The kidnapper story is now top news on CNN, but they left out various details. Furthermore it wasn't told on the first day, that the kidnappers claimed that Daniel Pearl is working for the CIA.

Right now only the CIA reacted, but no further statement by Washington.

For GZ that means, we have to look at other sources again.
Since 2 days no new briefing at the United States Department of Defense, so we really have to concentrate what's going on in Pakistan.

Paknews claims, that the kidnapping is related to India:

http://www.paknews.com/main.php?id=3&date1=2002-01-30

KARACHI JAN 30 (PNS):

"..Pakistani investigators of the Daniel Pearl kidnapping case have discovered that the man who had invited Pearl for a meeting at a downtown Karachi restaurant just before he went missing on Wednesday last made at least six phone calls to two different numbers in New Delhi before he abandoned his mobile phone on Saturday last, informed officials have confirmed here.

The officials said Pakistani intelligence officials and the agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are now making separate efforts to locate the individuals and addresses which were contacted in the Indian capital from Karachi at least 24 hours after Pearl's kidnapping around 7 pm from Village Garden restaurant near Karachi's Avari Towers hotel.

Pakistani investigators have established that fake identity papers under the name of Amir Siddiqi were used to purchase a mobile phone connection from the Mobilink only a week before Pearl's kidnapping. Final calls for the Wednesday appointment with Pearl as well as all post-kidnapping calls to Delhi were made from the same mobile phone connection.

Some Pakistani intelligence officials have long suspected that the agents from Indian intelligence service Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have penetrated into various jihadi organisations and they were active in frustrating President General Musharraf's drive to turn Pakistan into a modern and moderate Islamic state. A senior Pakistani official, however, said, "it was premature to speculate about an Indian hand in kidnapping, but the government is using its full resources to locate the perpetrators of the crime."

On Sunday, three days after the kidnapping, a previously unknown group called The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty sent an e-mail with attached pictures of Daniel Pearl to news organisations in Pakistan and abroad claiming responsibility for his kidnapping. The Organisation claimed that Pearl was a CIA official, a fact vehemently denied by the CIA and the Wall Street Journal, and demanded that all Pakistanis currently detained in the US and the American military base in Cuba be returned to Pakistan. It also echoed an oft-repeated Pakistan government demand with the United States to deliver the F-16 fighter aircraft - which have already been paid for by the government of Pakistan. A demand for the release of former Afghanistan ambassador to Pakistan was also put forward by the group which used an address of kidnapperguy@hotmail.com.

"Maybe to mislead the investigators and public opinion the demands have been drafted in a way as if they came from a motivated group within the government," observed a senior police investigator in Karachi.

Before his kidnapping last week, Pearl, the South Asia correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, was investigating the alleged links between a little known radical Islamic group called Jamat Al-Fuqra headed by a Pakistani named Sheikh Mubarak Jilani and Richard Reeves who had made an abortive bid to blow up an American airliner which was on way to Boston from Paris last month, Pearl's wife and colleagues informed Pakistani officials.

According to these accounts Pearl was particularly interested in tracing the individuals behind the e-mails that had been sent to and from Richard Reeves before he embarked upon a failed suicide mission from Paris. The e-mail traffic to Reeves had originated from Karachi's internet service provider called Cyber net, but they all originated from various internet cafes in the city.

To investigate the Reeves-Jilani story Pearl was very keen to meet Sheikh Jilani, whose Al-Fuqra was designated as terrorist organisation by the US State Department in 1995, but it was de-listed as a terrorist group in 1999. Al-Fuqra was involved in hate crimes and anti-Hindu violence in the United States. Its activities remained restricted to the United States.

Police officials suspect that Pearl's search for Jilani took a dangerous turn, as his contacts that include two Rawalpindi journalists mistakenly introduced him to the activists of a known Jihadi group, twice designated as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department.

A middle-aged Jihadi group activist identified as Bashir, which, according to the police investigators, was the fake identity of the man who had held an undercover meeting with Pearl at a Rawalpindi hotel room booked under a fake name two weeks ago, is now at the centre of police investigation into the kidnapping case.

After this Rawalpindi meeting during which Bashir promised Pearl a meeting with Sheikh Jilani's principal contact in Karachi, he stayed in touch with Pearl through his mobile phone and an e-mail address identified as: nobadmashi (Urdu for no rascality)@yahoo.com.

It was on Bashir's recommendation that Pearl set up an appointment with one Amir Siddiqi, also a fake name, for a meeting at 7 pm on Wednesday at Karachi's Village Garden restaurant near Avari Towers hotel..."

Because of their name and email address it still looks, like some conspiracy theoretics try to blame the CIA or Mossad and use the kidnap as an excuse to get publicity.

But the role of Wall Street Journal is still suspect too, same to the reaction of Washington. Right now i'm not sure in which direction this case goes. Blackmail because of Insider Knowledge, fake or speculative knowledge or a real terrorist group who think, they know something or just have some political statements...

"..Khalid Khwaja, who described himself as a friend of the [arrested] sheikh, told CNN no arrangements were actually made with Pearl. He said Pearl's kidnappers have nothing to do with Jammat ul-Fuqra. In addition, Khwaja denied that ul-Fuqra has had anything to do with Reid.

The ul-Fuqra was on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations during the early 1990s but is not currently on the list..."

Reporter's case

Mystery man claims to hold state secrets

Friday February 01, 2002-- Zeqa'ad 17,1422 A.H.

By Kamran Khan

KARACHI:

"..As the unidentified kidnappers of US journalist Daniel Pearl extended, by one day, their deadline for killing him through another e-mail on Thursday, the father of one of the most-wanted persons in Pearl's case informed police in Bahawalpur that he had now received an information from Afghanistan that his son had been killed while fighting US forces in that country, police sources said.

The man reported killed by his father on Thursday was Hashim, an activist of a Jihadi organisation who had held at least two meetings with Pearl in Rawalpindi under the cover name of Arif and the police had suspected that he had a definite role in the reporter's kidnapping. "We will not buy the story unless we can get an independent confirmation. Apparently it is a concocted tale because Hashim was seen here about two weeks ago," said a senior police official. Hashim is reportedly wanted to police in seven cases of sectarian murders in southern Punjab.

While the police grope in the dark about the actual identity of Pearl's kidnappers, Syed Mubarrak Ali Gilani -- the man who had turned himself over to the investigators of the Daniel Pearl kidnapping case on Wednesday -- has told his Pakistani investigators that he had provided "invaluable services" to the government's security services and has given names of a number of serving and retired security officials for an independent verification of his claims, officials familiar with Gilani's interrogations said.

"His claims have nothing to do with our investigation, so there was no need to cross-check the sensitive information with top-ranking officials," an investigator said. While being interrogated in Rawalpindi on Wednesday, Gilani made several requests to the senior police investigators that he be allowed to make calls to his contacts in the government.

To facilitate his appearance before the police on Wednesday, a mid-level law security official from a sensitive agency is understood to have played an active role, according to a senior Rawalpindi police official.

Gilani surprised his investigators by offering to prove that his disciples in the United States contribute about half a million dollars every year to his religious activities in Pakistan. Gilani said he receives donation in the form of cash and wire transfers.

Six times married, the 65-year-old heavy built Gilani said that he had invested some portion of donations into real estate in NWFP and Punjab and that an estimated worth of agriculture and commercial real estate he owned in Pakistan is about Rs 1.0 billion, an initial police investigation confirmed.

Gilani, who speaks fluent English, revealed that he visited the United States about a dozen times between mid-eighties to early nineties but he never stayed in that country for more than four months at a stretch. He is known to have extensive contacts in the United States where his disciples live in 22 different states.

Gilani said he stays in contact with his followers through Internet. "My office is my two laptop computers which also provide me uninterrupted communication with my followers in the US," he told police.

In a significant development on Thursday, the Punjab police arrested one of Gilani's key assistants. Ahmed Din arrested on Thursday near Abbottabad was also his computer assistant, who exclusively managed Gilani's e-mail trafficking to the US. The police have also recovered Gilani's laptop computers from his vast farm house at Garhi Habibullah near Abbotabad.

Besides Sindh police investigators, who continued to interrogate Gilani on Thursday, two officials from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US diplomatic service questioned Gilani on Thursday for more than three hours in the premises of Karachi police's crime investigation agency. "We allowed the US officials to freely question Gilani and to their full satisfaction," said a police official, who added that a separate team of US investigation would again question him on Friday.

Throughout his interrogation on Thursday, Gilani rigidly maintained that he had no knowledge of Daniel Pearl's kidnapping or of an attempt by one of his disciples to blow up an American airliner by concealing explosives in his sneakers. Gilani again told his Pakistani and US investigators that he had never met Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, and that his activities were restricted to the peaceful preaching of Islam to the homeless Americans through powerful videos and audio of his speeches and written material..."

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/030202/dlfor01.asp

Pearl kidnapped as he found evidence against Jaish:
Daily PTI
Islamabad, February 2

"..A Pakistan newspaper said on Saturday that one reason why US journalist Daniel Pearl could have been abducted was that he found evidence that militant outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad still operated its bank accounts and its office in Bhawalpur in Punjab province despite the ban imposed by the government.
The daily The News in its editorial said the reason why Pearl could have been abducted was because he was following leads to write about how police permitted hardcore Islamic groups to function despite the ban imposed recently.

Yet another possible cause for Pearl's ordeal could be the story he was following said the militant group in Pakistan was thriving despite the crackdown. He had quoted Jaish-e-Muhammad representatives saying that police left behind enough people to keep their office running.

He also found a Jaish regional centre near Bhawalpur, operating as well as a still-functioning bank account despite a freeze ordered by the (Pakistan) State Bank, it said.

Bahawalpur is a major town in Pakistan's Punjab province which housed the headquarters of Jaish.

Whatever the reasons behind Pearl's kidnapping and whether or not he is freed, the episode has serious ramifications for freedom of media in Pakistan and on perceptions about Pakistan in the world, the paper said. "If ever the truth comes out, that is if Pearl survives the ordeal, it would not be very palatable for Pakistan", it said.

Meanwhile, replying to questions about yesterday's allegations by Pakistan Foreign Minster, Abdul Sattar that a key suspect in the case Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani made a phone calls to Indian officials, Foreign Office Spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan told a media briefing here that he has nothing to add to what has been stated by the Minister.

"Investigations are going on. There is no further information I can give you", he said stating that what Sattar said was more or the less the same as what has been said by Pakistan's military spokesman Maj Gen Rashi Qureshi on Jan 31.

Gen. Qureshi said that an Indian linkage has been established but declined to elaborate. He, however, did not attend Saturday's briefing, while Khan parried all the questions on the subject saying that he has nothing more to say.

Interestingly, Sattar's allegations followed a detailed story in the same newspaper on Friday that Gilani, who was bandied as a prime suspect by Pakistan in the Pearl kidnapping case, actually told his interrogators that he had provided "invaluable services" to Pakistans security services in the past and has given names of a number of serving and retired security officials.

In the background of these reports, Sattar's comments yesterday that Gilani was in touch with Indian officials over the phone came as a surprise.

The newspaper also in its report shot down the claims that Gilani could be considered as a prime suspect in the case as he has not offered any tangible clues to locate Pearl.

Police made no headway in his abduction case even though it was four days since Gilani surrendered.

After Gilani's surrender, the needle of suspicion actually turned on to Arif alias Hashim who was believed to be an activist of Jaish, whom Pearl reported to have met last. The investigations hit the wall as Arif's family told police that he was reported to have been killed in Afghanistan..."

Please read also
"INDEX: Jaish-e-Muhammad"
http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=ground_zero2001&msg=584.1

Who are Sheik Saeeds other names?

Strange new results in the investigation of Sheik Saeed, who was arrested yesterday in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journalist Daniel Pearle.

Did Pearle find something out, which was quiet more dangerous than we think?

Reuters:
http://www.reuters.co.uk/news_article.jhtml?type=worldnews&StoryID=591591

"...Sheikh Omar was jailed in India in 1994 for allegedly kidnapping four tourists -- three Britons and an American.

He was freed, along with two other prominent Islamic militants, in 1999 in exchange for 155 hostages on an airliner hijacked to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

For a while he kept a low profile, disappearing from view with his wife and new-born son. But Sheikh Omar's name popped up again after the September 11 hijacked airliner attacks on the United States.

Indian police have accused him of involvement in the transfer of $100,000 to Mohammad Atta, one of the pilots who flew airliners into New York's World Trade Center.

Sheikh Omar, the son of a clothes merchant from Wanstead in east London, studied at the London School of Economics.

BOOST TO MUSHARRAF

His arrest comes as a boost for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who is due to begin an official visit to Washington later on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, three suspects accused of involvement in the kidnapping were remanded in custody for 14 days by an anti-terrorist court in Karachi.

The three, named as Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saquib, arrived in court in a police armoured personnel carrier, handcuffed and chained together, with their faces covered by blankets and towels.

They were surrounded by over a dozen armed police as they shuffled up to the courtroom on the first floor of the provincial High Court building.

The three were accused of sending two emails in the week after Pearl disappeared, containing photographs of the reporter with a gun to his head and threatening to kill him if the United States did not release its prisoners from the Afghan war.

Investigators say the three suspects said they had been given the photographs of Pearl by Sheikh Omar..."

NOTE:
Many questions are still open.

What are the other identities of Sheik Saeed Omar?

As GZ asked already last week it could be the same person known as
Sheikh Sayyid el Masry aka Mustapha Ahmad Al-Hawsawi.

About this identity GZ reported in September 2001, that he was connected with payments from Waleed Al-Shehri and Mohammad Atta.

Both made a payment shortly before boarding the two doomed flights that left Boston on Sept. 11. However this detail never made big news in the media.
But these payments from Mohamed Atta and
Marwan Al-Shehhi (Western Union wire transfers)
totaling only $10.000 to the United Arab Emirates.

"Officials in the United Arab Emirates have identified the recipient of those wire transfers as Mustapha Ahmad Al-Hawsawi"

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/01/inv.pakistan.funds/index.html

However the amount $100.000 was a different story and was ignored by the main media, too.

Later GZ found out, why.
The $100000 have been connected to the Pakistani Secret Service ISI, but not to Hawsawi at that time.

This was one of the reasons, why former ISI General Mahmud resigned from his job, after it came out, that the ISI transferred $100 000 to Mohammad Atta, so now the other way round.

Mahmud resigned on October 7th, 2001.

On the same day the United States started their retaliation against the Taliban and TV Channel Al-Jazeera showed a video by Bin Laden, which looked like it was shot in daylight.

There are obviously still two different versions about these last payments around.

And more strange circumstances about Sheik Saeed, from which we still dont know if he's the same person as Sheikh Saeed el Masry.

This is what GZ wrote on
November 30th, 2001

The CIA claims starting searching for "..Sheikh Saiid, 33, a bon vivant who has funded al- Qaeda by £200 million a year, was thought to have flown to Afghanistan on the eve of the attacks in America..."

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001540011-2001554399,00.html

On this article is claimed that they just found out, that Saiid "..is believed to have helped to finance al-Qaeda in Africa, where it was behind the 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania..."

This is actually old news, because he was not only linked with 911
already around September 9th.
GZ released some weeks ago an exclusive list of mentioned members of the Al-Quaeda-group in the New York trial about the Kenia Embassy Bombings from 1998.
Sheikh Sayyid el Masry aka Mustafa Mohamed Ahmad was mentioned there already, too.
Everyone with connections to that trial was able to compile the same list since February 2001!

And then el Masrys connection to the home video of Bin Laden,
which was later ignored, after it came out, that he couldn't
have been mentioned by Bin Laden:

December 14th, 2001
=======================================================
The new Bin Laden Homevideo is presented to the public.
"The translation is wrong and we hardly heard his voice. America just wants to implicate Muslims,'' said Nadia Saqr, an Egyptian mother of two.
Saudi Arabian media point out, that it was impossible for Bin Laden to meet
Sheikh Sayyid el Masry aka Mustafa Mohamed Ahmad on Tuesday of the attack
(as mentioned on the video), because Masry was still in Saudi Arabia.

It would be a sad day for investigative journalism, if Daniel Pearle is really dead. What did he find out?

Was it about the $100.000 the ISI wired to Mohammad Atta last year?

Did he find out, who really was behind Richard Reid, the Shoebomber and therefore was a "national risk"?

Did he learn more about the deep connections between ISI, CIA and the oil-gas links?

Many details are ignored in this story, more or less by american and pakistani media.

While Pakistan blames India for a setup, the explanations of indian press makes more sense, at least for GZ Forum.

This is the latest strange connection, which brings us to a man called Aftab Ansari,who once again confirmed an involvement by Pakistan Secret Service ISI in a terrorist act:

http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=985799

LeT helped me obtain Pak passport, says Ansari

PTI [ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2002 8:35:31 PM ]

EW DELHI: Aftab Ansari, the alleged mastermind behind the American Center shootout in Kolkata, on Thursday admitted that a Pakistani passport was provided to him by one of the leaders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Agency sources said that Ansari, who had jumped bail and fled to Pakistan in 2000, stated during his interrogation that he had been provided with the Pakistani travel document by leaders of the Lashkar.

The CBI had claimed that it was Aziz Cheema of Lashkar who had helped him in setting his career after fleeing from India. However, Ansari, who is in CBI's custody till Friday, stated that he was not aware of the identity of the Lashkar militant, but he had been referred to him by Omar Saeed Sheikh, one of the three militants released by India to end the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in Kandahar.

Sheikh, an important Jaish-e-Mohammed functionary, was been arrested by the Pakistani police on Tuesday in connection with the kidnapping of WSJ journalist Daniel Pearl.

Meanwhile, various agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate questioned Ansari on Thursday following reports that Pakistan's ISI had asked him to send funds through the hawala channel for ostensibly setting up madrasas in various parts of the country.

Some of the intelligence reports suggested that Ansari used to send his slush funds to India through hawala operators to various conduits of ISI.

The sources said that Ansari, who is to be produced before first class judicial magistrate in Radhanpur in north Gujarat by 4:00 pm on February 16, has admitted that he had been able to extract and transfer over Rs 50 crore from kidnappings to Dubai through the hawala channel.

Ansari has also confirmed his links with the Lashkar, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia and also revealed that he had even visited their training camps in Pakistan.

The CBI has submitted a detailed report to the agency's legal department to see whether Poto could be applied against Ansari in the case of smuggling of arms and ammunition, including RDX, into the country from Pakistan through the Gujarat border.

Meanwhile, Ansari's questioning about his links with Omar Sheikh was continuing and CBI officials were probing whether he had any role in the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane in 1999.

"Ansari's close proximity with Omar Sheikh and the help rendered by the latter in obtaining assistance from militant outfits cannot be seen in isolation," a CBI official, investigating the case, said.

It may be mentioned that the hijackers of the aircraft had also made calls to Dubai but the agency had not been ble to identify the module in the Gulf country.."

Who is this Hasnain? Sleuths in a fix

SIDDHARTH SRIVASTAVA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2002 7:41:19 PM ]

NEW DELHI:

"..Intelligence agencies are trying to ascertain the correct identity of Mansur Hasnain, who has been named as the prime suspect in the kidnapping of the Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl.

Hasnain is also believed to have orchestrated the December 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines plane, IC-814 from Kathmandu to Kandahar.

While the Pakistani police have identified Hasnain as Hyder alias Imtiaz Siddeqi, Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials say that Hasnain is actually Sunny Ahmed Qazi alias 'Burger'.

But, Burger is supposed to be dead, if one goes by Delhi police accounts.

The city police have it on record that Mohammad 'Burger' was among the attackers on the Indian Parliament on December 13, and was subsequently killed.

Therefore, going by the IB logic, if Burger is dead, so would be Qazi or Hasnain.

The link between Hyder, Siddeqi, Qazi and Burger is of crucial importance because investigations into the hijacking of IC-814 have revealed that Burger was the hijacker responsible for killing Rupen Katyal, one of the passengers in IC-814.

Katyal's throat was slit and he subsequently bled to death in the plane.

Going by this account, Hasnain is responsible not only for the hijack but also murder.

As of date, confusion prevails over Hasnain’s identity. A senior Delhi police officer, however, says, "Although indications are that Hasnain was one of the hijackers, it is not yet established whether he is Qazi and whether Qazi is Burger, as the other hijackers referred to him during the hijack."

According to an IB official, the code name 'Burger' exists in the files and belongs to Qazi, but there is no information linking him to Mohammad who led the attack on the Indian Parliament.

"While we have records to show that Qazi is referred to as Burger, we do not know how the name Mohammed had cropped up during the December 13 attack," says the IB official. "We do not have any records to show that Qazi has ever been referred to as Mohammad."

Delhi police findings differ with those found by the IB; the police claims that Burger is Mohammad, the leader of terrorists who carried out the attack on Parliament.

The CBI has declared a reward of Rs 10 lakh to anyone providing information that can lead to Hasnain's arrest..."

NOTE: Some Indian Officials think, that the attack on the Indian Parliament (as also the hijacking of an indian plane in 1999) was organised by the Pakistan Secret Service ISI.

FULL TEXT OF JAN 26, 2002 E-MAIL BY KIDNAPPERS

From: Hot News [SMTP:kidnapperguy@hotmail.com]
To: mmCE@pak.gov.pk; letters.herald@dawn.com; info@paknews.com; editor@paknews.com; nicolo@hk.super.net; representations@media-scope.com; majmedia@signet.com.sg;ky168@ms14.hinet.net; blei@blei.inet.it; ppn-ondon@publicitas.com; ikon1@emirates.net.ae; ppn-newyork@publicitas.com; fakhar@ptv.com.pk; editorjang@jang.com.pk; editornews@jang.com.pk; abramowitz@washpost.com; achenbachj@washpost.com; allenm@washpost.com; chuck.babbington@washingtonpost.com; belmanf@washpost.com; rajiv@washpost.com; circulation@nytimes.com; letters@nytimes.com; editorial@nytimes.com; executive-editor@nytimes.com; managing-editor@nytimes.com; national@nytimes.com; foreign@nytimes.com; publisher@nytimes.com; president@nytimes.com; letters@latimes.com
Cc: kidnapperguy@hotmail.com
X-Originating-IP: [216.236.222.43]
Subject: American CIA officer in our custody
Sent: 1/26/02 8:00 AM

The National movement for the restoration of Pakistani sovereignty has captured CIA officer Daniel Pearl who has posing as a journalist of the Wall Street Journal.
Unfortunately, he is at present being kept in very inhuman circumstances quite similar infact to the way that Pakistanis and nationals of other sovereign countries are being kept in Cuba by the American Army. If the Americans keep our countrymen in better conditions we will better the conditions of Mr.Pearl and all the other Americans that we capture.
If the America wants the release of Mr.Pearl, all Pakistanis being illegally detained by the FBI in side America merely on suspicion must be given access to lawyers and allowed seeing their family members.
The Pakistani prisoners in Cuba must be returned to Pakistan and they will be tried in a Pakistani Court. After all Pakistan was a full member of the international coalition against terror and it deserves the right to try its own citizens.And Send Afghanistan's Embassador Mulla Zaeef back to Pakistan and if there is any accusition Pakistani Government should handle it.
--- End E-Mail ---

Pakistan Reporter Was First to Get Pearl Death Tape
Fri Feb 22, 4:46 AM ET
By Nasir Malick

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - "..A videotape of the grisly murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl was first sent to a Pakistani reporter who took another 24 hours to convince U.S. authorities they should view it, a senior Pakistan government official said Friday.

"According to my information, the videotape was in the possession of a (Karachi-based) Pakistani reporter for 24 hours while he was trying to contact the U.S. consulate to deliver it to them," the official said in an interview with Reuters.

He did not name the reporter nor say how the videotape was delivered to the reporter.

The Pakistani reporter, he said, tried to contact the U.S. consulate in Karachi on the telephone and left a number of messages which were answered only after cross-checks by the consulate officials taking 24 hours.

"I am surprised he (reporter) did not inform the Pakistani police or any other government authority," the official said. "Perhaps he might have been afraid that police would question from where he received the videotape."

He said the tape was first seen by U.S. consulate officials, police and a representative of the Wall Street Journal..."