Daniel Pearl, Courageous American, R.I.P.
February 23, 2002 ~ 8:30 a.m.
Sitting here on a sunny Saturday morning, I can�t help but think of Daniel Pearl, until recently the foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Pearl lived out a life that, at times, I wish I shared with him. Seeing the world and reporting on events that I have witnessed with my own eyes is just the life for someone who loves both travelling and writing.
But complications arise. As a foreign correspondent, you could get kidnapped and held for ransom or kept as political bait until your captor�s demands have been met. This is not a new tactic with which our enemies broadcast their displeasure. The likelihood of becoming a statistic at the hands of the many legions of the disgruntled is an uncomfortable possibility that journalists reporting from enemy territory have often lived with. Usually, you come through the crisis malnourished and perhaps covered in scars from beatings, but you come out alive.
However, the type of kidnapper that captured Daniel Pearl is a different breed altogether. Had Daniel Pearl been reporting from a different time and place, say Nazi Germany, imperialist Japan, Cold War-era Russia�take your pick�he�d have been terrorized and ill looked-after. No doubt about it. But likely is the chance he�d have survived and been rescued, even if it took years. But when your kidnappers are faithful followers of Islam? They�ll mock your family with cruel e-mails, release pictures of your terror�as with the photo of the gun held to Pearl�s head�and then, once their point has been made, they�ll kill you. No contest.
The �pacifists� are no doubt celebrating. A battered, bludgeoned and bloodied American body is a welcome sight to them. They�re dancing in the streets today wherever they can be found�in the U.S., in Europe, in the Middle East, across Asia�the way Palestinians threw block parties to celebrate in the wake of September 11. Now we are going to have to listen to these dopes repeat their mantra in the wake of Mr. Pearl�s murder�to change our foreign policy, to stop being so imperialist, to be more sensitive to the suffering peoples of the world�and, while we�re at it�to drive electric cars and wear clothing made from hemp.
Daniel Pearl was a brave man. To be a foreign reporter, you have to be. A pack of dirty dogs killed him. And for no reason�they killed him for the sheer pleasure of it. At the moment, U.S. investigators from the State Department are working with Pakistani authorities to bring the kidnappers to justice. One suspect involved in the kidnapping and murder of Pearl is Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born (why does this fact hardly surprise me?) Muslim fundamentalist. Pakistan is non-committal about whether they�ll extradite Omar Sheikh to India or the U.S. I say, throw him in Guatanamo Bay to fester in the humid Cuban heat along with the other radicals, but I�ll accept whatever help Pakistan is willing to give. Right now, like it or not, the U.S. is in no position to ask for more.
Omar Sheikh is not new to kidnapping. He had been involved in several hijackings since 1994. But now he�s discovered the raison d��tre of his faith�an American is dead at his hands.
I trust that Mr. Pearl gave his captors as good as he got and showed them the tough mettle that defines America and her citizens. May God bless you and your family, Mr. Pearl.
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
AMERICA FOR TRUE AMERICANS!