They cut his throat on tape.
They never had any intention of releasing him - never had any hopes that their demands would be met. They wanted a high profile murder, and they staged it very well.
To incite westerners to become more angry? Not sure they can.
What I suspect they want is for us to go into a full war with muslim states - so they can cry persecution and get a bigger support base. The west is being the human part in this case, not the low life bunch of coward MURDERERS who have the idea that everyone should conform to their religious belief, or die resisting it. Hell, they want to kill us even if we DO.
Good news is it seems the Pakistanis are doing what they can to get the kidnappers - and not, as in the past, silently condoning it.
Death is the only thing that'll stop them. While part of me want to cry out for blood, it is my rational side that knows there is only one way of stopping them.
We need, of course, to remove as much of their support as possible. This in part can be done by greater economic equality (but this must in a very large extent be achieved by the middle east nations themselves, and democracy is one way forward there) and of course: listen to the middle east countries. The US can come across as arrogant to Europeans: yet we share the same basic views. Imagine how the US must come across for those with other world views.
likewise, the European countries have a problem with percieved arrogance - or to be more specific, the problem of being viewed as imperalistic colonialists.
Sure, we can listen, we can aid. But when toejame like this happens, we'll f*cking show those ***** that we can be violent as well.
Grrr, this has upset me. have been following this story and have hoped against hope that he'd go free. Such a waste. I keep asking myself - WHO can do this? Cut his throat and film it, knowing he has a girlfriend and a child on the way? Questions like that just don't go away. Starts me off wondering about whether humans are just evil, and the world is just a place of ugliness.
I might disagree with you on many accounts. Many disagree with my lack of faith. But one thing I know, and count on: I stand for Good, whatever that is, and what happened to Pearl was pure evil. We're gonna get these sons of potatos. Grr