[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 23 (Wednesday, March 6, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E285]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN HONOR OF DANIEL PEARL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 6, 2002

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, on February 21, 2002, the world learned of 
the horrific and senseless murder of Wall Street Journal reporter 
Daniel Pearl. An extraordinary American and a courageous and talented 
journalist, Pearl was killed in the pursuit of truth. Abducted in 
Karachi, Pakistan, Pearl was investigating potential connections 
between alleged shoe-bomber Richard Reid and radical fundamentalists in 
Pakistan. His death represents a tragedy not only for his wife 
Marianne, now seven months pregnant, and their family, but for all 
humanity.
  Daniel Pearl's murder left an indelible mark on the world of 
journalism. A colleague who had the privilege of knowing Pearl is Don 
Kazak, a highly respected senior staff writer and former editor of the 
Palo Alto Weekly. It was at the Weekly that Pearl, then a student at 
Stanford University, began his career in journalism as an Editorial 
Intern during the spring of 1984.
  Mr. Speaker, I respectfully submit for the Record a tribute to Daniel 
Pearl written by Don Kazak and published in the Palo Alto Weekly on 
February 27, 2002. I share it with my colleagues who I'm sure will find 
it as poignant and instructive as I did.

               [From the Palo Alto Weekly, Feb. 27, 2002]

                    Our Town: ``Is That Our Danny?''

                             (By Don Kazak)

       There is always distance between us and what we read in the 
     newspaper or watch on the evening news.
       These are usually events happening far away, which don't 
     touch us.
       The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks touched many, and shocked, 
     angered or numbed the nation, but for most there was still a 
     distance. As much as I felt for what happened, it was other 
     people, somewhere else.
       And then I heard about Wall Street Journal Danny Pearl 
     being captured by a radical Islamist group. He had been a 
     reporter for the Journal for 12 years. It was a big, 
     international news story--but it touched me deeply and 
     personally, along with others at the Weekly and at Stanford 
     University.
       Pearl was based in Pakistan and had traveled to Karachi, 
     which is kind of the Wild West of Pakistan, to interview 
     radical Islamists.
       Then there was the photo of him sitting head bowed, hands 
     tied, with a gun to his head.
       Like many of the rest of rest of us, I have a hard time 
     putting a label on what is right or wrong. Maybe I've covered 
     too many stories for too many years.
       The Weekly has employed editorial interns for many years. 
     They are basically low-paid college help to get some 
     newspaper experience as part of their education. These have 
     been mostly terrific kids, bright and eager.
       We've had so many interns over the years that they kind of 
     blur together for me.
       But I remember Danny, Stanford class of 1985. He had a 
     bright smile and was obviously very talented. He's one of 
     those I distinctly remember, and I recoiled at the image of 
     him with a gun to his head.
       I was the editor of the Weekly when Pearl was an intern, 
     and when the news broke about his capture Carol Blitzer, an 
     editor then and now, asked me, ``Is that our Danny?''
       Carol later received an e-mail from Kathleen Donnelly, a 
     former Weekly reporter and Mercury News writer, now living in 
     Seattle, which confirmed: That is our Danny.
       He was so good-natured when he was here that it is hard to 
     envision him as a hard-edged hard-news reporter. But that's 
     what he has been and what he has been doing, chasing a 
     difficult story in a dangerous place.
       Eight journalists have already been killed trying to cover 
     the mess in Afghanistan, because they wanted to ``get the 
     story.''
       I have a lavish photo book, ``Requiem,'' about the Vietnam 
     War, the war of my youth, the war I marched against. In it 
     are the photos of photographers who died covering the wars in 
     Southeast Asia, 135 of them.
       I don't know if I would have had the courage to do what 
     Danny Pearl was doing. But I sense the desire to get the 
     story. He wanted to know--which is what drives all good 
     journalists.
       He and his wife were expecting their first child when he 
     was kidnapped, adding to the pathos. Now that baby will grow 
     up without ever knowing his or her father.
       As a reporter, it has been bred deep within me not ever to 
     take sides. I'm just a reporter, trying to make sense of what 
     I see and hear for our readers. But no one can make sense of 
     his death.
       Now, it turns out he was killed not just because he was an 
     American reporter, but because he was also a Jew.
       Sometimes I think people who ignore what's going on the 
     world around them have an easier time, because they don't 
     have to feel for what is happening. But some things touch 
     even the people once removed, reading a newspaper or watching 
     the news on TV. This was one of those times.
       When the World Trade Center towers collapsed, it was a 
     tragedy for thousands of people and their families, friends, 
     co-workers, all of us. There is still one photo which haunts 
     me, taken on the fly by a Magnum photographer who didn't see 
     what he shot until he looked at his film later.
       In the photo, there are dozens of people outside the 
     windows of the upper floors of one of the World Trade Center 
     towers, fires billowing below them. They were there, looking 
     out of the building, and they all died.
       That was impersonal, because it was just people in the 
     photo, none of whom I knew.
       And then there was the photo of Danny Pearl with a gun to 
     his head, killed for trying to get the story.

     

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