PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dennis Loy Johnson or Valerie Merians 201.222.2640

MELVILLE HOUSE TO PUBLISH
EXPLOSIVE NEW BOOK ON PEARL MURDER CASE

An explosive new French book that says journalist Daniel Pearl was killed because he'd uncovered links between al-Qaida and the Pakistani government including the possible trading of nuclear secrets, and that has been causing a sensation in Europe, will be published in English this fall by Melville House.

The book, to be released in English as "Who Killed Daniel Pearl?", is by leading French philosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri Lévy, who has written several books about the region and who served as French President Jacques Chirac's special envoy to Afghanistan. Lévy retraces Pearl's final days and says the Wall Street Journal correspondent was on the trail of links between "the most violent and most anti-American faction" in the Pakistani intelligence service and terrorists who were trading nuclear arms secrets with Iran and the North Koreans.

Lévy also retraces the path of the man who lured Pearl into a trap in Karachi -- Omar Sheikh, a British-born and London School of Economics-educated Islamic extremist whom Lévy says was working as an agent for the Pakistanis.

Written with the cooperation of Pearl's widow and parents, the book also includes Lévy's extensive discussions with Pearl's family about their theories regarding why he was killed.

"Who Killed Daniel Pearl" has caused a sensation in Europe, where it has shot up bestseller lists in France, and generated extensive coverage in the international media. Appearing on America's Charlie Rose PBS TV program, Lévy emphasized that his findings left him in strong support of the American attack of Afghanistan, and he called the attack on Iraq "morally" sound, but said that the real enemy is Pakistan. In a BBC report he said Omar Sheikh was "close to bin Laden." For the French newspaper Le Figaro, Lévy concluded, "Radical Islam is as much to be feared today as the communist and fascist totalitarianisms of yesterday were."

Lévy's American publisher, Melville House, says the book will be available in the U.S. and Britain in just a few months.

"We are honored to be bringing this book to the English-speaking world," said Melville House publisher Dennis Loy Johnson. "Beyond the fact that it's an extremely moving tribute to Daniel Pearl, the global implications of what Bernard-Henri Lévy has discovered are evident. Publishers always say their books are 'important.' But this one truly is."