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CNN Sunday Morning

No News of Pearl's Whereabouts

Aired February 03, 2002 - 07:02   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the American missing journalist. Family, friends and colleagues of Daniel Pearl are eager to hear from investigators in Pakistan. CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Karachi.

Ben, what's the latest?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, everyone is very eager to hear some sort of news regarding "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl, but at the moment, a lot of frustration and no news whatsoever about his whereabouts or condition. There have been several arrests since yesterday. However, most of those arrests relating to hoax e-mails and hoax telephone calls regarding Mr. Pearl. At the moment, however, no new developments in the investigation.

Oh, at this point, the Pakistani police are treating all e-mails and there have been many in the last 24 hours as hoaxes if they do not contain photographic evidence that Mr. Pearl is still alive. The last photos of Mr. Pearl were released - were received on Wednesday, therefore, very - a lot of frustration.

Now, we know that the FBI has agents here in Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan. What they're doing is providing the technical assistance to try to trace those e-mails. But it is very difficult at this point to determine where he is and the state he could be in.

Now, there is intense security in Karachi throughout the streets. Yesterday, there was intense and fortunately fruitless search for Mr. Pearl's body following a claim in one of those apparently bogus e- mails that he had been killed and that his body had been dumped in one of the more than 200 cemeteries in Karachi - Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ben Wedeman in Karachi, thank you very much for trying to sort out all those conflicting reports. We appreciate it.

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