Daniel Pearl murder investigation a sham, claims report

"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi," Mohammed said, according to a Pentagon transcript released nearly four years ago. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head." - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

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More than eight years after the brutal murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl by terrorists, a group of U.S. journalists claim the Pakistani government botched the investigation and prosecution of the high-profile case. In a report on their investigation, released yesterday, the journalists claim the convictions of four men for killing the Wall Street Journal reporter were possibly a result of a "show trial" that was held by the government of then-President Pervez Musharraf to appease the Bush administration in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The report released by members of The Pearl Project claims the men were not even present during Pearl's shocking beheading. The report ascertains that the four suspects were convicted of murder because Pakistani law enforcement officials purposely allowed perjured testimony, fabricated evidence and lack of investigative integrity that included ignoring investigative aids. The Pearl Project's three-year probe alleges that the four radical Islamists convicted for the Pearl murder were part of the abduction plot, but were not the men directly responsible for the beheading of the kidnapped journalist. The Pearl Project's report also states that forensic evidence such as "vein-matching" coincides with the confession of al-Qaeda terror chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind and commander of the September 11 attacks. According to The Pearl Project report, as many as 14 of the radical Muslims involved in abducting and executing Pearl in 2002 have never been tried and punished for their heinous crime. As of now Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has not been indicted for his role in the Pearl abduction and murder. "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi," Mohammed said, according to a Pentagon transcript released nearly four years ago. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head." The report describes how FBI and CIA agents used the forensic technique of vein-matching to compare the hand of the executioner with a photo of al-Qaeda's number three commander's hand. According to the FBI's report, Mohammed told interrogators that an al-Qaeda commander suggested he take over custody of Pearl from the original abductors. Daniel Pearl was captured while traveling to meet a man he was told was a radical imam with information on the terrorist organization responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building in Washington, DC. It's believes that more than two dozen Islamic terrorists were involved in Pearl's kidnapping and death. At least three different radical Islamic groups were involved in the plot, including terrorists led by the British-Pakistani "Sheikh Omar" and a gang of terrorists led by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, according to the report. The three-year Pearl Project investigation was conducted by faculty members and journalism students at Georgetown University in Washington. It was released yesterday by the Center for Public Integrity. (Full report available: )