CBS shows clip from Pearl murder video

Ignoring a last-minute appeal by the secretary of state, Colin Powell, the US television network CBS broadcast in its Tuesday evening news part of a video made by Daniel Pearl's captors, showing the Wall Street Journal reporter in the moments before his death.

"My father's Jewish, my mother's Jewish, I'm Jewish," Pearl said in the excerpt, under 30 seconds long.

CBS executives said they had watched and decided not to broadcast part of the tape on which Pearl, already unconscious or dead, has his throat slit by an unseen kidnapper.

CBS said it was a necessary part of a report on how the longer version of the tape had been circulating on websites aimed at young Saudis, dubbed in Arabic, interspersed with pictures of Israeli military action in Palestinian areas, and called The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl.

"Enemies of this country are spreading on the internet a gruesome piece of propaganda," the anchor, Dan Rather, told viewers.

The programme's executive producer, Jim Murphy, admitted that he was "not happy" about the broadcast, "because I know it will upset people", but said: "The government called to tell us that what we were doing was helping to spread the terrorists' word, and I don't think that's the case.

"I don't think it's wrong to inform the American people about it."

Pearl's family said the decision to show "this despicable terrorist propaganda" was "heartless".