Alleged Pearl Killer Captured

An al Qaeda militant arrested with Sept. 11 organizer Ramzi Binalshibh has been identified as one of the killers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a senior police official said Tuesday.

The identification was made by a Pakistani held but not charged in the kidnap-slaying of Pearl, the South Asian correspondent for the Journal, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to the official, the Pakistani, Fazal Karim, was taken to an intelligence agency safe house where 10 suspects, including Binalshibh, were held. Most of them were Yemenis, officials have said.

The official refused to identify the alleged Pearl killer by name but said he was not among the five people, including Binalshibh, who were handed over to U.S. authorities Monday and flown out of the country.

If true, Karim's statement would be the first evidence that al Qaeda may have been involved in Pearl's abduction and killing.

Pearl, 38, was kidnapped Jan. 23 in Karachi while working on a story about links between Pakistani Islamic extremists and Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December 2001 after he allegedly tried to light explosives in his shoes while on a flight from Paris to Miami.

A few days later, e-mails were received by Western and Pakistani news organizations from the heretofore unknown National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty announcing Pearl's kidnapping.

In February, a videotape given to American diplomats in Karachi confirmed Pearl was dead. A body found in May in a shallow grave in Karachi was later identified through DNA tests as Pearl's.

It was unclear what impact the revelation would have on the government's case against four Pakistani militants who were convicted of Pearl's abduction in July. British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was sentenced to death by hanging and the others received life sentences. All have appealed.

Pearl's body was found after the trial of the four had already begun. The government has never charged Karim nor the two others nor officially confirmed they are being held.

However, police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press last month that the three men gave them detailed accounts of Pearl's days in captivity. They said a group of Arabs believed to be Yemenis cut Pearl's throat three days after he tried to escape.

In Karachi, meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf said the arrest of Binalshibh and the others shows that security forces have broken the back of terrorist networks in Pakistan.

The suspects were arrested in two raids last week in this port city, which has long been suspected as a hide-out for al Qaeda and Taliban figures who fled Afghanistan following the collapse of Taliban rule there.

"The recent action taken by the law enforcement agencies against terrorist networks, especially al Qaeda, have improved the law and order situation in Pakistan," Musharraf said. "The police, the (paramilitary) Rangers and the intelligence agencies have broken the terrorist network."

Musharraf declined to talk about the handover of Binalshibh and the others. Pakistani officials said they were no longer in the country but would not disclose their final destination.

Those handed over to U.S. custody Monday also included Umar al-Gharib, a brother of al Qaeda leader Tawfiq Attash Khallad, according to a U.S. defense official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Khallad is thought to be one of the masterminds of the deadly October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen. Though not a leader in al Qaeda, al-Gharib may have valuable information nonetheless, the official said.

Legal experts said Binalshibh fits the administration's criteria for use of military tribunals: He is not a U.S. citizen, he was captured abroad, and he is allegedly a member of al Qaeda.

"He certainly fits the bill," said Neal Sonnett, a Miami criminal defense lawyer who was an early critic of administration plans to strip traditional legal protections from defendants tried before tribunals.

"If they are going to utilize military commissions to try any of these folks, based on what we've heard about him he seems to be a likely candidate."

So far, there is no indication that any alleged terrorist has been tried by a military tribunal, whose proceedings can be kept much more secret than ordinary courts. Some lawyers said the administration may be waiting for a big enough fish.