Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

`Wall Street Journal': Messages About Pearl Were False

Aired February 02, 2002 - 09:02   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 abducted journalist in Pakistan and the conflicting reports as to what has become of him.

For the latest, we go live to CNN's Ben Wedeman, who is standing by in Karachi.

Ben, hard to sort this all out, isn't it?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is. We've been covering this story for several days, and every day is another round of confusion, frankly. The latest, however, is something we can confirm, is a statement from Paul Steiger, the managing editor of "The Wall Street Journal." He says, and I'll read briefly from this statement, he says, "Based on reports from Pakistan, we now believe that both of the messages received yesterday about Danny were false."

Now, Miles, you referred just a little while ago to those messages. One was a telephone call to the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, essentially asking for money and the release of a senior Taliban official in exchange for the release of Danny Pearl. The other was an e-mail claiming that the kidnappers had carried out their threat to kill Danny Pearl.

Now, as I said, "The Wall Street Journal" is now saying that they believe that those reports, both of those reports, are not true. The-- Paul Steiger goes on to say, "We urge them," the kidnappers, "to release Danny. If it is not possible, we call on them to demonstrate that Danny remains alive. They can do this by providing us with a photo of Danny holding today's newspaper."

Now, in two prior e-mails that were sent to news organizations from the kidnappers, they did include photographs of Daniel Pearl, his hands tied in one of those photos, and another of those photos with a gun to his head.

Now we also have received a statement from the home secretary of Pakistan, saying that we can now rule out the possibility that he, Danny Pearl, has been killed as claimed by the kidnappers. Now, as a result of one of those messages, which-- the e-mail, which claimed that the body of Danny Pearl had been dumped in one of the graveyards of Karachi, immediately after that message was received, the police here in Karachi went-- combed through all of the more than 200 graveyards in Karachi looking for his body. Until now, they have not found it, and that may be one of the reasons why they have issued that statement.

Now, Miles, the investigation obviously is still going at top gear. The investigation also includes law enforcement officials from the United States. As far as we know, they have not made a breakthrough, but they certainly are doing everything they can to locate Mr. Pearl -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ben Wedeman in Karachi. We'll be hearing from him at length in just a few moments in our "Reporter's Notebook" segment. Thank you, Ben.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com