President Bush says all Americans are sad and angry to learn of the murder of kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl. Mr. Pearl was abducted in Pakistan last month while working on a story about Islamic extremism.
President Bush says all Americans are sad for Mr. Pearl's wife and parents who he says were clinging to hope for weeks that the Wall Street Journal reporter would be found alive.
"We are especially sad for his unborn child, who will now know his father only through the memories of others," he said.
Speaking to reporters at the end of his trip to Asia, the president says American journalists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others do what he calls "important work in places that are sometimes dangerous."
He said, "Those who would threaten Americans, those who would engage in criminal, barbaric acts, need to know that these crimes only hurt their cause and only deepen the resolve of the United States of America to rid the world of these agents of terror. May God bless Daniel Pearl.
U.S. officials were working with Pakistani security forces to try and rescue Mr. Pearl who was kidnapped by members of a previously unknown group called the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.
That group was demanding the release of Pakistanis captured in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led war against terrorism. The kidnappers told all American reporters to leave Pakistan because they said there are many spies pretending to be reporters.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf discussed Mr. Pearl's kidnapping during a visit to the White House earlier this month. He said he expected a certain degree of what he called "fall-out" from his efforts to "crush extremism and religious intolerance" in Pakistan.