A US hostage held by al Qaeda urged his wife in a video to contact American Jewish communities to call on US President Barack Obama to help secure his release, SITE Intelligence Group said Friday. Warren Weinstein, a relief worker with USAID captured in Lahore, Pakistan in August 2011, appeared in the video shared on Islamist websites on Thursday, the US-based monitoring group said, in the second video appealing for his freedom in recent days.
Weinstein, who said he was being treated well, “asked his wife to make contact with Jewish communities in the US to pressure Obama and the American government to work with and accept Al-Qaeda’s demands,” SITE said. He also called on his wife to “work with the American Jewish communities in order to work with the Israeli government and Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu” to help secure his freedom.
