Randall D. Bennett is Working to Keep Us Safe

Randall D. Bennett, Senior Regional Security Office of the US Embassy in Bangkok, addresses an attentive audience at the FCCT

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok, Thailand. September 22, 2010. Randall D. Bennett and I are in total agreement on this point: We are in a war against terrorists. All wars require fighters, and Bennett is fighting terrorists on the front lines. Right now, he is the senior regional security officer at the US Embassy in Bangkok. Prior to his posting here, he was in Pakistan and Iraq. It was in Pakistan that Bennett had the role which has become his most public one: He was the chief security officer involved in trying to free kidnapped, and eventually beheaded, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002.

At the FCCT on September 22, 2010, Bennett spoke candidly about the now famous and tragic Pearl murder, supplying details not generally publically know. It was a chilling, detailed story of how Bennett met with Pearl in Karachi a mere three hours before Pearl was kidnapped, and how Bennett and many others, including Pearl's widow Marianne, tried to uncover Pearl’s whereabouts and win his release. The most curdling aspect of the story for me, was to learn that Pearl had been executed a week after his kidnapping, but that for another four weeks, the terrorists continued to negotiate for his release. It was only when an informer told Bennett that Pearl was already dead, that the terrorists’ cynical game ended.

Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and execution is the subject of a Hollywood movie “A Mighty Heart,” in which Bennett is played by actor Will Patton, and Marianne Pearl is Angelina Jolie.

Most of the considerable body of work that I read about terrorism is authored by academics, pundits, theorists and the like. This is the first experience I’ve had listening, and applauding, someone who is actually doing something about the global threat to our country and our way of life. I feel very grateful to Randall Bennett and other public servants who are risking their lives to keep me safe. After the presentation, I was pleased to have the opportunity to thank Randall Bennett for his service.