The Oyster Story

Why was Pearl kidnapped and executed? Was he simply on the trail of the shoe bomber? Was he seeking an answer to the connection between Aftab Ansari’s kidnapping of a Calcutta shoe magnate and a huge remittance made to Mohammad Atta, the main 9/11 hijacker and plane-bomber, by Omar Saeed at the behest of the isi chief? Was it because he was seeking to establish a link between Pakistan’s top leaders, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the hijacking of an Indian aircraft from Kathmandu? Like a good philosopher and a novelist, Levy does not answer the questions directly. But the answer was given by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in an interview to the Washington Post: "Perhaps Daniel Pearl was over-inquisitive; a media person should be aware of the dangers of getting into dangerous areas; unfortunately, he got over-involved in intelligence games."