Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

A Pakistani police officer looks out from the house of a kidnapped American development expert Warren Weinstein on Thursday, Aug 25, 2011 in Lahore, Pakistan K.M.Chaudary/AP/Press Association Images

Al-Qaeda releases video of American hostage

In the video, hostage Warren Weinstein says he will be killed unless President Barack Obama agrees to the militant group’s demands.

IN A VIDEO a video released Sunday by al-Qaeda, American hostage Warren Weinstein said he will be killed unless President Barack Obama agrees to the militant group’s demands.

“My life is in your hands, Mr President,” Weinstein said in the video. “If you accept the demands, I live; if you don’t accept the demands, then I die.”

Weinstein was abducted last August in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen tricked his guards and broke into his home. The 70-year-old from Rockville, Md, is the country director in Pakistan for JE Austin Associates, a Virginia-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.

In a video message posted on militant websites in December, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Weinstein would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages, said Al-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s media arm, posted the Weinstein video on jihadist forums 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.

In the video released Sunday, Weinstein said he would like his wife, Elaine, to know “I’m fine, I’m well, I’m getting all my medications, I’m being taken care of.”

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
16 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joan Featherstone
    Favourite Joan Featherstone
    Report
    Jun 17th 2014, 1:37 PM

    Congrats, well done! A subject near to my heart.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James Mcguinness
    Favourite James Mcguinness
    Report
    Jun 17th 2014, 12:21 PM

    Make sure you tell him no testing on children now!

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rupert McPupkin
    Favourite Rupert McPupkin
    Report
    Jun 17th 2014, 1:56 PM

    James, I think your comment went over the heads of most people – I know where you’re coming from though.

    Wellcome or Wellcome Trust, now merged into GlaxoSmithKline, is the pharmaceutical company that mistakenly administered CATTLE vaccines to 80 babies and children in “mother and baby” homes in Ireland.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute denis shields
    Favourite denis shields
    Report
    Jun 17th 2014, 2:21 PM

    Wellcome Trust is not the Wellcome Foundation. Sir Henry Wellcome used a whole lot of money he got from the Wellcome Foundation (which was the pharmaceutical company now merged with GSK) to set up an independent medical charity called the Wellcome Trust which is not controlled by pharmaceutical companies. They fund various kinds of medical research. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellcome_Trust
    for more details.

    14
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rupert McPupkin
    Favourite Rupert McPupkin
    Report
    Jun 17th 2014, 2:42 PM

    Denis,

    The Trust only “divested itself of any interest in pharmaceuticals” in 1995 so, as far as I’m concerned, Wellcome Trust was indeed linked to Wellcome Foundation during the cattle vaccine “studies” in “mother and baby” homes, all of which were carried out prior to 1995.

    So, I’m sorry – I’m not convinced by your explanation.
    .

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds