Islamabad – Al-Qaida claimed responsibility Thursday for the kidnapping of a 70-year-old American aid worker in Pakistan in August, and issued a series of demands for his release.
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In a video message posted on militant websites, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Warren Weinstein would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al-Qaida and Taliban suspects around the world.
“Just as the Americans detain all whom they suspect of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, even remotely, we detained this man who is neck-deep in American aid to Pakistan since the 1970s,” al-Zawahri said, according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages.
Weinstein was abducted by armed men from his house in the eastern city of Lahore on Aug. 13. Police and U.S. officials have not publicly said who they believed was holding him, but Islamist militant groups were the main suspects.
Weinstein, who has a home in Rockville, Maryland, worked in Pakistan for several years and spoke Urdu.
He was the country director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a U.S.-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors. The company has said Weinstein is in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, many of them for heart problems, that it implored the kidnappers to give him.
Thanks to fallout from one of the ways we searched for OBL, namely (the unverified claim that) we had a doctor in Islamabad doing DNA scrapings under the guise of a vaccination program, I’m afraid that it’s pretty unlikely Weinstein’s kidnappers will pick up those medications for him.
I am sorry for the man and hope he is released, but what was he thinking? That is exactly where an American jew should find himself – in Lahore.
He goes to help them and as a ‘thank you’ they detain him and probably torturing him since he’s a Jew. These are the types of ‘choleras’ Israel has to deal with on an ongoing basis, 24/7, over the last 60 some years, with no end in sight.
Hinei loi yonim v’loi yishon, shoimer Yisroel.
Oh! Hashem yerachem, that’s no good news at all!
Nebach! May he and Allan gross be released soon!
Nebbich, I certainly feel bad for him and hope he is speedily released, but really, does anyone think it’s a good idea for Jews to go to hotbeds of fundamental Islam like Pakistan?
Open season on the Jews.
All Yidden should vacate that vile country at once.
Cynic,
Anything else you want to apologize for.
I am trying to think of any way in the world to address your ridiculous post. I cannot even begin, but I’ll try.
The people who kidnapped a person for no reason at all, who would kill you and me given the chance, do not base their decisions on whether the united States did or did not send fake doctors to find a mass murderer.
I don’t appreciate the comments which seek to throw salt on this poor individual’s wounds. It is tantamount to saying “if you weren’t driving your car, you wouldn’t have suffered an accident and wound up in the hospital”. People have the right to go, where their business takes them. It is not their fault, that there are terrorists in the world. Every country has its share of undesirables. Regarding Pakistan, it abhors terrorists, as the Pakistani civilian population has suffered extensively from Al Queda.
We all feel bad for him and alan gross who is prisoned in cuba. But, what were these two thinking in the first place are they insane or what? ?? They risked their lives for a few dollars. God, this is nasty.
The same way it was the State of Israel’s responsibility to work tirelessly on freeing Shalit , it is America’s responsibility to do the same for him. He is an American citizen, thereby making it Obama’s job to get him out.