, with the United States urging Pakistan to keep his kidnappers behind bars while his killer awaits a 9/11 trial at Guantanamo Bay.
Pearl, a 38-year-old Jewish American known as “Danny” to friends and family, was in Karachi after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, investigating Pakistani terrorist groups on behalf of the Wall Street Journal. He was following leads on al Qaeda and Richard Reid, the British-born “Shoe Bomber” accused of trying to blow up an American Airlines flight in December 2001 when he was abducted. Just over a week later, Pearl was beheaded on video by al Qaeda operatives on Feb. 1, 2002.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the terrorist found guilty in Pakistan for the kidnapping-for-ransom and murder of Pearl, had his conviction overturned in 2020 by a Pakistani court, though he has remained imprisoned as legal proceedings continue.
“The United States remains deeply concerned by the developments in the case of those involved in Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “We continue to expect the Pakistani government to ensure that justice is served and that Sheikh and his accomplices remain in government custody without relaxing current security restrictions.”
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, dubbed “KSM” and described as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks” in the 9/11 Commission Report, was a close ally of Osama bin Laden and was repeatedly waterboarded while in U.S. custody. He confessed to planning the 9/11 attacks and to being Pearl’s killer, and many experts agree he was the masked figure who beheaded the journalist in a horrifying video. Mohammed was charged in a death penalty case for 9/11 alongside four co-defendants, but that trial still hasn’t begun.
“We often wonder what Danny would say about the world in which we find ourselves today. We are still confronting the destructive ideologies of extremism and antisemitism that took his life,” Dr. Judea Pearl, Daniel’s father, told the Washington Examiner. “One thing we know for sure is that Danny lived and loved life to the fullest and would want us to do all in our power to ensure free press and meaningful steps towards a hate-free world.”
Pearl was kidnapped by a terrorist group that dubbed itself the “National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.” The militants baselessly accused Pearl of being a spy and made demands from the U.S. in exchange for his release.
The terrorists released a video of Pearl, where he said, “My name is Daniel Pearl. I’m a Jewish American from Encino, California, USA. I come from, uh, on my father’s side the family is Zionist. My father’s Jewish, my mother’s Jewish, I’m Jewish.”
Pearl was born in New Jersey in 1963 and grew up in Los Angeles, where he was a gifted musician and writer. Pearl attended Stanford University and went on to become the South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal.
Pearl was survived by family, including his parents, Judea and Ruth, as well as his wife, Mariane, who gave birth to their son Adam in 2002, four months after Pearl’s death. Ruth died at 85 in 2021.
Pearl’s widow penned a book in 2003 titled A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl. It was turned into a film in 2007 starring Dan Futterman and Angelina Jolie as Daniel and Mariane.
Pearl’s family and friends founded the Daniel Pearl Foundation with a goal “to carry on his legacy, using music and words to address the root causes of the hatred that took his life.”
A collection of Pearl’s writings, At Home in the World, was published after his death.
In addition to Sheikh, three other men convicted in the plot (Sheikh Mohammed Adi, Fahad Saleem, and Sayed Salman Saqib) also had convictions overturned.
Georgetown University’s “Pearl Project” concluded in 2011 that up to 27 different men played a role in Pearl’s death, including “a team of kidnappers” led by Sheikh and “a team of killers” reporting to Mohammed.
Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and faced harsh interrogations at secretive CIA “black sites” before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
James Mitchell, who waterboarded Mohammed, contended during testimony at Guantanamo Bay in early 2020 that Mohammed confessed to killing Pearl.
“I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan,” he allegedly said.
The FBI has said that a vein on the arm of the man in the video decapitating Pearl matches that of Mohammed.
Mohammed claimed that “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan.”
Pearl’s father pointed the Washington Examiner to a poem he wrote on the 10th anniversary of his son’s death, with the final stanza reading:
And when Daniel was lifted from the den,
So the Bible tells us,
No wound was found on him,
Because he stood his ground
‘Cause he stood our ground
So the Bible tells us.
