Al-Qaida releases video of US hostage
Source: Agencies |
May 8, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IN a video released by al-Qaida, American hostage Warren Weinstein said he will be killed unless United States President Barack Obama agrees to the militant group's demands.
"My life is in your hands, Mr President," Weinstein said in the video released on Sunday. "If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die."
The White House had no comment yesterday on al-Qaida's demands or Weinstein's plea.
Weinstein was abducted in August in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen tricked his guards and broke into his home. The 70-year-old is the country director in Pakistan for JE Austin Associates, a US-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.
In a video message posted on militant websites in December, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Weinstein would be released if the US stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al-Qaida and Taliban suspects around the world.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages, said al-Sahab, al-Qaida's media arm, posted the Weinstein video on jihadist forums on Sunday.
"It's important you accept the demands and act quickly and don't delay," Weinstein said in the video, addressing Obama.
"There'll be no benefit in delaying; it will just make things more difficult for me."
He also appealed to Obama as a father. If the president responds to the militants' demands, Weinstein said, "then I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters."
After his kidnapping, Weinstein's company said he was in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, many of them for heart problems, that it implored the kidnappers to give him.
"My life is in your hands, Mr President," Weinstein said in the video released on Sunday. "If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die."
The White House had no comment yesterday on al-Qaida's demands or Weinstein's plea.
Weinstein was abducted in August in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen tricked his guards and broke into his home. The 70-year-old is the country director in Pakistan for JE Austin Associates, a US-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.
In a video message posted on militant websites in December, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Weinstein would be released if the US stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al-Qaida and Taliban suspects around the world.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages, said al-Sahab, al-Qaida's media arm, posted the Weinstein video on jihadist forums on Sunday.
"It's important you accept the demands and act quickly and don't delay," Weinstein said in the video, addressing Obama.
"There'll be no benefit in delaying; it will just make things more difficult for me."
He also appealed to Obama as a father. If the president responds to the militants' demands, Weinstein said, "then I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters."
After his kidnapping, Weinstein's company said he was in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, many of them for heart problems, that it implored the kidnappers to give him.
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