New Qaeda chief linked to Pearl killing: Study

KSM told the FBI that he was pulled into the kidnapping by a high-level leader in al-Qaeda circles,an Egyptian named Saif al-Adel,who told him to make the kidnapping an al-Qaeda operation, said the investigators in their report.

Journalism academics and students set up Pearl Project at Georgetown University to investigate Pearls murder. The linkage of al-Adel to Pearls murder shows the ties between al-Qaeda and Pakistani militancy.

Pearl fell into al-Qaedas hands after Pakistani militants kidnapped him. Al-Adel learned of Pearl and approached Mohammad to take him off the Pakistani militants hands. He al-Adel thought this was an opportunity, Mohammad told FBI agents,according to the reports authors. We can take advantage of it.

Mohammad,who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and taken to the US prison at Guantanamo Bay,later admitted he beheaded Pearl.