Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 - January 29/30, 2002) was an American journalist. He was kidnapped and murdered in Karachi, Pakistan while investigating the case of shoe bomber Richard Reid.Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey and grew up in southern California. He graduated with a degree in Communications from Stanford University in 1985. After working for a variety of newspapers, he joined The Wall Street Journal in 1990, working for them until his death. He became a foreign correspondent in 1996 and was serving as the newspaper's South Asia bureau chief, working out of Bombay, India at the time of his kidnapping. He was best known for writing "A-heads", colorful and unusual feature articles printed down the middle of the Journal’s front page -- such as the October 1994 story of a Stradivarius violin allegedly found on a highway on-ramp, and a June 2000 story about Iranian pop music.
On January 23, 2002, on his way to an interview with a supposed terrorist leader, Pearl was kidnapped by a militant group calling itself The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty. This group claimed Pearl was a spy, and -- using the e-mail address kidnapperguy@hotmail.com -- sent the United States a range of demands, including the freeing of all Pakistani terror detainees, and the release of a halted U.S. shipment of F-16 fighter jets to the Pakistani government. The message read: "We give u 1 more day if America will not meet our demands we will kill Daniel. Then this cycle will continue and no American journalist could enter Pakistan." Photos of Pearl handcuffed with a gun at his head and holding up a newspaper were attached.
There was no response to pleas from Pearl's editor, and from his wife Marianne who was pregnant with their first child.
Pearl was killed six days later. On February 21, a videotape of his murder was released, and his body was found in a shallow grave in the outskirts of Karachi on May 16.
On March 21, 2002 in Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other suspects were charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Daniel Pearl. They were convicted on July 15, 2002. During the trial, Sheikh -- mastermind of the kidnapping -- told investigators he had kidnapped Pearl to "strike a blow at the United States and embarrass the Pakistani government." Another of the suspects said Pearl had been targeted "because he was a Jew working against Islam."
A collection of Pearl's writings was published posthumously later in 2002.
The Daniel Pearl Foundation was created to promote cross-cultural understanding through journalism, music, and innovative communications. Daniel Pearl Music Days were held worldwide in 2002 and from October 7-19, 2003.
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