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Exclusive: Pearl Family Doubts KSM Confession

March 16, 2007 7:04 PM

Pearl2_nr The father of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl says he doesn't believe al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed is the man who beheaded his son, despite Mohammed's confession to a U.S. military tribunal.

"He wants to take credit for doing it, and he wants to exonerate al Qaeda, blame Pakistan and whatever," said Judea Pearl, Danny's father. "When a person confesses and he has nothing to lose, you have to take it with a spice of doubt."

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Pearl said from what he knows about the investigation, there are still many unanswered questions trailing back to Pakistan.  "We still don't know the whereabouts of the guy who owned the nursery, Memon, where Danny was held," said Pearl. "We don't know the identities and the whereabouts of the three Arabs who came the last day [of Danny's captivity] and performed the murder." 

While Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claims to be one of them, Pearl says the facts "don't match his story."

Pearl worries that since KSM has confessed to his son's murder, it will be easy for the U.S. government to slow down or close the investigation into the tragedy.

"Governments are tired.  They have bureaucracy.  They have other pressing issues that are higher priorities so they tend to forget the human injustices," he says. "If one person is murdered, a government tends to forget it."

Law enforcement sources insist there is hard forensic evidence that links KSM to the murder of Pearl.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales personally called the Pearl family to inform them of KSM's gruesome confession, Pearl said.

Judea Pearl voiced objections that the world was allowed to read the transcripts of KSM's confession.

"There's no need for the public to read his diatribes about how bad America is and read graphic details of his crimes," he says. "You know what this does? It sends a message to his comrades in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. We don't understand that these people are aroused by cruelty."

Asra Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter  who worked with Daniel Pearl and became a close friend of his family, told ABC News the release of the transcripts has brought up painful memories for his family and friends.

"It's a place that's very dark, and for it to go again and be splashed on the front pages of newspapers is like going back down into a very, very terrible nightmare," she says.

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Danny Pearl was staying with Nomani in Karachi when he was abducted and murdered. She also expressed doubts that KSM murdered Pearl.

"Anyone who saw the tape of Danny's murder could confess to those details," she told ABC News. "From everyone I've talked to in Danny's family there isn't closure. Really at the end of the day there's not convincing evidence that Khalid Sheik Mohammed was the killer."

Nomani will be heading up The Pearl Project in the fall, a Georgetown University-sponsored investigative reporting project where a team of journalism students and professors will spend a semester investigating who killed her former colleague.

The project has the blessing of Judea and Mrs. Pearl as well as that of as Danny Pearl's widow Mariane.

Judea Pearl says finding the real killers and bringing them to justice is not only about the family's healing but will serve a greater purpose. "It sends a message to the millions and millions of youth that are currently on the verge of joining the ideology of unruly violence that there will always be people like Asra or Danny; reporters that are probing, courageous, truth-minded and open-minded. They will be after you."

For now, he says, the family is trying to concentrate on how Danny lived and not how he died. "I'm not going back, I'm looking at the future."

The family runs the Daniel Pearl Foundation dedicated to using journalism, music and community dialogue as a way of fostering understanding between young people in the Arab world and the United States.

Pearl says he wants to counter what he says is the extremist propaganda that comes out of some Arab media. In particular, Pearl was outraged at Al Jazeera's use of quotation marks around the term "terror plot" when the Qatar-based network described the acts to which KSM confessed. "They are contributors to the hate that killed my son," he says.

"I see myself as a soldier. History has given me a combination of tragedy and opportunity, and if I don't exploit the opportunity, then all I'm left with is tragedy," says Pearl. "I'm compelled to harness all the energy that this tragedy has evoked for a good cause, and the cause is to eradicate the hate that took Danny's life."

This post has been revised.

March 16, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (28)

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This confession isnt new. This was reported more than a year ago.

Posted by: Paul | Mar 16, 2007 9:51:24 PM

Daniel Pearl was killed because he was an American, not because he was Daniel Pearl.

The family has a right to profound personal grief, but the voracity of KSM's confession is the government's and KSM's defense attorney's business.

Posted by: Kirk | Mar 16, 2007 9:52:04 PM

NO THEY DON'T! We have known he was involved for years. And what is the point of this story anyway? He is going to be put to death for it, and more than 3100 other murders.

Posted by: Wally Lind | Mar 16, 2007 10:28:11 PM

I think KSM is trying to absolve the crime from AlQueada/Osama.why?He is also very particular about the SHARED responsibility for trying to assasinate the pope.He is very particular about his correct disignation in Alqueada that he is Media operations director.But he is also is trying to make the killing of Pearl as the handiwork of Pakistan mujahadeen and not related to alqueada. What he gains by this? If he is carrying out the orders of Pakistan mujahadeen though he is also the media director of alqueada, but the killing is not the responsibility of Alqueada; then what he is trying to convey? The other convicted killer Omar sheikh who is in Pakistan jail and not extradicted to USA, puts a question mark. Is he of heigher rank in the terrorist heirarchy that KSM could be extradicted but not this Omar. What secret he holds? what secret Pearl found out that he has to be killed? The ineptness of american public to know the difference between taliban and Alqueada is well used by KSM. The saga of this brutal murder and this recent confession has raised only more questions.

Posted by: captainjohann, BANGALORE, INDIA | Mar 17, 2007 2:43:32 AM

When the father of Daniel Pearl says KSM had nothing to loose in relation to the confession of killing his son, I agree.

I also believe other confessions KSM has made are a convenient fabrication, also.

Posted by: Lillian L. Cripps | Mar 17, 2007 6:10:14 AM

It was the U.S government trying to strike fear and further justify their unwarranted attacks on Iraq. Just look at the Nick Berg incident. There is quite a bit of evidence that shows the U.S was involved. May the truth come out.

Posted by: Antoinette | Mar 17, 2007 7:45:00 AM

This is a smoke screen...We are NOT fools, quit treating us like we are...I trust NO ONE in Government anymore....NO ONE!!!!

Posted by: Kim | Mar 17, 2007 8:32:25 AM

Unfortunately, more importantly, he was killed because he was Jewish, only secondly was he killed becasue he was an American -in radical Islam - to die killing non-Muslims is key - to die killing Jews is the highest mmission - why do after almost 30 years people still refuse to acknowledge the threat we face.

Posted by: Jeff | Mar 17, 2007 8:45:47 AM

This "confession" of KSM smells to me also.

It nicely absolves the earlier convicted Daniel Pearl killer/mastermind and 911 paymaster, the ISI-linked Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, from blame.

Posted by: Phred | Mar 17, 2007 9:53:14 AM

Love America, Hate the stupid Americans!

Posted by: Michael D. Adams | Mar 17, 2007 10:13:04 AM

Everything I read about KSM says he comes out an even bigger hero of the Jihadists than before his capture. Don't be surprised if he says he was involved in the deaths of Dodi and Diana. American torture and secrecy leave all his testimony tainted.

Posted by: erikvilius | Mar 17, 2007 10:20:35 AM

America finally has its own Stalinist show trials. The laundry list of crimes that KSM is confessing to is amazing. Has he confessed to being on the grassy knoll in Dallas yet? This just shows the uselessness of using torture to obtain information. Just like during the Inquisition, what you obtain is misinformation.

Posted by: Michael Paladin | Mar 17, 2007 11:06:15 AM

Uh....what unwarrented attacks in Iraq? You mean taking out guys who are building car bombs that kill and maim 150 people at a time? Also, note that there are no more televised beheadings of Americans. I wonder why.

The more of the bad guys you take out, the better. Best wishes to the US Military for blotting out their memory forever.

Posted by: Martin01 | Mar 17, 2007 11:27:13 AM

The family may be right or wrong, but they are intitled to their grief. God bless Daniel & his family, and our wonderfull US of A.

Respecfuly,

Stephen A. Dombrowski

Posted by: Stephen A. Dombrowski | Mar 17, 2007 11:50:40 AM

Why does it have to be either al Qaeda or KSM instead of both? They were working together. KSM was a terror attack planner who enjoyed getting his hands dirty. UBL is a financier and organizer, big picture, strategy guy. Think of KSM as a contractor for UBL and you got the relationship. KSM probably killed Pearl to protect himself and al Qaeda from exposure.

Posted by: ray robison | Mar 17, 2007 11:57:11 AM

I can't believe anything out of our government after the lies that were deliberately told - repeatedly - to get us into the Iraq War.

The KSM confessions are ludicrous. Its all part of a theme that "We've really been at war with Islamist for the last 30 years only we didn't know it." IOW, they've been attacking us for 30 years. We had been shelling Beirut when the Marine barracks was attacked but our media consistently presents it as something out of the blue that the barracks was attacked. The US conspired with the British and the Iranian military to reimpose that megalomaniac Shah on the Iranians in the early 50's. Yeah, we've been at war with them for longer than 30 years and we have been the aggressors.

Posted by: AB | Mar 17, 2007 12:26:24 PM

Torture people and see what they confess to. Maybe he did it, maybe not.... the guy probably knows there is no way out of our beautiful foreign prisons, so what not "confess"? The ridiculous things that are happening in this country... History will look at us during this time as barbarians and they all will be scratching their heads at how foolish we are.

Posted by: george G | Mar 17, 2007 1:16:28 PM

This quote perplexes me: "It sends a message to the millions and millions of youth that are currently on the verge of joining the ideology of unruly violence that there will always be people like Asra or Danny; reporters that are probing, courageous, truth-minded and open-minded. They will be after you." Does this person REALLY think that would be terrorist will be scared of JOURNALIST?!? It's perplexing as well to think that somehow one possesses greater investigative abilities than the investagators working on the case...and as well, question the motives of those that do. I find it absurd that even if only one or two individuals were working on this case would have anything to gain by not actually trying to get to the root of the matter...and of course, there are more than just a few working on this case. It seems some journalist will search only for what they want to be true sometimes.

Posted by: Chris | Mar 17, 2007 1:52:53 PM

People should at least show some respect fot the family of Daniel Pearl

Posted by: John Ryan | Mar 17, 2007 2:16:18 PM

"Just look at the Nick Berg incident."

Antoinette, Islamists want to sever you head! It is no more complicated than that. They first tell you what they will do, then they do it and film it, then they tell us they did it and gloat. Does it really require a convoluted conspiracy theory to put the pieces together?

Posted by: drewas | Mar 17, 2007 2:27:28 PM

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