Captive American seeks Obama’s help

ISLAMABAD - An American development consultant abducted by al-Qaida in Pakistan more than two years ago has urged President Barack Obama to help secure his freedom in an impassioned video message released by the group.

The consultant, Warren Weinstein, 72, was abducted from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore in August 2011 when armed men broke into his house. Weinstein worked as the Pakistan director for J.E. Austin Associates, an international development consulting company based in Arlington, Va.

The video by Al Sahab, the media wing of al-Qaida, was first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday.

In a 13-minute video message, Weinstein, bearded and wearing a light-colored jacket and a dark cap, appeared distraught and dejected when he spoke about his family, his ill health and his time in captivity.

“I am not in good health,” he said, looking at the camera. “The years have taken their toll.”

Weinstein said he had served his country for 30 years and that nine years ago he went to Pakistan to help theU.S. government.

“I did so at a time when most Americans would not come here,” he said. “And now, when I need my government, it seems that I have been totally abandoned and forgotten.”

Weinstein said his captors had agreed to let him meet with his family if al-Qaida members held by the United States were released.

“Mr. Obama, you are a family man and so you understand the deep mental anxiety and anguish that I have been experiencing for these past more than two years,” he said. “I am therefore appealing to you on a humanitarian basis, if nothing else, and asking that you take the necessary actions to expedite my release and my return to my family and to mycountry, to our country.”

He also asked Secretary of State John Kerry for help.

A handwritten letter, purportedly drafted by Weinstein, was also distributed along with the video message to local media outlets. It was dated Oct.3, 2013.

This was the second video statement by Weinstein. An earlier video in which he made a similar plea was released by al-Qaida in 2012.

Weinstein’s kidnapping came at a time when relations between the United States and Pakistan were deeply strained after a security contractor for the CIA shot and killed two Pakistanis in Lahore.

In an unrelated development Thursday, at least four people suspected of being militants were killed by a drone strike on a possible militant compound in northwestern Pakistan, a Pakistani official said.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the drone strike had taken place near Qutab Khel village, about 3 miles south of Miranshah, in the North Waziristan tribal region, a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida militants. The identities of those killed were not immediately known, but the Pakistani official said they may have been of Arab origin.

The Pakistani government condemned the drone strike. The use of drones by the CIA is deeply unpopular in Pakistan.

“These strikes are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereigntyand territorial integrity,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “There is an acrossthe-board consensus in Pakistan that these drone strikes must end.”

It added, “These drone strikes have a negative impact on the government’s efforts to bring peace and stability in Pakistan and the region.”

Angered over the strikes, supporters from cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party in the northwest have been protesting along a main road used to truck NATO troop supplies in and out of Afghanistan for the past month, forcing the U.S. to stop shipments out of Afghanistan.

On Thursday, about 150 supporters from Khan’s party on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta briefly blocked trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces heading toward Afghanistan, said a senior police official, Abdul Rauf. But he said police ordered them to allow the trucks to proceed.

Information for this article was contributed by Salman Masood and Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud of The New York Times and by Munir Ahmed and Abdul Sattar of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/27/2013

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