Abductors send threat to execute hostage reporter

The Washington Post

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A new e-mail from the purported kidnappers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl warned Wednesday that he would be killed within 24 hours and other journalists would be targeted if the United States doesn’t meet demands that include releasing Pakistani prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Pakistani and U.S. law enforcement authorities believe the e-mail — the second sent to several news organizations this week — was from the abductors because it included two more photographs of Pearl that appeared to have been taken in the same series as those attached to the initial claim of responsibility. It wasn’t clear when the 24-hour deadline would expire.

Eight journalists have been killed since the war began in Afghanistan last year, and hundreds of reporters have worked in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, but taking a journalist hostage is extremely unusual. A Pakistani reporter for Time Magazine was detained under mysterious circumstances but released last week in Karachi, but there are no other recent, known cases of abduction of foreign journalists in Pakistan.

Police have declined to offer a theory on who is behind the abduction, saying only that its sophistication appeared to be the work of a well-organized intelligence organization or terrorist group.

The e-mail dispatched Wednesday to several news organizations around the world, including The Washington Post, was longer and far more rambling than the first message sent on Sunday. It also was rife with spelling errors.

Although the message could not be authenticated, police said they were treating it seriously because of the photographs of Pearl that were attached, included one in which a man was pointing a revolver gripped with both hands at Pearl’s head.

The message said the kidnappers have determined that "contrary to what we thought earlier," Pearl was not working for the CIA, but rather for the Israeli intelligence service.

"Therefore, we will execute him within 24 hours unless amreeka flfils our demands," the message continued. "we apologise to his family for the worry caused and we will send them food packages just as amreeka apologised for collateral damage and dropped food packets on the thousands of people … it had killed."

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