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.
Bernard-Henri Levy's Who Killed Daniel Pearl? offers a harrowing look at Pearl's life and tragic death wrought with a unique blending of journalism, novelist's imagination, and autobiography. Levy--an acclaimed French philosopher and bestselling author in Europe--in 2002 launched a one-year journey to understand Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl and the circumstances that led to his murder in Pakistan; the briskly paced result traces a thread from Pearl's killers through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and, possibly, to Al-Quaida. In building his case, Levy takes none of the news stories on face value. At great personal risk, he follows the same steps that Pearl walked to the very farm house where the journalist was killed. He seems to question everything and provides bearing witness as the truth-telling reportage required in a nation like Pakistan that "has lost even the very idea of what a free press could be."
But Levy does not let his interrogative mind crush the emotional weight of his subject. He questions himself frequently, undermines his own assumptions, and continually returns to the man, Pearl: "a man who was ordinary and exemplary, normal and admirable." Ultimately, the book is a powerful work of compassion as much as a valuable bit of detective work. It is about a good man who died too soon as well as the terrible alliances that could perform such an act against him. Levy does not want Pearl's lessons to be lost to the world. He, like Pearl, seeks a "gentle Islam" that will resist the ring of blood and hate in what Levy calls "the beginning of the grand struggle of the century." --Patrick O'Kelley
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Rape of consciousness:
BHL is a specialist in intox and here the rape of conscience against a backdrop of megalomania (his own). His portrait is quite rightly camped in "Une imposture française" by French journalists Nicolas Beau and Olivier Toscer where "Who Killed Daniel Pearl" is analyzed into its component field. There is evidence that BHL was in a physical impossibility to reach the scene of the execution of journalist Daniel Pearl and that any description of the scene is fantastic. I quote Mrs. Daniel... more info
Great Adventure:
I picked up this book at a used bookstore in Ojai. Because I knew Levy was a philosopher, I expected the book to be about the meaning of Pearl's execution. It turned out to be a page-turner adventure story about Levy's investigation, with stops in Karachi, Islamabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Dubai, Delhi, and Los Angeles and a huge and often shady cast of characters, many with multiple aliases. Ultimately Levy's investigation leads to a lot of conjecture about who was responsible for what and the purpose of the... more info
A sharing and shining of light:
This is another of those books which by the very provocative nature of its title invites apprehension and misunderstanding from those who have not read it. Other reviewers have summarized the contents of the book quite adequately, so I shall confine my description to this: the volume details Bernard-Henri Levy's one year investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 2002 murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Levy is on the ground in Karachi, Los Angeles, London, and just about anywhere... more info
Suspenseful, somewhat difficult to read.:
Bernard Henri Levy is the sometimes controversial investigative French reporter/novelist who has been on assignment for a variety of publications all over the world. In going after the story of Daniel Pearl, which "morphed" into this fascinating account, Levy was no stranger to the risks of Pearl's path, boldly going along the paths followed by Pearl into Pakistan, where he died. The book is intriguing, long, complicated, and may be slightly "off" for readers because of the nature of the translation to... more info
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