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CNN Live Saturday

`Wall Street Journal' Believes Pearl is Alive

Aired February 02, 2002 - 12:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Now, more on that missing "Wall Street Journal" reporter. There are new developments at this hour. We get an update now from CNN's Ben Wedeman. He is in Karachi right now -- hi there, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Fredricka. Yes, we are still waiting for some sort of news about the fate of "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl. Last night, an e-mail message was received by news organizations here in Pakistan claiming that Mr. Pearl had been killed.

Now, today we are hearing from the managing editor of the "Wall Street Journal," Mr. Paul Steiger, who says that based upon reports that they have, they believe that Mr. Pearl is, in fact, still alive, that those claims that he has been killed are false. He urged in his statement that the kidnappers release Mr. Pearl immediately. If they are not willing to do that, he wants to see photographic evidence that Mr. Pearl is, in fact, still alive.

This is significant because two prior e-mails received here in Pakistan contained photographs of Mr. Pearl. In those photographs, we saw him with his hands tied and another of those photographs with a pistol to his head.

Now, following the e-mail last night claiming that the kidnappers had carried out their threat of execution and thrown the body of Mr. Pearl in Karachi graveyards, the police here went on an extensive overnight search, which continued throughout the day in the more than 200 graveyards of this city of 12 million people. That search has been called off. They have found nobody.

As far as the investigation goes here, police sources tell us that they have taken into custody a man, who apparently made a hoax phone call to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. In that phone call, this individual demanded $2 million and the release of the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan within 36 hours in exchange for the release of Mr. Pearl. Now, the police today say they have arrested this man.

Today, they also say they have raided a private home, in which they found desktop and laptop computers, and that they are currently questioning three men regarding this case -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, Ben, Karachi police have called off this search, as you said, of the cemeteries, but is there any reason to believe that they are focusing a search or concentrating on any one particular area?

WEDEMAN: Well, their efforts at the moment are very much focused on the city of Karachi, which has 12 million people, however. And it's a very large and chaotic city. That makes it very difficult.

Now, in the past, there have been kidnappings. In fact, there have been many kidnappings here in Karachi. There have been cases where individuals have been kidnapped and taken to cities in this general area. So our understanding is that there's a fairly wide search going on. They are also searching in cyberspace, so to speak, tracing those e-mails, trying to find out where they came from and who possibly sent them -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you very much, Ben Wedeman reporting now from Karachi -- I appreciate that.

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