Al-Qaeda's New Boss Linked to Pearl's Killing

The 2002 kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl can be added to new al-Qaeda leader Saif al-Adel's extensive record of murder and mayhem, according to Georgetown University's Pearl Project. Investigators found that the Egyptian discussed the kidnapping with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and decided al-Qaeda should become involved, Reuters reports.

Mohammed—who later confessed to beheading Pearl—"told the FBI that he was pulled into the kidnapping by a high-level leader in al-Qaeda circles, an Egyptian named Saif al-Adel, who told him to make the kidnapping an al-Qaeda operation," the Georgetown report states. Osama bin Laden was angered by Pearl's killing, believing it attracted too much attention to al-Qaeda's network inside Pakistan, according to the report.