Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Pearl mourns for Berg's family
Slain reporter's widow tells crowd: 'Violence doesn't end violence'
By MEG JONES
As the video images of American civilian contractor Nick Berg being beheaded in Iraq were broadcast Tuesday, Mariane Pearl's thoughts were of Berg's family.
Pearl knows what his mother is going through - Pearl's husband, Daniel, a journalist abducted in Pakistan in 2002, was slain in the same vivid, public way.
"It's a horrendous murder similar to the one Danny went through, and proof that violence leads to violence," Mariane Pearl told an audience at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts Tuesday night. "This cycle of violence is not likely to end."
Berg, 26, a Philadelphia native, is seen on the video saying the names of his mother and father and sitting on a floor in front of masked kidnappers. One of the kidnappers then takes out a knife and kills Berg.
The gruesome images bear an eerie resemblance to a videotape showing the beheading of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter. But the urge to take revenge on the murderers, his widow said, must be resisted.
"Those who killed Danny and those who killed Nicholas Berg are despicable people but violence doesn't end violence," Pearl said.
Pearl, 36, who published a book in September about her ordeal, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband," spoke as part of the "From the Heart" lecture series.
Daniel Pearl, 38, disappeared in Karachi, Pakistan, on Jan. 23, 2002, while researching an article about Islamic extremism and "shoe bombing" suspect Richard Reid. Based in India, he was the The Wall Street Journal's South Asia bureau chief.
Several weeks later, a videotape was released to U.S. diplomats that showed Pearl's beheading at the hands of a man investigators believe was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 hijackings.
In photos released by the kidnappers, Pearl said she could see her husband smiling and giving the "V for victory" sign.
"You can take somebody's life, but you can't take their strong spirit - and that's what the terrorists want - to take our strong spirit," she said.
Her husband was supposed to return home at 9 p.m. on the day he scheduled a meeting with Reid's spiritual adviser for his story. But when he didn't return, she tried calling his cell phone and learned his phone was out of range.
She immediately knew something was terribly wrong because he would always call her and let her know when he was traveling out of range.
"We knew it was al-Qaida. We knew it was the people who sent planes into the World Trade Center. We knew they were people who did not have pity," she said.
But she said she remained calm because she knew her husband was calm throughout his ordeal and she didn't want the kidnappers to break her spirit, just as they could not break his spirit.
"I was so determined to not let them win even if they were going to take our lives," she said.
Mariane Pearl was a French freelance journalist when she married her husband in 1999. Two days before the kidnapping, they learned she was carrying a boy. Three months after Daniel Pearl was killed, she gave birth to their son, Adam.