| |
|
|
|
|
Who Killed Daniel Pearl?
by Bernard-Henri Lévy
From Publishers Weekly
Ostensibly an investigation into the murder of Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl, this ends up being a much more ambitious account
of the nefarious complicity of factions as varied as the Pakistan's
ISI (the secret service), regional Islamist groups, a wealthy landowner,
Pearl defendant Omar Sheikh and al-Qaida. It's a gripping read, as full
of suspenseful twists as of bold and occasionally loose theories. At
their root is Sheikh, the English-bred Pakistani radical who was convicted
of masterminding the Pearl crime. But this conviction, in the author's
fast-moving mind, is far from an open-and-shut case, and Lévy
follows up his preliminary conclusion that "the affair contained
a heavy and terrible secret." What that secret is grows and changes,
but in the final analysis it comes down to Sheikh being an operative
of both the ISI and al-Qaida and then taking the fall for both at the
trial. Pearl, Levy argues, was killed not for who he was, but because
of what he had discovered. The conclusions, however, are in a sense
less important than the ride that gets us there. The author's moments
of gonzo journalism are thrilling, as when he penetrates a forbidden
madrasa (seminary) by posing as "a special representative of the
French president." The earlier passages of the book, which take
some literary license in describing what Pearl must have felt, is alone
worth the price of admission. This book is a controversial bestseller
in France, where Levy has long been a leading philosopher and writer.
Here, interest in Pearl and the larger issues makes this both fascinating
and essential, even if you don't quite buy it all, and a credit to the
investigative reporter whose work it seeks to honor.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book
Description
It's one of the most ghastly images of our time: the on-camera murder
of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
But
to acclaimed writer Bernard-Henri Lévy the videotape was immediately
suspect. Why did it still include a ransom demand—for F-16 fighters
to be delivered to Pakistan? Were the kidnappers really just maniacal
fundamentalists who killed Pearl because he was American and Jewish, as
was widely assumed?
Operating
via a series of ruses—such as using his expired diplomatic passport—Lévy
set off to trace Pearl's final steps . . . and those of his killer.
The
result is a spell-binding book that combines a novelist's eye with riveting
investigative journalism, as Lévy travels the globe for the terrifying
true story: to Los Angeles to talk to Pearl's family about his final,
encrypted words; to England and Bosnia on the trail of the plot's mastermind;
to Dubai, on the terrorist's money trail; to New Delhi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi
. . .
And,
most perilously, to Karachi—where terrorists cross paths with nuclear
scientists and the dreaded "services" . . . where long-time
sources are suddenly too petrified to talk . . . where Lévy, Jewish
himself, confronts the very dangers faced by Pearl—and uncovers
a series of stunning revelations.
Who
Killed Daniel Pearl?, the first book to investigate Pearl's killing,
is a moving and heartfelt homage to the man Lévy calls his "posthumous
friend," and an unprecedented overview of the jihadist movement.
It is, as well, a clarion call to come to a fuller understanding of the
forces behind Daniel Pearl's murder . . . before it is too late.
About
the Author
Bernard-Henri Lévy is one of France's most famous philosophers
and one of the bestselling writers in Europe. He has held several diplomatic
positions with the French government and is one of Europe's preeminent
journalists, having started his career writing in the 1960s for Combat,
the famous newspaper of the French Freedom Fighters started by Albert
Camus during the German occupation of World War II. The author of numerous
books, including Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century,
What Good Are Intellectuals?, and Barbarism with a Human
Face, Lévy has written several books about the Islamic
Middle East. In 2002, he was appointed by the French government to head
a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan in the wake of its war with the
United States. |
|
YOUR SOURCE FOR JEWISH
BOOKS, REVIEWS &