Will Ulrich: What if? Conspiracy theories and Daniel Pearl

I've never been the Oliver Stone type.

Sure, I've bought into some ber-rumors over the years. Some -- like the one about Richard Gere's fur-induced trip to the emergency room -- I have since repudiated. Others -- like the story of Jamie Lee Curtis's birthday suit -- remain true in my eyes until I encounter evidence to the contrary.

That said, I don't often trumpet conspiracy theories. Although I'm sure I'll never read the Warren Commission's report to my children at bedtime, I think most surmisals about the Kennedy assassination are, at best, half-baked. I think Neil Armstrong took his famous steps on Earth's moon, rather than on a Hollywood soundstage. I even think that both Adolf Hitler and Jim Morrison are long dead and buried.

It's this better, level-headed half of my nature that informs most of my reactions to the tragic and heartbreaking fate of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

When I heard the news of his death on the radio last Thursday afternoon, my heart sank like a stone. I knew that this news was probable, that the odds were against Pearl emerging from captivity in Pakistan to rejoin his loving wife and unborn child.

Still, I took the news personally. Throughout the rest of the day, I asked friends -- in a soft, reserved voice -- if they had heard that "Danny Pearl was dead."

By the sound of my voice and my use of a nickname, it must have seemed like I knew him. I didn't, but the news and the gruesome footage felt personal.

I don't take Pearl's demise to heart because of a supposed bond that he and I have as journalists. I might be inclined to play that tune if I were one of the Walter Cronkites of the world -- but I'm not. I'm a college kid who writes an opinion column once every week. I am to Daniel Pearl what a nine-year-old shooting guard is to Michael Jordan.

Pearl's death struck me so hard because, by all accounts, it was so nightmarishly undeserved. Yes, Daniel Pearl knew he was taking risks by working out of Karachi. Yes, he knew he was playing with fire when he endeavored to penetrate the world of terrorists.

But he was a conscientious, objective observer. He didn't deserve to be prevented from carrying out his reporting, and he certainly didn't deserve to die the way he did.

We feel for Daniel Pearl because he fell at the hands of the kind of human garbage that populates our nightmares. Whether they live in Pakistan, in the jungles of Colombia or in Center City Philadelphia, the brand of living trash that kills the innocent is public enemy No. 1.

Despite this overwhelming sense that Pearl was unfairly and untimely ripped from this world, one question continues to bug me. And it's a question I can hardly believe would pop into my mind.

What if Daniel Pearl really was doing work for the CIA?

At heart, I know that the proposition is preposterous. Pearl was a working journalist, plain and simple. He did a job that got him killed.

Still, the conspiracy neurons start to fire. What would the news look like if Pearl really was working for American intelligence? Wouldn't the situation be exactly the same as it is now? Wouldn't the CIA deny his involvement just like they have?

Plus, it makes sense. In this new, comprehensive war on terrorism, isn't it necessary to enlist the help of talented Americans outside of the spy community? What if the government is now -- after the failure of intelligence to prevent Sept. 11 -- employing measures that it never has before?

As if this Jim Garrison-like questioning were not enough, the murky situation on the ground in Karachi gets me anxious, too. What are the links between suspect Ahmed Omar Sheikh and Pakistani intelligence? Does Pakistan's President Perez Musharraf have the support of the country's intelligence community?

Six months ago, queries like these rarely entered my mind. Of course there were dire problems throughout the world -- AIDS in developing countries, ethnic warfare and the like.

Nevertheless, those problems, though daunting, were far less sinister than the bevy of issues that seem to face the U.S. in its efforts to combat terrorism.

I have the fortune of being too young to know what the Cold War really felt like. Throughout most of my life, the pervasive anxiety talked about in textbooks was just that -- history.

Hopefully, it remains that way.

Will Ulrich is a senior Philosophy major from the Brox, N.Y.

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