2002 LOCAL NEWS: REPORTER SLAIN KIDNAPPERS EXECUTED VALLEY NATIVE IN PAKISTAN.Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer When Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who was kidnapped and murdered in Karachi, Pakistan. was kidnapped in Pakistan on Jan. 23, his family and friends in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. hoped his unique character would help get him home alive. Pearl was known for his kindness, making friends wherever he went, and his ability to find his way out of trouble unharmed. Hope for Pearl's survival ended Feb. 21, when U.S. and Pakistani officials said they received a videotape showing he had been executed. ``He knew for sure that no matter how complex the situation, some good fairy would take care of him, and she did for 38 years,'' said Pearl's father, Judea, at a memorial service March 10. ``So foreign was the idea of malice to his character that he could not conceive the concept of malice in the world around him.'' The accomplished reporter was working on a story about the al-Qaida terrorist network when he was kidnapped on his way to interview a Muslim cleric who led a militant Islamic group Noun 1. Islamic Group - a clandestine group of southeast Asian terrorists organized in 1993 and trained by al-Qaeda; supports militant Muslims in Indonesia and the Philippines and has cells in Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia . In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Urdu: احمد عمر سعید شیخ) (sometimes known as Omar Sheikh, Sheikh Omar[1], Sheik Syed[2] , a notorious British-born Muslim militant, was tried and convicted of Pearl's murder and sentenced to death July 15. The sentence is under appeal. Pearl grew up in the San Fernando Valley and graduated in 1981 from Birmingham High School Birmingham High School is a public coeducational high school in the neighborhood/district of Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley section of the city of Los Angeles, California. The school is a part of District One of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). in Van Nuys before going on to Stanford University. One of the special things about Pearl was his interest in music, playing the violin The violin player usually holds the instrument under the chin, supported by the left shoulder (see below for variations of this posture). The strings are sounded either by drawing the bow across them (arco), or sometimes by plucking them (pizzicato). and mandolin mandolin (măn'dəlĭn`, măn`dəlĭn'), musical instrument of the lute family, with a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum. in a variety of musical styles. Memorial services for Pearl were held at Birmingham High School and at the Skirball Center in the Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains are a low transverse range in southern California in the United States. Geography They run for approximately 40 mi (64 km) east-west from the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County. . During a March 10 service at the Skirball Center, his pregnant wife, Mariane, said: ``Death is not going to separate me from Danny. I make the commitment to enable him to live through me and through our son.'' Mariane gave birth to their son, Adam Pearl, on May 28. After the service, his childhood friend Daniel Gill said, ``We wanted to celebrate the life of Danny Pearl because this is a guy whose life deserved celebration.'' On Oct. 7 in the San Fernando Valley, thousands of people gathered under a canopy of old oak trees at Encino Park in a celebration organized by the California Traditional Music Society and dedicated to Pearl. Although there was music and dancing throughout the day, people who came from throughout the Los Angeles region were brought to tears when they passed a portrait of Daniel Pearl set up near the center of the park. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Leslie Contreras was among hundreds at Birmingham High School graduate Daniel Pearl's memorial service in April. Pearl went on to work for the Wall Street Journal. Evan Yee/Staff Photographer (2) Daniel Pearl |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion