Al-Qaida Holding American Hostage in Pakistan

		<a href='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a9cd87eb&cb=1146963078' target='_blank'><img src='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=1&cb=1146963078&n=a9cd87eb' border='0' alt='' /></a>	May 26, 2012 Log in / Register
			Text Size

Trending: gay marriage barack obama ndaa robert scheer chris hedges

TED: 'A Money-Soaked Orgy of Self-Congratulatory Futurism'

Russia and Exxon Mobil Sign Arctic Oil Deal

Truthdiggers of the Week: 400,000 Canadians Launching the ‘Maple Spring’

I Can't Hear Myself Think

A Rare Admission That Money Trumps Everything Else

Truthdiggers of the Week: 400,000 Canadians Launching the ‘Maple Spring’

Why Bain Questions Matter
By Eugene Robinson

A Rare Admission That Money Trumps Everything Else
By David Sirota

OSHA Struggles When Tower Climbers Die
By Ryan Knutson, PBS Frontline, and Liz Day, ProPublica

TED: ‘A Money-Soaked Orgy of Self-Congratulatory Futurism’

Amazon Is Latest to Bail Out on ALEC

Russia and Exxon Mobil Sign Arctic Oil Deal

Male Pill May Be Within Reach

It’s Wait and See as Egypt Counts the Votes

As Deadline Nears, Dueling Student Loan Bills Stall in Senate

Student Debt as a Human Rights Issue

Senate Aims to Advance Government Surveillance Rules

Romney Backs Off 4 Percent Unemployment Claim

North Carolina Pastor Advocates Putting Gays and Lesbians in Electrified Pen

I Can’t Hear Myself Think
By Dexter Palmer

Portraits of His People: A Tribute to Willie Middlebrook
By Paul Von Blum

Better Than We Found It
By Darrell Park

The Good-Natured Dictator
By Richard Schickel

The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking

Dig led by Mike Rose

Financial Meltdown 101

A Dig compiled by the editors of Truthdig

Kobe and the New Lakers Dynasty

By Mark Heisler
$10.17

The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t and Why

By Jabari Asim
$26.00

Ash Grey T-Shirt

$19

Al-Qaida Holding American Hostage in Pakistan

AP / Mike Redwood

This 2009 file image provided by Mike Redwood shows Warren Weinstein in England.

Claiming retaliation for American aggression in Pakistan, al-Qaida said Thursday that it was holding a U.S. citizen, 70-year-old aid worker Warren Weinstein, in that country after capturing him in Lahore four months ago. Al-Qaida boss Ayman al-Zawahiri announced Weinstein’s capture in a video demanding that the U.S. stop its air attacks in that part of the world. —KA

BBC:

“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.

And he called for the release of al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.

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.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement

TAGS: afghanistan air strike al-qaida ayman al-zawahiri drone islamabad osama bin laden pakistan usaid warren weinstein

Related Entries

Email to a friend

Get truth delivered to
your inbox every week.

Previous item: Occupy L.A.: Decamped but Not Deterred

Next item: Sarkozy: It All Comes Down to France and Germany

New and Improved Comments

We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.

In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.

Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.

Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.

Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.

By blogdog, December 3, 2011 at 12:53 pm Link to this comment

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2989053.stm

Pearl ‘killed over secrets’
Pearl’s murder was “a cold, calculated crime”, says Levy

France’s leading philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, says that American journalist Daniel Pearl, who
was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan last year was killed because he knew too much.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Levy said Mr Pearl had uncovered dangerous secrets about the
involvement of Pakistan’s intelligence service with Islamic extremists.

He also claims that British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, convicted of killing Mr
Pearl was in fact a double agent working for Pakistan’s intelligence service, Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI).

[...]

Mr Levy said that Mr Pearl was “kidnapped for one reason and he was killed for another”.

“He was kidnapped obviously because he was American, Jewish and a journalist - especially
because he was American and Jewish in a country, in an area of the world where it is a crime to be
Jewish and American.”

“To be American and Jewish in Pakistan is not an identity it is a sin - it is a crime - this is why he
kidnapped,” Mr Levy said.

________________________________________

analysis: limited hangout - Mr. Levy’s mission is clear:
http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=479
_______________________________________

the plot thickens:

http://tinyurl.com/4h5zlbk

January 20, 2011, 12:07 PM
New Report on Daniel Pearl’s Murder Reveals Forensic Analysis of Killer’s Veins
By ROBERT MACKEY

After studying the pattern of the veins on his hand, American investigators concluded that Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed, a senior operative for Al Qaeda, wielded the blade that killed Daniel Pearl, a
Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and executed before a video camera in Pakistan in
2002, according to a new report.

The report, “The Truth Left Behind: Inside the Kidnapping and Murder of Daniel Pearl,” by a team
of journalists working at Georgetown University who “spent more than three years investigating
the roles of 27 men linked to the 2002 kidnapping and murder,” was published online in
conjunction with the Center for Public Integrity.

The report reveals for the first time that the F.B.I. and C.I.A. had used a forensic technique called
“vein-matching” to compare images of Mr. Mohammed’s hands — after his capture in Pakistan in
2003 — with those of the man who beheaded Mr. Pearl in a graphic video.

_________________________________

especially in light of this
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EC06Df04.html

South Asia
Khalid: A test for US credibility
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The circumstances surrounding the arrest in Pakistan and handing over to US
authorities of a man said to be Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, a reportedly leading member of al-
Qaeda, raise a number of important issues, not the least of which is the credibility of the US in its
“war against terror”.

[...]

Nine other suspected terrorists were captured, and two were killed. A woman FBI official examined
the bodies, and, as reported by an ISI official, suddenly exclaimed, “You have killed Khalid Shaikh
Mohammad.” The woman then instructed that a finger be cut off the body, which she took away,
presumably for a DNA test.

Khalid’s wife and child were taken away to an ISI safe house in the vicinity where they were
interrogated by the FBI, and it is said that the woman identified one of the bodies as Khalid.

[...]

______________________________

thicker yet: vis-à-vis murder of Syed Saleem Shahzad
http://tinyurl.com/75wldnb
Mullen Claims Islamabad ‘Sanctioned’ Journalist’s Killing
By Yochi J. Dreazen
Updated: July 7, 2011

[...]

“It was sanctioned by the government,” Mullen told journalists at the Pentagon on Thursday. “I
have not seen anything to disabuse the report…
[...]

Report this

By berniem, December 2, 2011 at 1:38 pm Link to this comment

Hmmm….I’m sure that if we allow the free market to assert itself all will be fine and dandy. Sorry, I can’t bring myself to feel bad for someone who insists on sticking his head into the lion’s mouth knowing full well that there are real teeth in there.

Report this

By dogdoddle, December 2, 2011 at 9:33 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I agree with afs. Since Al Qaeda is the brainchild of the U.S. government of course they want to make an excuse they sheeple will buy into. The captured guy can’t get more Jewish than “Weinstein”, so it’s obviously a set up to excuse Israel’s aggressive behavior (blessed by the U.S. government and even aided) toward Pakistan. They’re just doing this to keep the ball rolling in the level of Western attacks on them. It’s all about oil, and control of oil. Same-o same-o except this time it can very well lead into nuclear war. World War III is probably on it’s way.

Report this