OPPapers.com

The Man

The Man They Called Danny

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To the millions who watched his story unfold, slain reporter Daniel Pearl was a symbol of loss and national grief. To those who knew him, he was much more.

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by Felicity Barringer

Sidebar:
Why Reporters Risk It

Related Site:
Wall Street Journal
The Daniel Pearl Foundation
THE FILE "JOURNALIST1" on my computer, created after the war in Afghanistan began, is a disjointed record of the fears and losses of the last several months. It begins with notes about journalists in Afghanistan and the dangers they face. It was open when the father of John Tipping II, a firefighter who died in the World Trade Center, called to talk about his son for a thumbnail portrait in the New York Times. So it continued with notes about a fireman.

The same file was on my screen January 24 when a call came from Steven Goldstein, Dow Jones?s corporate spokesman. He told me that Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal?s South Asia bureau chief, was missing. ?Journalist1?? soon filled with notes about Daniel Pearl?s work and his life and details that reflected the painful uncertainty about his fate. Finally, it recorded the even more painful certainty: Pearl?s death at the hands of Pakistani kidnappers. A videotape sent to the American Embassy a month after his capture showed a knife wound near his heart, evidence of his gruesome execution. The kidnappers then videotaped the mutilation of his body.

The prolonged uncertainty, the geopolitical importance of a crime calculated to embarrass Pakistan?s president as he aligned himself with the United States and, finally, the kidnapping?s barbaric conclusion, guaranteed an audience of millions. Many of these became captivated by the man they called ?Danny.?

His smile was beguiling, a lighthearted challenge to any person or institution...