Long-time advocate for the people of Pakistan kidnapped by Al-Qaeda

Warren Weinstein has been working as a NGO in Pakistan, trying his best to improve the lives of the impoverished. After 5 years in-country he is kidnapped, used as a tool for the glory of Allah and jihad. At 70 years old he may not survive his ordeal, let's hope and pray he gets out alive.

The only demands for his release are for the U.S. to release all Taliban and Al-Qaeda suspects held in jails around the world. A simple request with an impossible success; the U.S. has little pull to tell countries to release convicted prisoners.

From the BBC December 1

Al-Qaeda says it kidnapped Warren Weinstein in Pakistan

Al-Qaeda says it has 70-year-old US aid expert Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped by armed men in the Pakistani city of Lahore nearly four months ago.

In a video, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said he would be freed if the US stopped air strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, among other demands.

Mr Weinstein is a former USAID worker who has lived in Pakistan for five years.

US officials have not said publicly who they believed was holding him.

"Just as the Americans detain whomever they suspect may be connected to al-Qaeda or the Taliban even in the slightest of ways, we have detained this man who has been involved with US aid to Pakistan since the 1970s," Zawahiri said in the 31-minute video.

'Retaliation'

He also demanded that America stop air strikes on Somalia and Yemen, according to a US monitoring group, Site Intelligence.

Zawahiri confirmed, too, an announcement by US officials in August that his Libyan deputy, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, had been killed in an air strike in Pakistan's north-western tribal region.And he called for the release of al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.

"The retaliation, with permission from Allah, will be taken against those crusader Westerners who killed him [Rahman] and his two sons, and killed hundreds of thousands of our brothers, sons, women, and sheikhs, and occupied our countries [and] looted our wealth," said Zawahiri.

He took over at the top of the militant network this year after Osama Bin Laden was killed in May by US special forces at his hideout in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

In the video, Zawahiri reportedly addressed Mr Weinstein's family, telling them not to believe any claim by US President Barack Obama that he would try to free the hostage.

"He might say to you, 'I sought to release your relative, but al-Qaeda was stubborn.' Do not believe him," Zawahiri was quoting as saying.

"He might say to you, 'I tried to contact them and they did not answer.' Do not believe him."

Twelve days after Mr Weinstein's abduction on 13 August, Lahore police said he had been freed, but they then retracted the claim. The US embassy in Islamabad said at the time it had no evidence he had been released.

Read it all