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U.S. Officials Working to Authenticate Latest E-mail About Pearl

Aired February 01, 2002 - 14:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go right to the State Department and see if there's any new information there as to the fate of Danny Pearl. Andrea, do you have anything new?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, obviously, Daryn, this is all potentially devastating news that the State Department and other U.S. officials are hard at work trying to verify, trying to authenticate. As we heard from Ben there, the last three e-mails -- this would be the fourth e-mail that news organizations received from the alleged kidnappers of Danny Pearl -- were confirmed, were authenticated by the U.S. government and by Pakistani officials.

So, right now, and I'm sure our viewers will understand why the U.S. wants to take its time in examining this e-mail. They do have it and they're looking at it right now, but why they want to take their time, and make very, very sure, before they come to any kind of a public recognition, if in fact it is authentic.

But as things stand right now, officials I've spoken with here at the State Department, that Kelly Wallace has spoken with over at the White House, say that they're just not going to comment on whether or not they think it is the real thing, because they just don't know.

KAGAN: Understandable. Andrea Koppel at the State Department. It is one time when we hope a story is not confirmed. Hoping that this one does turn out to be not true and that Danny Pearl is still alive. We're going to get a break. We will continue to track the fate and these two latest developments as to the potential fate of "Wall Street Journal" reporter, Daniel Pearl. Right now a quick break.

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