From left, Barbara Feinman Todd and Asra Nomani, founders of the Pearl Project. The project seeks to make a new model of investigative journalism, named after Daniel Pearl, a friend and colleague of Nomani’s who was killed in Pakistan. Photo by Alex McVeigh.
Great Falls — As a young journalist working in the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal, Asra Nomani found a friend in journalist Daniel Pearl. Raised in a conservative Muslim household, Nomani had not attended her prom, but 10 years after her senior year, Pearl helped organize a prom for her.
"He was a great journalist, but also a great friend with a great sense of humor," Nomani said. "Which is why what happened 10 years ago was one of the worst moments of my life."
In January 2002, Pearl was kidnapped while heading to what he thought was an interview in Karachi, Pakistan. Nine days later, he was murdered by a militant group and his body found 30 miles north of the city.
"As journalists, we were sort of clueless back then, it was the first time we had been targeted and just taken off the street," Nomani said. "It was the beginning of a new era, where journalists were targeted. We’re just so used to always getting in a car, going off with people for an interview, it’s horrifying to think about."
Nomani, now a Great Falls resident, spoke to the Great Falls Rotary Club Thursday, March 22 about her experiences in the wake of Pearl’s death.
"We couldn’t save Danny, but the truth left behind on the streets of Karachi was something we knew we had to get," she said.
Along with Barbara Feinman Todd, Journalism director for Georgetown University, Nomani, a journalism teacher at Georgetown, began the quest for the questions she had.
The two connected when Feinman Todd was looking for more diverse students in the journalism department, and found out Nomani was researching the circumstances behind Pearl’s death. Feinman Todd recalled they formed an unlikely duo, a Muslim woman and Jewish woman teaming up at a Jesuit university.
"Asra lives in the moment, you can‘t predict what will happen," Feinman Todd said. "While I live 20-30 years out. We’re sort of an odd couple."
THEY HAD TWO GOALS: to finish the investigation into Pearl’s death and to finish the story he was working on, about someone suspected of being shoe bomber Richard Reid’s handler.
They began recruiting students to help with the project and began finding creative ways to use them. For example, one student was from Florida, and while she was home on Spring Break, she was sent to knock on the door of a suspect’s Orlando home.
"All we had to start with was the videotape of the murder, which I couldn’t watch for years, it was too horrifying," Nomani said. "But along with one of my students, we were able to meet a source on the top floor of a Pentagon City parking garage, getting a higher quality copy of the video that the FBI had."
The higher video resolution allowed them to see the vein pattern of the cameraman’s hand. They were able to match it to someone: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the handler of Richard Reid.
"It was chilling when we realized that the person that was right there, documenting Danny’s death, was the person he was looking for," Feinman Todd said. "We ended up with a 31,000 word report, but also a model for a new kind of investigative journalism."
Nomani and Feinman Todd were concerned that something as important as investigative journalism was often the first thing cut from many news organization’s budgets, since it was more expensive and took the most time.
THE PEARL PROJECT is still going after they released their report, with the hope of promoting high-quality, ethical investigative journalism, as well as providing a safe haven for journalists who have experienced censorship and intimidation.
"We hope to continue Danny’s life, not just the terrible circumstances of his death," Nomani said.
Members of the Rotary Club said the story Feinman Todd and Nomani told was fascinating, especially with its local and international connections.
"It’s incredible to have people right here in our neighborhood that can open windows to these corners of the world that we would otherwise only see on CNN," said Great Falls Rotary President Jeff Thinnes. "It was a tremendous presentation."
More information on the Pearl Project can be found at pearlproject.georgetown.edu.