Fuqra Files Analysis: Sheikh Gilani’s Possible Role in the Death of Wall Street Journal Journalist Daniel Pearl

By: Ryan Mauro

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded on video by Al-Qaeda-linked kidnappers in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and then third-in-command of Al-Qaeda, credibly claims to have been the one to execute him.

Pearl had made contact with the inner circle of Sheikh Gilani, the secretive leader of Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslims of the Americas (JUF or MOA), in hopes of interviewing him due to evidence linking him to Richard Reid, an Al-Qaeda operative who attempted to blow up an American airliner using a bomb hidden in his shoe.

Sheikh Gilani confirms that he knew Pearl was attempting to reach him, but claims that Pearl was a CIA agent deployed to assassinate him. Pearl believed he was on his way to meet Gilani in Karachi when he was abducted. Gilani denies involvement and has not been charged by the U.S. or Pakistani governments.

Sheikh Gilani was based in Lahore at the time and has a history of ties to other Islamist terrorist groups in Pakistan and Kashmir, including those involved in Pearl’s murder. His organization is exceptionally secretive and does not take credit for its terrorist and criminal actions.

The U.S. government did not charge Gilani with involvement. The mainstream story is that Sheikh Gilani had nothing to do with the murder and that Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists set Pearl up on their own.

This section of Fuqra Files is dedicated to revising the question of Sheikh Gilani’s possible involvement.

Motive: Gilani Believed Pearl Was Assassin Sent to Kill Him

Sheikh Gilani is virulently anti-Semitic and paranoid; relevant facts considering that Pearl was Jewish. Gilani has a self-admitted motive for setting up the murder.

He wrote:

“Many of my followers wait five to ten years before they are granted audience with me. This is why the recent conspiracy hatched against me by the Indian and Israeli agencies failed when they used Farah Stockman, Richard Reid and Daniel Pearl. Each of these people was trying to contact me, but they all failed…Obviously Daniel Pearl was to target me and then an assassination team would be sent in to kill me. When this conspiracy was revealed, Pakistan was not going to go along with it and thus the High Court of Pakistan demanded my release.”[1]

Gilani and MOA continue to claim that Pearl is/was part of a Zionist conspiracy. A 2007 statement says, “As time has passed, it is now widely believed by people of significance that the disappearance of Daniel Pearl was much too suspicious and that he is not dead at all.”[4]

He again wrote in 2010, “In the same vein, they [the Zionist conspiracy] sent Daniel Pearl to target me, first setting up the lie that Richard Reid was my follower.”[2]

In the same article, Gilani says, “I have never seen, in the whole of my life, or even in the past thousand years, a Jew who will tell the truth.”[3]

How Did the Perpetrators Learn of Pearl’s Travel?

Daniel Pearl, as an acclaimed reporter with a Jewish background, was surely aware of the risks involved with traveling in Pakistan, particularly after the 9/11 attacks and initiation of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. He would not have recklessly spread news of his arrival in the dangerous country. This raises a key unanswered question: How did his murderers learn of his arrival and trap him?

Information about his travel would only be provided to a tiny circle of contacts; a tiny circle that included Sheikh Gilani’s closest associate, Khalid Khawaja, who one MOA-affiliated contact described as Gilani’s “right-hand man.” The source, who met both Gilani and Khawaja in Pakistan, says they had family ties and that Khawaja had pledged “bayat” (allegiance) to Gilani and acted as his liaison to Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service and other jihadist groups backed by the ISI.

Khawaja admitted to the Dawn newspaper of Pakistan in February 2002 that he had introduced Pearl to some of his contacts before he asked for an interview with Gilani. He said his last contact with Pearl was when he said he could not facilitate the interview with Gilani.[5]

The mastermind of the plot is said to be Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a prominent member of the Harakat ul-Ansar, also known as Harakat ul-Mujahideen, a terrorist group. It is known to have had a relationship with Gilani.[6] It is based in Pakistan and backed by the ISI intelligence service. Its main purpose is attacking Indian targets in Kashmir, which is also the main focus of Gilani’s attention. Somehow, word of Pearl’s intention to interview Gilani quickly got from Gilani’s inner circle to Sheikh, who sprung at the opportunity to set a trap.

The Pearl Project’s investigation into the murder of Daniel Pearl concluded that the plot was a “multifaceted, at times chaotic conspiracy.” Yet, “in just two and a half days, Sheikh had put the operational details into place.”[7]

Khalid Khawaja

One of the first people that Daniel Pearl reached out to (if not the first) was Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistani intelligence operative in Gilani’s inner circle who is described by one MOA-affiliated source as the his “right-hand man.” As someone who spoke to the press about Gilani-related matters before, Khawaja would be the logical first contact for Pearl. Khawaja admits he was initially considered a suspect in setting Pearl up.[8]

Khawaja was also known for his wide range of contacts among Islamist extremist groups in Pakistan, particularly those with links to Pakistani intelligence. He was also a mutual friend between Gilani and Usama Bin Laden. He is said to have been a pilot for Bin Laden at one point in time. Khawaja openly talked about knowing both Gilani and Bin Laden. [9]

Khawaja also had his own organization named the Islamic Solidarity Movement. He was arrested in 1995 by the Pakistani government for intending to commit murder. Khawaja says the prosecution was a political persecution at the behest of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.[10] He was again arrested in 2007 for distributing extremist material. He was mysteriously murdered in South Waziristan in 2010. A MOA-affiliated source says that MOA privately praises Khawaja as a “martyr” who is now with the Sufi Saints.

In Mariane Pearl’s book, she described Khawaja as acting like a “psycho” in their conversations. He ranted about the legitimacy of jihad against the U.S. and accused a Jewish conspiracy of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, which is what MOA believes. She writes that he seemed to know everyone in the jihadist movement in Pakistan.[11]

According to the critically-acclaimed book, The Exile: The Stunning Inside Story of Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in Flight, Khawaja was a “veteran ISI officer who had never really retired.” The authors describe him as a “key figure in the tangled network of ex-spooks who floated around the ISI…[and] could always be called to serve their nation.” They describe Sheikh Gilani as a “radical” cleric living in Karachi at the time and that “Gilani and his group were on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations.”

KHAWAJA’S DECEPTIONS ABOUT REJECTING PEARL’S INTERVIEW REQUEST

Khawaja says that Pearl called him on January 6-7 to request an interview with Gilani, “which I instantly ruled out.”[12]

He falsely stated that Gilani would never meet with a journalist, especially a foreigner. He then ranted against U.S. military action against the Taliban in Afghanistan and suggested that the CIA was orchestrating the murder of Pearl and scrutiny of him and Gilani, which is also Gilani’s accusation. He told the Dawn newspaper in February 2002 that “it is a big plot to hand over Gilani to the U.S. authorities.”[13]

Author Martin Mawyer points out that this is a lie. Gilani had given an interview to CBS the year prior. He also gave one shortly after Pearl was murdered.[14] Khawaja also made the unlikely claim that he doesn’t even talk to Gilani anymore. [15] However, Khawaja  contradicted himself, referring to Gilani as “his friend” in February 2002.[16]

Pearl’s wife also cast doubt on Gilani’s claim that he’d never agree to an interview in the city of Karachi. She wrote that it was discovered that he had a home in the city.[17]

Gilani himself contradicts the line that he was inaccessible to journalists in a 2006 statement:

“This man [a critical author] brought accusations in such a way as to implicate me in the whole affair itself, or at the very least, to insinuate that I am hostile to journalists. I, myself, am the founding executive of Islamic Post of New York and the author of many books. Why should I refuse an interview of a fellow journalist? It is very common for TV teams and journalists to call on me to discuss issues of mutual concern.”[18]

Khawaja was aware of Pearl’s intentions and undoubtedly would have told Gilani.

French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy investigated the Pearl case for a 2004 book and contacted Khawaja. He warned Henri-Levy to “watch out for Gilani” because his patience had run out with people who link him to Pearl’s murder.[19]

Enter Mohammad Hashim Qadir and Khalid Choudhary

After hearing about Pearl’s plans, Sheikh (the perpetrator) involved another mysterious person: Mohammad Hashim Qadir. Very little is known about this individual, but he was the one who told Pearl that he could arrange the interview with Gilani. He communicated with Pearl using the name of “Bashir.”

Of what little information is available, none links Qadir to Gilani, but the perpetrators used various identities and Gilani’s followers are known to adopt the name of “Qadri” or “Qadir” to signify their membership in the Sufi Qadri Order that Gilani belongs to. The names of “Mohammad” and “Hashim” are also commonly adopted names and titles. Whoever he is, he was able to perform as a close associate of Gilani’s well enough to win Pearl’s trust.

Another peculiar individual is an American citizen named Khalid Choudhary, who also went by the alias of Abdul Khalique. He obtained the execution video and provided it to an FBI agent who he believed to be a reporter. Choudhary has a history of drug-related arrests dating back to 1992 in New York City and has a brother in Orlando. Choudhary was interviewed by the Pakistani police and FBI, but FBI personnel described him as a “no-touch person” and left the U.S. consulate in Karachi with an escort from Pakistani police.[20]

Perpetrators Linked to Gilani: Harakat Ul-Ansar/Harakat Ul-Mujahideen

Several members of the terrorist group Harakat ul-Ansar, also known as Harakat ul-Mujahideen, were involved in the murder. The group is linked to both Al-Qaeda and Sheikh Gilani. More information on the relationship between Fuqra and HUA is available in this website’s section about Fuqra/MOA’s links to other Islamist extremists.

The main orchestrator of the murder is said to be Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a long-time member of HUA. He was previously imprisoned by India from 1994 to December 1999 until HUA hijacked an Indian airliner and won his release.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that Gilani is a “mentor” of Omar Sheikh and that Gilani is a Pakistani intelligence “person.” It said that Sheikh has “long had close contacts” with Tanseem ul-Fuqra, using an alternative name for Fuqra.[21]

Like Gilani, Sheikh has a long history of links to the Pakistani ISI intelligence service. He reportedly began working for the ISI in 1993 and “is widely believed in Pakistan to be an experienced ISI ‘asset.’”[22] He lived openly in Lahore and was invited to lavish parties with senior government officials. U.S. government officials came to believed he was a “protected asset.”[23]

Perpetrators Linked to Gilani: Jaish-e-Mohammed

Members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group were involved in the murder. Sheikh Gilani is said to be close to the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Maulana Masood Azhar.[24] At the time, JEM had a 4.5-acre compound near Gilani’s second home in Punjab Province.

U.S. Consulate’s Intelligence Gap on Gilani and Fuqra

On January 23, Pearl met with the U.S. consulate in Karachi’s regional security officer, Randall Bennett, to inquire about the safety of meeting with Gilani. Bennett had been in the position for three years. Bennett says:

“We knew nothing about them [Fuqra] and that’s what bothered me when I first spoke to him because a well-known terrorist organization would be something that would be on my list and something that I would follow on a daily basis. The fact that his name had not come up and his organization had not come across my desk in any reporting led me to be concerned that he was being drawn into something that wasn’t appropriate.”[25]

Daniel Pearl was kidnapped later that day in Karachi.

GILANI GOES MISSING

A few days after the January 23 kidnapping, Gilani was mysteriously missing from his headquarters in Lahore.

Acting upon information indicating that he was at his second home in Punjab Province near Kashmir, authorities found that he fled that residence as well.

Mariane Pearl describes Gilani as vanishing at this time. Searches of his residences and check-ins at the airport and mosques couldn’t find a trace of him. Information was then received that he was at one of his homes in Muzaffarabad, a city in Punjab Province near Kashmir (where he also has a home) along a common travel route for jihadists. By the time the police arrived, his home was cleared out.[26]

Gilani claims he wasn’t fleeing. His defense is that he was grieving over the death of his father, who he claims died due to shock caused by the report linking Gilani to shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Gilani later claimed that the allegations that he was involved in Pearl’s death also made his mother die from shock.[27]

Gilani said he chose to spend time in the mountain valley of Ghari Habibullah where he was building a school for girls.[28] He said he was there for 15 days and only learned about Pearl’s disappearance from a local newspaper. However, Martin Mawyer points out that Pakistani police found Gilani’s father alive at the time of Gilani’s detention on January 30, days after Gilani claimed his father died.[29]

A 2007 MOA statement changes Gilani’s alibi. It claims that after Gilani’s father died, “Illuminati forces” tried to kill him. Four men attacked one of his homes, incorrectly believe he was there. His cousin supposedly was present and shot and killed one of the attackers. The slain attacker was found to be the son of a local priest who belongs to a Christian militia. MOA claims the case was “hushed.” Gilani then left Lahore out of concern for his safety and went to a “remote village.”[30]

On January 28, the Pakistani police caught and detained Gilani’s son.[31] His mother and sister were also detained.[32] MOA claims that Gilani’s son was “snatched” and “abused” by the authorities.[33] Gilani identified his son as being named Ali and said he was “tortured” for seven days.[34]

Khawaja admits that his home was raided at 4 am by Pakistani authorities and that he wasn’t home as expected. He said he left his residence on January 28.[35]

GILANI ASSOCIATE INTERVIEWED AND THEN IMMEDIATELY FLEES

That same day, investigators interviewed someone in Rawalpindi (perhaps one of these relatives) who said that Gilani had a community of followers at “Islamberg” in New York.[36]

On January 29, the investigators returned to the home of the Gilani associate interviewed the previous day in Rawalpindi. They discovered that the person had fled the night before, only hours after they had shown up at his residence and talked to him.[37]

GILANI LIES ABOUT HIS DETENTION

On January 30, Gilani was found and detained in Rawalpindi. MOA says it took “some time” for Gilani to hear about the newspapers talking about him and then he “immediately sought out the authorities.”[38] Accounts differ as to whether he turned himself in voluntarily (as he claims) or whether he was found and detained.

Pearl’s wife says he was only detained after a police team dedicated to finding him was able to locate and detain him.[39] One American newspaper reported that he was located after the U.S. government intercepted communications between Gilani’s Pakistan headquarters and a commune of his followers in Virginia.[40]

Gilani is demonstrably deceptive about what happened on January 30. He says he read the newspaper and voluntarily went to Islamabad to meet with the police, who told him he should meet with the authorities in Karachi. He says he flew there and stayed with the police for a week.[41]

It’s known that his initial contact with police after Pearl’s disappearance was in Rawalpindi, where he was detained, not Islamabad as his story claims. Most reports indicate he was found by the police, rather than Gilani turning himself in. His account gives the impression that he flew independently to Karachi, but it is known that the Pakistanis had him in custody and flew him there.

One MOA-affiliated source says Gilani was put up in a nice hotel and treated like a guest of honor, leading the source to doubt the sincerity of the interrogation.

Pearl was beheaded sometime between January 30 and February 5.

Gilani subsequently abandoned a house of his in Chaka near an air base in Islamabad, which neighbors said he had sold. He also abandoned a one-story home of his at Chak Shahzad.[42]

Khawaja: Exchange Pearl for Dropping Gilani Extradition Request

It was reported shortly after Gilani’s January 30 detention that he might be extradited to the U.S. in as little as two days, according to an anonymous Pakistani Interior Ministry official. The report said that Gilani ran military training sites south of Lahore for jihadists in Kashmir, Chechnya, Afghanistan and the United States.

According to the report, Gilani warned the Pakistani authorities holding him that he had thousands of followers in the U.S. that would violently rise up to demand his release. Fuqra literature says he made similar threats when his recruits were held by Pakistani authorities in the 1980s.

The Pakistani official said the U.S. provided documentation showing that Gilani and his organization (going by the alternative name of Tanzeem ul-Fuqra) was involved in crimes in the U.S. in the 1980s, including ones related to the Fuqra camp in Colorado that was raided and the firebombing of a Hare Krishna temple in Denver in 1984.[43]

Brigadier Javed Cheema, the Director-General of the Pakistan Interior Ministry’s Crisis Management Cell, implied that such an extradition request exists in February 2002. He said that the U.S. government considered Gilani to be a wanted terrorist.[44]

Khawaja published an editorial with two other authors in the Los Angeles Times on February 6 urging Pearl’s captors to release him. The authors interestingly refer to Gilani as the leader of Jamaat ul-Fuqra (even Gilani always denied leading it or that the group even exists). Khawaja’s article pressures Fuqra and Harakat ul-Mujahideen to release Pearl. Khawaja’s article suggests that Pearl’s captors release him in exchange for the U.S. ending a request for Pakistan to extradite Gilani.[45]

It is unclear when the reported extradition request was filed.

The Missing Week

Another unsolved element of the story is that of the missing week from February 5 when Omar Sheikh (the kidnapper) turned himself in to a trusted ISI contact to February 12 when he was officially arrested by Pakistani police.

The man who Sheikh approached was Brigadier Ijaz Shah, a former officer in the army and member of the ISI. He was the Home Secretary of Punjab Province at the time and later was appointed as the director of the Intelligence Bureau in 2004 by President Musharraf. According to The Exile, Shah was Omar Sheikh’s maternal uncle and an ISI brigadier.

Brig. Ijaz Shah has been accused of involvement in the 2007 assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as was former ISI director Hamid Gul.[46] Gilani may also be linked to this circle as he reportedly had links to Gul and was a fierce enemy of Bhutto’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and supported the Islamist coup that overthrew him.

It is reported, but not confirmed, that the week was spent with Sheikh and ISI strategizing “how little he would say about ISI’s support for terrorist groups in Kashmir and Pakistan in exchange for not being extradited to the United States.” The ISI was undoubtedly up to something with him since they did not tell the U.S. that he was in custody.[47]

According to The Exile, Brig. Ijaz Shah “kept him [Omar Sheikh] hidden in the Punjab for a week, coaching him on what to say, before handing him over to the ISI proper–which allowed U.S. investigators to see him. When the FBI asked Omar Sheikh why Pearl had been killed, his answers were vague,” only saying that a high-level Al-Qaeda official ordered it.

Former ISI director General Ziauddin Butt claimed that Brig. Ijaz Shah, as director of the Intelligence Bureau, oversaw Osama Bin Laden’s refuge in Abbottabad.[48]

Sheikh refused to cooperate with FBI interrogators when asked about the ISI. He responded, “I will not discuss this subject…I do not want my family to be killed.”[49]

Lack of Charges

Sheikh Gilani and his supporters are quick to point out that he has never been charged. However, it is not far-fetched to suggest that perpetrators including Gilani were/are protected. In fact, Gilani says that the High Court of Pakistan intervened to force the police to release him.[50]

A MOA statement heaped praise upon Pakistani President Musharraf for his handling of the suspicions towards Gilani during the Pearl episode. It referred to Musharraf as “Honorable.” A MOA-affiliated source says the use of this title indicates that Gilani has met with Musharraf. The statement reads:

“One such courageous individual can be found in the personage of the Honorable President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, an ideal Muslim ruler, who single-handedly brought forth truth in defense of the Noble family, and sought to expose such conspiracies. There is much gratitude for his efforts. May he forever be saved from the corruption of the Illuminati, and may he become the principal thorn in their proverbial sides when exposing their conspiracies.”[51]

It is possible that a deal was struck between Gilani and his Pakistani hosts. Khawaja said that, during his detention, Gilani gave intelligence to the Pakistani government from his network in the U.S. and provided leads for persons of interest he was aware of.[52]

The Pearl Project investigation found that the Pakistani government was “distinctly unhelpful,” especially in regards to anything related to the ISI. It found anomalies in the investigation and prosecutions. The researchers identified 27 men from several terrorist groups that were involved and, at the time of the report’s release in 2011, almost half of them were not in prison.[53]

Considering the Pakistani ISI’s lack of cooperation in the case and in counter-terrorism more generally, as well as the ISI’s links to Gilani and the various terrorist groups involved in Pearl’s death, it is not far-fetched to suggest that perpetrators possibly including Gilani were/are protected.

It is also believable that the U.S. government would decline to file charges against Gilani in order not to potentially harm counter-terrorism cooperation with the Pakistani government, especially if the Pakistanis agreed to closely monitor and/or curtail Gilani’s activities. The U.S. government has downplayed and covered up evidence linking important international partners to terrorist activity before, particularly regarding the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Gilani and MOA are quick to reference a quote from FBI Special Agent Kathy Diskin who participated in the investigation. She made the peculiar statement, “I had an opportunity to sit in on an interview with Sheikh Gilani, and within 15 minutes, our feeling was he was not involved in this.” She did not explain how such a determination could be made in 15 minutes, especially when the U.S. official in Pakistan that Pearl consulted with says that his office knew barely anything about Gilani and his group.

A FBI agent spoke to activist Martin Mawyer around 2009 and he had direct knowledge of money being traced from MOA camps, some of which was generated from welfare scams and drug sales, to London. He said, “When we wanted to trace it from London, we were stopped. [The U.S. government] has no interest in pursuing it because Pakistan is an important ally, and we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize it.”[54]

Input From MOA-Affiliated Sources

All of the MOA-affiliated sources, former and current, that were interviewed for this website project stated that they believe Gilani was involved in Pearl’s death to varying degrees of confidence. A portion of these sources provided testimonies for this site.[55]

The sources said that they never heard anyone inside Fuqra/MOA flatly deny Gilani’s involvement in private. The general sentiment was that Pearl deserved his fate for being part of a plot to defame and kill Gilani.

One source recalls hearing conversations where members said they wished that Gilani had recruited MOA members to commit the murder so that he wouldn’t have been blamed.

A source says that Gilani was angry with MOA after his arrest in Pakistan for a lack of response. He reportedly said that he should have heard their screams from the Americas to demand his release. This caused some members to see him as a weak hypocrite because many of them have gone to prison for the cause, but he’s upset about a few days of detention.

The sources independently stated their belief that the death of Pearl brought about an unbearable level of scrutiny upon Gilani and MOA, forcing them to refrain from overly risky acts like violent retaliation against opponents. One source said that explicit orders from the MOA leadership conveyed their decision to become outwardly patriotic and to conduct a full-scale image makeover.

Some sources explicitly stated that Ryan Mauro of the Clarion Project (and the chief editor of this website) would have been killed by MOA members if it weren’t for the Pearl atrocity. These sources urged Mauro and his collaborators to be extremely cautious, warning that the group’s violent impulses remain and that a threshold could be reached where Gilani and MOA decide that violent action is worth the risk.

Theories

The authors of this website believe the information in this section should resurrect the question of whether Gilani was involved in Pearl’s murder, either by directly orchestrating it or tipping off Islamist terrorists about his travel through Khawaja.

There are now several theories:

The conventional theory is that Sheikh Gilani is innocent and Pearl’s captors independently exploited Pearl’s desire to interview him in order to trap him under the guise of arranging the interview.

 

A second theory is that Gilani collaborated with Pearl’s murderers in orchestrating the entire plot, including his death, ever since he learned that Pearl wanted to contact him.

 

 

A third theory is that Khalid Khawaja independently set up Pearl and did not tell Gilani. This is considered unlikely given Khawaja’s close relationship with Gilani and concern for his safety.

 

 

A fourth theory is that Gilani facilitated Pearl’s kidnapping upon learning that Pearl wanted an interview and may not have known what Pearl’s captors intended to do with him. This could have been done out of a genuine belief that Pearl was a CIA/Israeli assassin sent to kill him and/or that Pearl is a legitimate target for jihad.

It is also possible that Gilani was financially compensated by Pearl’s captors. Another possibility is that Gilani sought to use Pearl as some kind of bargaining chip. Khawaja’s suggestion that U.S. end its extradition request of Gilani in exchange for Pearl could point in this direction.

Theories As to Why Gilani Was Publicly Exonerated

If indeed Gilani was involved and an extradition request was made by the U.S. (even if the request was not based on Pearl’s murder) then additional theories are necessary for why he was let free.

A first theory is that Pakistan protected Gilani and Khawaja, who have long ties to the Pakistani government, military and intelligence services. Gilani’s praise of President Musharraf for his handling of the episode is notable in this regard. It is possible that some kind of agreement was made during Gilani’s detention.

 

A second possibility is that the U.S. and Pakistan came to a compromise and the U.S. was willing to back off of Gilani in exchange for broader counter-terrorism cooperation and perhaps restrictions on Gilani’s activities.

 

A third possibility is simply that the U.S. lacked the evidence to file charges against Gilani for Pearl’s murder, although it is highly unlikely that the U.S. government determined it lacked the evidence to file charges for his previous activity in America.

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Footnotes and Citations

[1] His Eminence Sultan Mohyuddin Syed Mubarik Ali Gilani Hashimi Hassani wal Husaini. (n.d.). “Pillar of Lies.” International Quranic Open University-Muslims of the Americas.

[2] “I.Q.O.U. Vice Chancellor Presents Historic Evidence of Situations Created to Cast Islam as the Enemy.” (2010). Islamic Post. Available at http://www.islamicpostonline.com/opinion/2010/02/07/iqou_vice_chancellor_presents_historic_evidence_situations_created_cast_islam_enemy/.

[3] Id.

[4] Safiyyullah, Umm. (2007). Slander Against Muslim Communities Misses the Mark.

[5] Sharif, Arshad. (2002). Brig Cheema Says Omar Misleading Investigators. Dawn. http://www.dawn.com/news/21651/brig-cheema-says-omar-misleading-investigators

[6] More information is available about this relationship in MOA’s links to other Islamist groups.

[7] “The Truth Left Behind: Inside the Kidnapping and Murder of Daniel Pearl.” (2011). The Pearl Project.

[8] Sharif, Arshad. (2002). Brig Cheema Says Omar Misleading Investigators. Dawn. Supra note 5. 

[9] Jehl, Douglas. (2002). Pakistan Holds 2 Ex-Agents in Kidnapping. New York Times.

[10] Sharif, Arshad. (2002). Brig Cheema Says Omar Misleading Investigators. Dawn. Supra note 5. 

[11] Mariane Pearl and Sarah Crichton. (2003). A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Daniel Pearl. Scribner.

[12] Sharif, Arshad. (2002). Brig Cheema Says Omar Misleading Investigators. Dawn. Supra note 5. 

[13] Id.

[14] Mawyer, Martin. (2012). Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps Inside America. Christian Action Network.

[15] Mariane Pearl and Sarah Crichton. (2003). A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Daniel Pearl. Supra note 11. 

[16] Sharif, Arshad. (2002). Brig Cheema Says Omar Misleading Investigators. Dawn. Supra note 5. 

[17] Mariane Pearl and Sarah Crichton. (2003). A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Daniel Pearl. Supra note 11. 

[18] Exposing Roots of Terrorism in USA. (2006). International Quranic Open University and Muslims of the Americas Inc. website.

[19] Levy, Bernard-Henry. (2004). Who Killed Daniel Pearl? Melville House.

[20] “The Truth Left Behind: Inside the Kidnapping and Murder of Daniel Pearl.” (2011). The Pearl Project.

[21] “Did Pearl Die Because Pakistan Deceived CIA?” (2002). Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

[22] Ali, Tariq. (2002). Who Really Killed Daniel Pearl? Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/apr/05/pressandpublishing.pakistan

[23] Klaidman, Daniel. (2002). Federal Grand Jury Set to Indict Sheikh. Newsweek.

[24] Wilson, John. (2007). The General and Jihad. Pentagon Press.

[25] The Daniel Pearl Story: A First Person Account. (2007). Republican National Convention Blog.

[26] Mariane Pearl and Sarah Crichton. (2003). A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Daniel Pearl. Supra note 11. 

[27] “Final Confirmation of Hazrat Mahdi.” (2009). (2009). Islamic Post.

[28] Exposing Roots of Terrorism in USA. (2006). International Quranic Open University and Muslims of the Americas Inc. website.

[29] Mawyer, Martin. (2012). Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps Inside America. Christian Action Network.

[30] Safiyyullah, Umm. (2007). Slander Against Muslim Communities Misses the Mark.

[31] “The Truth Left Behind: Inside the Kidnapping and Murder of Daniel Pearl.” (2011). The Pearl Project.

[32] Mariane Pearl and Sarah Crichton. (2003). A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Daniel Pearl. Supra note 11. 

[33] Safiyyullah, Umm. (2007). Slander Against Muslim Communities Misses the Mark.

[34] His Eminence Sultan Mohyuddin Syed Mubarik Ali Gilani Hashimi Hassani wal Husaini. (n.d.). “Pillar of Lies.” International Quranic Open University-Muslims of the Americas.

[35] Sharif, Arshad. (2002). Brig Cheema Says Omar Misleading Investigators. Dawn. Supra note 5. 

[36] Missing Wall Street Journal Reporter, Daniel Pearl, Investigation Update 01/29. (2002). U.S. State Department Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. The name of the interviewee is redacted in the declassified memo.

[37] Id.

[38] Safiyyullah, Umm. (2007). Slander Against Muslim Communities Misses the Mark.

[39] Mariane Pearl and Sarah Crichton. (2003). A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Daniel Pearl. Supra note 11. 

[40] Brandon Bailey and Sean Webby. (2002). U.S. Focuses on Rural Muslim Group Linked to Missing Reporter. San Jose Mercury News. https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-120559472.html

[41] Exposing Roots of Terrorism in USA. (2006). International Quranic Open University and Muslims of the Americas Inc. website.

[42] Levy, Bernard-Henry. (2004). Who Killed Daniel Pearl? Melville House.

[43] Militant Group That Kidnapped Reporter May Have S.C. Camp. (2002). The State.

[44] Sharif, Arshad. (2002). Brig Cheema Says Omar Misleading Investigators. Dawn. Supra note 5. 

[45] Khalid Khawaja, Shaheen Sehbai and Mansoor Ijaz. (2002). True Muslims Would Release Pearl at Once. Los Angeles Times.

[46] “PPP Demands Probe Based on Benazir’s Letter.” (2007). Dawn. http://www.dawn.com/news/282349/ppp-demands-probe-based-on-benazir

[47] “Did Pearl Die Because Pakistan Deceived CIA?” (2002). Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/datelinedc/s_20141.html

[48] Ignatius, David. (2012). What Did Pakistan Know About Bin Laden? Washington Post.

[49] Klaidman, Daniel. (2002). Federal Grand Jury Set to Indict Sheikh. Newsweek.

[50] His Eminence Sultan Mohyuddin Syed Mubarik Ali Gilani Hashimi Hassani wal Husaini. (n.d.). “Pillar of Lies.” International Quranic Open University-Muslims of the Americas.

[51] Safiyyullah, Umm. (2007). Slander Against Muslim Communities Misses the Mark.

[52] Levy, Bernard-Henry. (2004). Who Killed Daniel Pearl? Melville House.

[53] “The Truth Left Behind: Inside the Kidnapping and Murder of Daniel Pearl.” (2011). The Pearl Project.

[54] Mawyer, Martin. (2012). Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps Inside America. Christian Action Network.

[55] For the stories of a few of these MOA-affiliated sources, see the section of this website for first-hand testimonies.

Picture Chart Credit: Georgetown University, The Pearl Project, available at http://pearlproject.georgetown.edu/.