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American Morning

Chief Suspect in Pearl Kidnapping Tells Judge He Thought Reporter Was Dead

Aired February 14, 2002 - 07:05   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, the chief suspect in the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl told a judge today he thought the American reporter was dead. There were some hopeful signs earlier this week that Pearl, who has been missing since January, would be found alive following the arrest of an Islamic militant, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. But this morning the man who confessed to the kidnapping told the court as far as he knows, the "Wall Street Journal" reporter is dead.

CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us now from Karachi with the very latest. And we're going to count on you, Ben, to try to clear up some of the confusion here -- good morning.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Paula.

Well, those were the words that came out of his mouth, "As far as I know, Pearl is dead." But those are just words. It's not what he thinks or what he believes or what he actually knows. That is just what he has told the court. And this directly contradicts what he told the police shortly after he was detained in Lahore on Tuesday, when he told the police that Pearl is alive and in Karachi.

And this underscores a problem that has been plaguing the police since they brought him into custody, that what he says isn't necessarily very reliable. For its part, the "Wall Street Journal" responding to this latest news from Karachi, said, "We continue to be hopeful. We remain confident that Danny is still alive."

Now, Saeed did not deny that he was behind the kidnapping of Pearl. During his appearance in court today, he said, "Right or wrong, I had my reasons. I think our country should not be catering to America's needs."

Now, Saeed has been remanded into police custody. He will reappear before this anti-terrorism court on the 25th of February.

Now, just to give you an idea of how unreliable Mr. Saeed can be as far as the police are concerned, they raided two houses in Karachi last night, this after being tipped off by Saeed. When they went to the houses, they found no one was there and the neighbors said that no one had been in those houses for quite some time.

So if you want to know more about the whereabouts and the condition of Daniel Pearl, maybe Saeed isn't the one to speak to -- Paula.

ZAHN: So, Ben, who is it we're supposed to believe?

WEDEMAN: Well, at this point it's a little difficult to say. We don't know where Pearl is. We don't know in what condition he is. But certainly the United States government, the "Wall Street Journal", the Karachi police and the government of Pakistan don't seem to take him as seriously as they did before they actually brought him into custody.

Before they brought him into custody, they were saying that he's the mainstreamed, the ringleader behind the kidnapping. And one official, in the hours after Saeed was brought into custody, said the next 12 hours will be crucial to ending the kidnapping of Mr. Pearl. Twelve hours passed, 24, now more than 48 hours have passed and still no closer are the police to finding Daniel Pearl.

So I would tend to stay on the side of the authorities in this case because Mr. Saeed has a proven track record of lying -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Ben Wedeman, thank you very much for trying to cut through some of these conflicting reports at this hour.

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