New York ? Cold-blooded terrorist recruiters have stooped to a new low spreading a video of American journalist Daniel Pearl’s execution over the Internet to attract converts.

The graphic footage began popping up on the Web in recent days and is aimed at Saudi college students, high school students and unemployed Saudis, “CBS Evening News” reported Tuesday night.

The vicious video, titled “The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl,” shows Pearl in his final hours and is mixed with footage of the Israeli Army’s crackdown in Palestinian territory.

Jim Murphy, “CBS Evening News” executive producer, said Secretary of State Powell’s office and the Justice Department called the network and urged it not to air the material.

In prefacing the story, CBS anchorman Dan Rather said, “Enemies of this country are spreading on the Internet a gruesome piece of propaganda: It is videotape of the execution of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.”

On the tape, Pearl who was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan, on Jan. 23 makes several statements. The tape ends with Pearl being beheaded, CBS officials said.

CBS officials said they edited out the murder and portions of the tape where it appears Pearl was forced to make anti-American statements.

Pearl’s pregnant widow, Mariane, and his family condemned CBS for running the story. They said Rather’s “attempts to rationalize the network’s heartless decision to air this despicable terrorist propaganda video, it is beyond our comprehension.”

“Terrorists have made this video confident that the American media would broadcast it and thereby serve their exact purpose,” the Pearl family said.