Daniel Pearl Biography

Daniel PearlDaniel Pearl, the world-renowned journalist who lost his life tragically when he was murdered as a captive of Pakistani terrorists in 2002, remained at the center of media attention during the first months of 2002. Though most remember him because of his death, those who knew him drew attention to his life by helping to compile his best writings into a book, and his wife created a memoir in his honor titled, A Mighty Heart: the Inside Story of the Al Qaeda Kidnapping of Daniel Pearl.Daniel Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on October 10, 1963. Pearl grew up in California, where his father, Judea Pearl, worked as a professor at UCLA. Known throughout his life as Danny, Pearl graduated from Stanford University in 1985 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and a major in communications. With a passion for journalism, Pearl was dedicated and hard working and had landed a job with the Wall Street Journal in just five short years after graduating.Pearl began at the Wall Street Journal in 1990 at the Atlanta bureau and moved to the Washington D.C. bureau in 1993. Three more years passed, and in 1996, Pearl found himself at the London bureau of the Wall Street Journal. He was on assignment in Paris when he met his wife, now widow, Mariane van Neyenhoff. They were married in August of 1999.Pearl found himself on what would be his last assignment, investigating links between Al Qaeda and Pakistan's intelligence service and funding of 9/11, when he was kidnapped on January 23, 2002, in Karachi, Pakistan. A militant group referring to themselves as The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, accused Pearl of being a spy and kidnapped Pearl on his way to an interview.Pearl was detained and pictures were sent of him handcuffed and held at gunpoint to the United States government officials accompanied by terrorist demands. Though his family, including his wife, who was then pregnant with their first child, pled for his life, his captives murdered him on February 1, 2002. To compound the grief and tragedy surrounding Pearl's death, video footage depicting his actual death compiled by his terrorist captives began circulating on the Internet on February 21.Today, the Daniel Pearl Foundation, started by his friends and family in 2002, operates in his memory with the mission to promote cross-cultural understanding through journalism, music, and innovative communications. A book titled, Who Killed Daniel Pearl? by Bernard-Henri Levy was published in 2003 and has been adapted into a film. The memoir written by Pearl's wife has also been adapted into a screenplay, with starring roles by Angelina Jolie and Dan Futterman, and is in the process of being filmed.Daniel Pearl has a son, Adam, who was born May 28, 2002, less than three months after his death.