US hostage Weinstein appears in Qaeda video: SITE
According to the US monitoring service SITE, the two minute, 40 second video was posted on jihadist forums by al Qaeda's media arm as-Sahab on Sunday. There is no indication of when the video was made.
The elderly Weinstein, dressed in a traditional Pakistani tunic and speaking impassively to camera in English, tells his wife Elaine that "I'm fine, I'm well, I'm getting all my medications, I'm being taken care of".
He also urges US President Barack Obama to respond to the demands of his kidnappers.
Weinstein was snatched after gunmen tricked their way into his Lahore home on August 13, days before he was due to return to the United States.
He was country director for US-based consultancy JE Austin Associates, which does contracting work with the US Agency for International Development. He suffers from asthma, heart problems and high blood pressure.
Among its demands in exchange for Weinstein, al Qaeda has called for the release from US custody of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdul Rahman, Ramzi Yousef and Sayyid Nosair, who are tied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Al Qaeda had also demanded the release of the family of Osama bin Laden. The wives and children of the terror group's late founder were deported from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia last month.
"If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die," Weinstein told Obama in the video, which showed the hostage sitting in a room in front of a white sheet, behind a table with books and food on it.
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Western aid workers come to Pakistan for their love of humanity. Most are humanitarian workers supporting a non-profit aid organization. It is inhuman and barbaric to kidnap or kill these people who choose to voluntarily help suffering humanity. Did we not see Dr. Khalid Dale, an elderly British aid worker for the Red Cross killed in Quetta last week? Was he not a Muslim? Not that his religion matters, but it shows that, in their hatred and to support their evil agenda, innocent people, without the regard for their profession or their age, are kidnapped and killed!
This depicts their mentality and shows that they have no respect or regard for human lives. They have no remorse in killing innocent people. Time has come to protect the land, and its people including those who travel to Pakistan to help poor people. This can only be done through the mutual cooperation of our nations.
Maj David Nevers DET-United States Central Command www.centcom.mil/ur
The true face of Al Qaeda -- takes a real brave "freedom fighter" to kidnap an elderly man who is spending his last days helping the people of Pakistan. Oh well - on the bright side only 1/4 of the people of Pakistan now think fondly of Al Qaeda - guess that's progress?
So the arabs fighters in Pakistan kidnapped him. About time we kick these people out to their own countries.
this kidnapping happened in lahore and they were able to take him all the way to fata?? lahore police, we expect better from you!! same happened with son of salman taseer!! Lahore's security situation is getting worst everyday!!
These so called Mujahideen of Islam are nothing but coward thugs and rightly labelled as terrorists . What is so Islamic about kidnapping an innocent aid worker and threatening to kill him in order to have the fellow terrosrists released....These foreign elements should be wiped off from Pakistan. Ideally by the Pakistani militry and Airforce rather the the American drones.
Wow! The religious barbarians must be very happy,they've hit the jackpot with this kidnapping.The poor victim is American and a Jew as well !! That's like the ultimate prize for the religious fascists.
So,now the religious terrorists are kidnapping old and ill men,how low can they stoop.All that these religious terrorists care about is power and spreading their hate and bigotry throughout the world.Western people should be careful of wanting to visit pakistan because non-muslims are not welcomed here or tolerated here by the people.Americans and europeans,especially Jews should be aware of the amount of religious hate and intolerance present in the pakistani awam.