Daniel Pearl’s parents said it was
impossible to know whether a top al-Qaida terrorist’s claim that he killed
their son was true.
“It is impossible to know at
this point whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s boast about killing our son has any
bearing in truth,” Judea and Ruth Pearl said in a statement to JTA on Thursday.
“We prefer to focus our energy on continuing Danny’s lifework through the
programs of the Daniel Pearl Foundation which aim to eradicate the hatred that
took his life.”
Pearl,
a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped in early 2002 on
assignment in Pakistan
and beheaded on tape after being made to affirm his Jewishness.
The Associated Press reported
Thursday that Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, took responsibility for the killing of Pearl as well as 30 other attacks and plots. He
was speaking at a hearing in a U.S.
naval prison at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba.
“I decapitated with my blessed
right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan,”
Mohammed said, according to notes released Thursday by the Pentagon. He then
added, “For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the
Internet holding his head.”
Pearl’s parents, who reacted with
extraordinary dignity throughout the tragedy, established a foundation in their
son’s name that sponsors programs promoting intercultural and interfaith
understanding.
