ISLAMABAD - The refusal of the Barack
Obama administration to negotiate with al-Qaeda
for the release of a Jewish American who was
abducted from Lahore in August 2010, may bring
death to the 70-year old hostage. This was the
case with another Jewish American, Daniel Pearl, a
journalist, who was kidnapped from Karachi in 2002
and subsequently killed after the George W Bush
administration's refusal to accept the demands of
his abductors.
Warren Weinstein is the
first private American citizen taken hostage by
al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in Pakistan since
Pearl's kidnapping and beheading. Ransom demands
were e-mailed to US authorities four days after
Pearl's abduction, along with pictures of the
38-year old journalist in chains. The key demands
included an immediate release of Taliban
prisoners, specifically of Mullah Mohammad Zaeef,
the former ambassador of the Taliban
regime to Pakistan, and
the delivery of F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan
that the United States had withheld following the
imposition of nuclear proliferation-related
sanctions on Islamabad under the Pressler
Amendment.
Weinstein, the country director
for JE Austin Associates, a US-based consultancy
that works with the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), was abducted
from his Lahore residence in the Model Town area
on August 13, 2010, by 11 armed men.
Fifteen months later (on December 1, 2011)
al-Qaeda leader Dr Ayman Zawahiri claimed
responsibility for the abduction, saying that the
"American Jew" would be freed if the United States
stopped drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Yemen and Somalia and freed terrorist suspect
prisoners at the US detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Zawahiri also called
on the US in a 31-minute video to release everyone
who had been detained on charges of belonging to
al-Qaeda and the Taliban, even if they had been
handed over to another country, including the
so-called "blind sheik", Omar Abdul Rahman,
imprisoned in connection with the 1993 World Trade
Center bombing in the US.
There was no
response from the Obama administration.
This May, to coincide with the anniversary
of the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
in Pakistan by US special forces, a video was
released on the Internet of Weinstein making an
appeal to Obama to negotiate for his release.
The videotape was produced by al-Qaeda's
propaganda wing and titled "A Message from the
Prisoner Warren Weinstein to His President".
Weinstein directly addresses Obama, and begs for
the president to accept al-Qaeda's terms for his
release. "And I'd like to talk to President Obama
and ask him - beg him - that he accept and respond
to the demands of the mujahideen, for my life is
in your hands, Mr President," Weinstein said,
according to a transcript of his statement.
"If you accept their demands, I live; if
you don't accept their demands, then I die. It's
important that you accept the demands and act
quickly and don't delay. They'll be no benefit in
delaying as it will just make things more
difficult for me," said Weinstein, who was wearing
traditional Pakistani clothes. He also appealed to
Obama as a father, and then claimed that the
president was "not paying any attention or care
about my problem or my needs". The video
provided the first public evidence since his
kidnapping that Weinstein was alive. He is most
likely being held in the largely lawless
Waziristan tribal regions on the border with
Afghanistan, a center of extremist activity.
Weinstein worked with top government
officials to spur industry sectors including dairy
products; granite and marble for construction; and
furniture making. A Fulbright scholar, Weinstein
holds a doctorate in international law and
economics, the Washington Post reported.
The Weinstein video was released a week
after the bullet-riddled body of a British
employee of the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC), who was kidnapped four months
earlier from Quetta, was found dumped near Airport
Road in Quetta on April 29, 2012. Dr Khalil Ahmed
Dale, a British national, was kidnapped on January
5, 2012, by Taliban militants and shot dead
following the failure of the British authorities
to fulfill their demands.
However, the
White House has outright refused to negotiate for
Weinstein's release. "The president is aware of
it. I do not believe he's seen it, or I do not
know that he's seen it. We remain greatly
concerned for Weinstein's safety and his
well-being," White House press secretary Jay
Carney said on May 7. "Our hearts go out to him
and his family. We condemn his kidnapping in the
strongest terms and call for his immediate
release. The US government will continue making
every effort to see Warren Weinstein released
safety to his family, but we cannot and will not
negotiate with al-Qaeda," Carney added.
The US State Department, too, refused to
make concessions to terrorists. "As you know, we
don't make concessions to terrorists. We obviously
remain very, very concerned about the safety and
well-being of Weinstein. We want to call - or we
have called, and continue to call for his
immediate release and we continue to cooperate
closely with Pakistani authorities on the current
investigation. We are obviously also in close
contact with Weinstein's family, offering
appropriate consular assistance as they requested.
We think he's probably or most likely being held
in the tribal areas of Pakistan, but we don't have
any way to confirm that", State Department
spokesman Mark Toner said on May 7.
Highly
placed officials in the Pakistani security
establishment believe the blunt refusal of the
White House to negotiate with al-Qaeda for the
release of Weinstein was not a wise move given the
fact that, like Daniel Pearl, Weinstein is a
Jewish American who is now dangerously close to
being made another bloody example by the
terrorists.
In a 2002 video titled "The
Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel
Pearl", which was released by his kidnappers,
Pearl was shown describing his identity: "My name
is Daniel Pearl, I am a Jewish-American from
Encino, California, US. On my father's side the
family is Zionist. My father is Jewish, my mother
is Jewish, and I am Jewish too. My family follows
Judaism. We have made numerous family visits to
Israel."
The second part of the video
showed Pearl stating the demands of his captors.
Pictures of dead Pakistanis and similar scenes
were superimposed around the image of Pearl. Other
images shown were those of Bush shaking hands with
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. The message
read: "We give you one more day if the United
States America will not meet our demands, we will
kill Daniel Pearl. Then this cycle will continue
and no American journalist could enter Pakistan."
Photos of Pearl handcuffed with a gun at
his head and holding up a newspaper were attached.
As the kidnappers' demands were not accepted,
Pearl was killed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the
mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Sheikh was
arrested in March 2003 in Rawalpindi, 15 months
after Pearl's murder, and is currently being tried
in the United States.
Amir Mir
is a senior Pakistani journalist and the author of
several books on the subject of militant Islam and
terrorism, the latest being The Bhutto murder
trail: From Waziristan to GHQ.
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