A Mighty Heart

Our Netflix viewing has been REALLY slow lately, but I enjoyed the movie that we watched last night.

A Mighty Heart is the film based on Mariane Pearl's memoir about the kidnapping and death of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl.

I thought that Angelina Jolie did a wonderful job and brought the story to life. In fact, Mariane Pearl personally requested that Jolie be cast for the lead role.

The Pearls were both journalists living in Karachi, Pakistan, to cover aspects of the War on Terror when Daniel Pearl set up a meeting to speak with Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. The Sheikh was never in on the meeting and used as a ploy to kidnap Daniel.

The kidnappers were really supporters of Ahmed Saeed Omar Sheikh, who later admitted to masterminding the whole event. They sent emails with photos of Daniel with several demands, including the release of all of the prisoners at Guantanamo and the removal of U.S. presence in Pakistan.

As Mariane sought help from Pakistan's government, there were soon accusations that Daniel was an undercover CIA agent, posing as a journalist, and that he was also working as a spy for India (I didn't know this beforehand, but apparently there are some serious rivalries and deep mistrust between India and Pakistan). These accusations were, of course, completely false, but they still damaged Pakistani public opinion of the Pearls.

Nine days after his kidnapping, Daniel Pearl was killed by his captors outside of Karachi. A video of his brutal murder was sent to Pakistani and American agencies. Three people were arrested after the police traced down the IP address of the computer that sent the ransom e-mail. Omar Sheikh turned himself in and was later sentenced to death; he is appealing his conviction.

Even with several people in custody who admitted their involvement, the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, later wrote in a book that Daniel's murderer was a British MI6 (British Intelligence) agent.

The captors found out that Daniel was Jewish by birth, which I think motivated them even more to kill him instead of holding him for ransom longer.

In the video released by the kidnappers, he says:

"My name is Daniel Pearl. I am a Jewish American from Encino, California USA. I come from, uh, on my father's side the family is Zionist. My father's Jewish, my mother's Jewish, I'm Jewish. My family follows Judaism. We've made numerous family visits to Israel. Back in the town of Bnei Brak there is a street named after my great grandfather Chaim Pearl who is one of the founders of the town."

Daniel's family said that the last statement could not have been known by the kidnappers, and that they believe Daniel used it as a coded message to tell them that he was alright and speaking in his own words.

One of the last scenes in the movie shows Mariane (Jolie) with all of the people who helped her try to find her husband (American journalists, CIA agents, Pakistani police, etc.). She tells them that they did not fail and that the terrorists whole goal is to terrorize them. "I'm not terrorized and you shouldn't be either!"