Al Qaeda didn't want Pearl killed: Wiki

WikiLeaks ups its ante again.

The 9/11 attacks mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was warned by a senior Al-Qaeda military commander not to kill Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and that he should be "freed", says a WikiLeaks document.

Pearl (38), who was the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, was beheaded by his Pakistani captors in February 2002 after being abducted.

"A senior Al Qaeda military commander strongly warned Khalid Shaikh Mohammed not to kill Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, cautioning him 'it would not be wise to murder Pearl' and that he (Pearl) should 'be returned to one of the previous groups who held him, or freed,'.

Quoting US military documents posted by WikiLeaks, the report said Mohammed told his US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay that he cut off Pearl's head anyway.

Former top Al Qaeda military commander Sayfal-Adl was "outspoken in cautioning Mohammed against killing the reporter," the report said.

Mohammed, however, turned for guidance to another Al Qaeda leader, identified as Sharif al-Masri, the group's chief financial officer, and the two of them "disagreed with Adl on this point."

Next, "Pearl was taken to the house of Al Qaeda's finance chief in Pakistan, Saud Memon, and murdered" there.