May 7, 2012
American hostage Warren Weinstein pleads for life in new video
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American hostage Warren Weinstein is pictured delivering a message to U.S. President Barack Obama in this handout frame grab from a May 6 video released by al Qaeda's media arm as-Sahab and obtained by Reuters on May 7. Photo by REUTERS/IntelCenter/Handout.
Al-Qaida released a new videotape of kidnapped American hostage Warren Weinstein in which he begs President Obama to save his life.
“My life is in your hands, Mr. President,” Weinstein, 70, a former Peace Corps and USAID official, said on the video posted Sunday on Islamist websites. “If you accept the demands, I live. If you don’t accept the demands, then I die. It’s important that you accept the demands and act quickly and don’t delay.”
The demands include a halt to U.S. airstrikes and the freeing of all al-Qaida and Taliban suspects, according to reports.
Weinstein, of Rockville, Md., was kidnapped in August outside Pakistan while he was working for J.E. Austin Associates, a private company that advises Pakistani businesses.
In the video, Weinstein tells Obama that he wants to “live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters.” Sitting before a platter of food, he also says he is in good health.
“I’m fine. I’m well,” Weinstein said. “I’m getting all my medications and I’m being taken care of.”
It is not known when the video was recorded.
