[tictoc]

American reporter Danny Pearl's abduction and murder was not the first crime in which Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the man who lured him to his death, played a major role.

This article provides more info on the twisted mindset that informed Sheikh's crimes. While he has been sentenced to death, there are doubts that Pakistan's auhtorities will indeed execute him. He still has many powerful patrons throughout Pakistan's intelligence services (ISI).

A long read, but in my opinion worth it. We are in this war against Islamic terrorists for the long haul and need to find - and kill -- many of them. As the case of Sheikh proves, not all are unschooled savages, and we must not underestimate our foes.

[Irene Adler]

""We didn't choose a profession," said Mariane, a strong-minded Buddhist who has been likened to Yoko Ono. "We didn't choose it for ego purposes but we chose it because we wanted to change the world."

Is Mariane a journalist as well or was she using the 'royal "we"'?

Whether this is purely her idea of journalism or was her husband's as well, wanting to "change the world" as a journalist would certainly seem to lead right to biased reporting (reporting only those "truths" that might influence the world to change in the way one wanted).

The statement about "ego purposes" is an odd one. Expecting to change the world all by oneself (through journalism, yet) sounds terribly egotistical to me. Mariane brings ego up and then denies it as a motivation. Interesting and revealing.

[Aaron_A]

I have always believed that there was more to Pearl's murder than what we have been told. I wouldn't be surprised if leads from his death go quite deep into the ISI and Pakistani military/government heirarchy. If you add in the recent reports of Pakistani bunglings in the Omar Shiekh trial, things get even more curious.

With friends like these...