On January 23, 2002, American journalist Daniel Pearl thought he was going to finally get an interview with Pakistani terrorists involved in putting would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid on a trans-Atlantic flight. Instead, the lead Pearl thought he had, turned out to be a ruse designed to kidnap and kill the Jewish Wall Street Journal bureau chief.
Interested in a story published in the Boston Globe alleging links between Reid and Pakistani militant cleric Sheihk Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, in early 2002 Pearl began tapping his contacts in hopes of getting an interview. One contact, Omar Sheikh, told Pearl the interview would be possible and set a date – January 23. Sheikh, however, never intended to connect the two men and had different plans.
In Mumbai, Pearl had just learned his pregnant wife would be having a boy. Having sent off the good news to friends and family back home, he and his wife together departed for Karachi for the promising but admittedly dangerous investigation.
Pearl spent the afternoon of January 23 running around Karachi interviewing Pakistani police officials, looking for information on men he believed had been in contact with Reid. He even met with a US embassy security official to discuss the wisdom of conducting the interview he had scheduled for that evening. The US official advised him to hold the meeting in a public place. Having called to let his wife know he would be back in time for dinner, Pearl's taxi driver finally dropped him off at the restaurant where he was to meet his contact for the Gilani interview.
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