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'My Happiness is True Revenge'
Mariane Pearl on life since the murder of her husband, reporter Daniel Pearl, and the movie her story inspired.
June 17, 2007 - "A Mighty Heart," starring Angelina Jolie, is based on the best-selling book by Mariane Pearl about the murder of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, by Al Qaeda members in Karachi, Pakistan, in early 2002. The movie details Mariane's struggle—with the help of Journal editors, Pakistan counterterrorism experts, FBI agents and others—to unravel the terrorist network and find Danny. Much in Mariane's life has changed since then, including the birth of their son, Adam, who is now 5 years old. The film opens June 22. Pearl spoke to NEWSWEEK's Sean Smith from her home in Paris about the film, her friendship with Jolie, the politics of terror, and the true meaning of revenge. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Were you prepared for the huge response to your book when it was published in 2003?
Mariane Pearl: Well, it wasn't something I was writing to be successful, so I had no expectations. It was so personal, I didn't know if it was something people would want to read. But I think you touch people's hearts if you're writing from that place within yourself.
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Often people write books about painful experiences to find a sense of closure. Was that your objective?
When I started writing this book I was still pregnant, so it was kind of an emergency for me. I knew I had to write it for my son, Adam, and for Danny. But it felt like I had just came out of hell and now I had to go back in. I've never tried to really "heal." I was more preoccupied with how to un-break my life and how to answer what had happened to me.
In March, the federal government released a statement from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, incarcerated at Guantánamo Bay, claiming, in graphic detail, that he personally killed Danny. How did you react to that?
[Attorney General] Alberto Gonzales called to tell me that he was releasing [the confession] to the press, and I told him, "This is just PR."
Because Gonzales was under investigation for the firing of eight U.S. attorneys?
Right. Gonzales was in trouble, and he was trying to look like he was doing a good job with terrorism, and that's the only reason he released it when he did, and I told him so. This was not news. [Mohammad] had been saying that for a long time. I felt very sad because someone like Khalid Sheik Mohammad can have a gruesome, graphic description of a murder and every [media outlet] is going to pick it up.
What did you do?
I wrote a statement and sent it, but this is a repeated struggle. All you can do to oppose what [Mohammad] does—or what Gonzales does, for that matter—is show dignity. Dignity is the opposition.
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