Excerpt:
''For more than a year, a group of Georgetown University students has been poring over documents, searching for cellphone numbers of suspected terrorists and calling Pakistani police in the middle of the night. Now their class project has come to this: They're suing the CIA and the FBI...
''Yesterday, the group, known as the Pearl Project and now attached to the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court asking for the release of records by the CIA, FBI, Defense Department and five other federal agencies....
''The idea for the class began in summer 2002, after four men were convicted in Pakistan in connection with Pearl's death. Pearl's longtime friend, Asra Nomani, with whom Pearl was staying when he disappeared, suspected that more people were involved. She knew, for example, that a man who led police to Pearl's body, which was found outside Karachi, was allegedly one of the guards who had held him. But he was never charged.
- Susan Kinzie,Washington Post,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pearl
Excerpt:
Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed by Al-Qaeda.
At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the
http://pearlproject.georgetown.edu/
Excerpt:
The Pearl Project is an innovative investigative journalism project at Georgetown University and the Center for Public Integrity that is exploring the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.
During the academic school year 2007-08, The Pearl Project took shape as a six-credit seminar led by Barbara Feinman Todd, then the associate dean of journalism in the School of Continuing Studies, and former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Q. Nomani, a professor in the practice of journalism. Nomani, Pearl's friend and colleague from his days at the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau, rented the Karachi home where Pearl and his wife Mariane were staying at the time of his disappearance. After participating in the search to find Pearl, Nomani began the preliminary reporting and research for The Pearl Project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asra_Nomani
Excerpt:
Asra Q Nomani (born 1965) is an Indian-American journalist, author, and feminist, known as an activist involved in the Muslim reform and Islamic feminist movements. She teaches journalism at Georgetown University and is co-director of the Pearl Project,[1][2] a faculty-student, investigative-reporting project into the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The project is based at the Center for Public Integrity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asra_Nomani
Excerpt:
Asra Q Nomani (born 1965) is an Indian-American journalist, author, and feminist, known as an activist involved in the Muslim reform and Islamic feminist movements. She teaches journalism at Georgetown University and is co-director of the Pearl Project,[1][2] a faculty-student, investigative-reporting project into the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The project is based at the Center for Public Integrity.
A Mighty Heart trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1veXdaZtI4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mighty_Heart_(film)
Excerpt:
A Mighty Heart is a 2007 drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom; It is an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart.[1][2] Although initially a financial failure, A Mighty Heart was met with relatively positive reviews from both critics and viewers alike.
The film was screened out of competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival,[3] before being released in North America on June 22, 2007.[4]
Excerpt:
Angelina Jolie Joins Council on Foreign Relations
Angelina Jolie has been showing her glamorous side lately – walking red carpets from Cannes to Hollywood – but Thursday she was honored for her philanthropic work by joining the Council on Foreign Relations, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.
The prestigious think tank officially approved Jolie's membership nomination, adding her to a group whose membership includes presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, ABC's Diane Sawyer, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and journalist Tom Brokaw.
Excerpt:
Ali Al-Ahmed is a Saudi scholar and expert on Saudi political affairs including terrorism, Islamic movements, Wahhabi Islam, Saudi political history, Saudi American relations, and the al-Saud family history. He is a writer, and invited speaker on Saudi political issues.
He is an invited speaker by Princeton University, Amnesty International, Hudson Institute and Meridian International Center.
As journalist he exposed major news stories such as the Pentagon botched translation of Ben Laden tape, and the video of the Daniel Pearl murder among others.
He is the author of reports on Saudi Arabia in the area of religious freedom, torture, press freedom, and religious curriculums.
A frequent consultant to major world media outlets including CBS News, CNN, PBS, Fox News, Washington Post, and Associated Press, Al-Ahmed has been widely quoted in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Boston Globe and other newspapers in several languages.
He is educated in Winona Minnesota and Saint Thomas University in Saint Paul, in bachelor of journalism, political science and masters of international finance respectively.
He is affiliated with the Saudi Institute.
Excerpt:
35) How come the (fake) Bin Laden home video - in which he "confesses" to being the perpetrator of 9/11 - released by the US on December 13, 2001, was found only two weeks after it was produced (on November 9); was it really found in Jalalabad (considering Northern Alliance and US troops had not even arrived there at the time); by whom; and how come the Pentagon was forced to release a new translation after the first (botched) one?
Excerpt:
Top Bin Laden Expert: The Tapes are Fakes
Kevin Barrett
As a PhD in Islamic and Arabic Studies, I hate to say this, but I’ll say it anyway. The events of 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam. The war on terror itself is as phony as the latest “Bin Laden tape.” (Guardian 04)
It’s tough to admit because I know on which side my bread is buttered - and dropping Islam from the 9/11 equation is like dropping my bread butter-side-down. The myth that 9/11 had something to do with Islam - has poured millions into Arabic and Islamic studies. I finished my PhD in 2005, so all I have to do is keep my eyes in my pocket and my nose to the ground, parrot the party line, and I’ll be on the fast track to tenure.
Excerpt:
Lawsuit
In July 2007, Pearl filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York[20][21] against terrorists – and a bank which may have financed them – for their alleged roles in the abduction, torture and murder of her husband. Those named in the suit include Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Habib Bank. On 24 October 2007, the lawsuit seeking damages against al-Qaida, a dozen reputed terrorists and Pakistan's largest bank was dropped. Lawyers for Mariane Pearl noted that Habib Bank Limited and the other defendants in the case had not answered the lawsuit filed in July (although Habib Bank Limited had denied ever supporting terrorism),[22] but they otherwise did not explain their reason for dropping the action.[23] A spokesman for the lawyers has stated that the withdrawal was due to personal reasons and should have no bearing on the merits of the lawsuit.[22]
Excerpt:
Pearl case fades from the public’s memory and from Pakistani court dockets, now more than ever is a good time to look back at Habib Bank’s involvement with Al Qaeda’s cash flow.
In 2003, the U.S. Treasury Department listed Al Akhtar Trust, yet another delightful Islamic charity, as a terrorist entity.
Al Akhtar did its banking with Habib Bank (also known as HBL). Habib Bank claims that it froze Al Akhtar’s accounts even prior to the U.S. designation of Al Akhtar, but Mrs. Pearl’s legal team found evidence to the contrary.
In addition to their terror links, Habib Bank is also a major player in sharia finance markets. From Habib’s website:
Excerpt:
Death
Memon died 2.30 PM on Friday, May 18, 2007 in the ICU of the private Liaquat National hospital - close to 3 weeks after his release. His death was attributed to complications related to meningitis and tuberculosis according to Dr Ali Azmat Abidi of the hospital. Memon leaves behind his wife, four sons and a daughter, who declined to talk to the press.[1] [4]
[edit] Torture controversy
An article from the November 12, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal quoted an unnamed senior US counter-terrorism official, who said he was[27][28][29]:
"...in a lot of the rooms where important things were being discussed. He knew senior Al-Qaeda people, and was moving equipment and supplies."
The Wall Street Journal also quoted an unnamed Pakistani official who said that Saud Memon was held in the American Bagram Theater detention facility, and that he was already in poor condition, when the American repatriated him to Pakistani custody.[29]
Human rights organization, Amnesty International, also expressed concerns about the fate and whereabouts of hundreds of people remained unclear and they were feared to be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment referring to Memon and his whereabouts during 2003-2007 and his death.[18] They were said Memon contracted tuberculosis while in alleged US custody.[30]
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) also noted Memon as one of the missing persons to resurface, as victims of abuse "revealing the existence of centers and places of illegal detention, inhuman and degrading treatment suffered, and confessions extracted under torture."[31]
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