The Pearl Project: 27 involved in Daniel Pearl's murder, half still free

The Pearl Project was formed by fellow journalists and Georgetown University students to investigate the 2002 killing in Pakistan of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter raised in Los Angeles. The project's lead author, Asra Q. Nomani, was a friend and colleague. Pearl had left her home in Karachi for the interview where he was kidnapped. The project was inspired by the Arizona Project that investigated the murder-by-bombing of Arizona reporter Don Bolles in 1976.

"We hope that what follows here also serves as a tribute to Danny and to Don, and to all the other journalists around the world who have risked their lives or their freedom in the pursuit of truth," Nomani writes.

Nearly three-and-a-half years later, after conducting hundreds of interviews, scouring hundreds of documents, and filing one lawsuit, Feinman vs. CIA et al., against eight government agencies, we’ve resolved much of what we set out to accomplish.

There are still some unanswered questions but, for the most part, we’ve reported out the story

Read the entire investigation. From the key findings:

The kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl was a multifaceted, at times chaotic conspiracy. The Pearl Project has identified 27 men who played a part in the events surrounding the case. Members of at least three different militant groups took part in the crimes, including a team of kidnappers led by British-Pakistani Omar Sheikh and a team of killers led by Al Qaeda strategist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is known as KSM....

Nearly half of those implicated in Pearl’s abduction-murder — at least 14 men with some alleged involvement — are thought to remain free. The list includes guards, drivers, and fixers tied to the conspiracy.

Danny and Mariane Pearl's son Adam was born in Paris about four months after his death and is now eight years old. Pearl's parents Judea and Ruth live in Los Angeles.

The Pearl Project was sponsored by Georgetown University and the Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It was funded by grants from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.