Why was warren weinstein kidnapped

The president, speaking at the White House about the operation that killed the hostages, said the US had launched the raid in the belief the target was an al-Qaeda compound with no civilians present.

As commander-in-chief, he said, he took "full responsibility" for the operation. The White House said compensation would be paid to the families of the hostages.

Mr Weinstein's wife Elaine said in a statement the family was "devastated". She thanked several members of the US congress and unnamed officials from the FBI, but said the assistance received from "other elements of the US government was inconsistent and disappointing". Mrs Weinstein also criticised the Pakistani government and military who, she said, treated her husband's captivity "as more of an annoyance than a priority".

President Obama said the operation was in compliance with the White House's counterterrorism protocols. It's a "bitter truth in the fog war" that mistakes occur, but what sets America apart is facing up squarely to its mistakes, he said. Weinstein, 73, was abducted in Lahore in , where he was working as an aid worker. Lo Porto disappeared from Multan, Pakistan in January Both men were aid workers.

Austin Associates Inc. He loved the Pakistani people and their culture, she said, learning to speak Urdu and doing "everything he could to show his utmost and profound respect for the region.

As he announced Weinstein's death Thursday, U. Weinstein, Obama said, was someone who "willingly left the comforts of home to help the people of Pakistan," focusing his work on helping families escape poverty to give their children a better life. It's tragic that he was killed the way he was," former U. Ambassador Dan Simpson said.

Simpson met Weinstein in when they were both working in Burundi -- Simpson as a diplomat and Weinstein as a scholar researching several books. Weinstein "was a very kind person," Simpson said, "and someone who was very sensitive to the needs of the people who he worked with. Obama: Al Qaeda boasted of holding Jewish hostage. Both Lo Porto and Weinstein were people who "believed passionately" that they could make a difference, Obama said.

Meanwhile, al Qaeda boasted to the world that it held Warren citing his Jewish faith. Weinstein's health had been deteriorating, Obama said.

Last year daughter Alisa Weinstein told CNN her father suffered from a heart condition and severe asthma. But it was still an optimistic time for the family. That month captors released U. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl , and that buoyed hopes from Weinstein's family that he could also be freed. If they want to, they can do this," Alisa Weinstein said at the time.

But a prisoner swap never happened for Weinstein, even though his family pushed for one. Read More. On Thursday, the U.

According to New America, which tracks drone strikes in Pakistan, CIA drone attacks happened in Shawal, North Waziristan, on January 19 in which at least four militants were killed; also on January 15 in Tehsil Ladha, South Waziristan, in which at least five militants were killed; and on January 4 in Datta Khel, South Waziristan, in which at least eight militants were killed.

It is in one of these strikes that Weinstein was almost certainly killed. A plan to secure Weinstein's release? Jason Amerine, a planner on the U. Army staff, is under investigation over a purported unauthorized disclosure to U.

Duncan Hunter's office, which has demonstrated a strong interest in the fate of American hostages held by al Qaeda and the Taliban. A plan was developed in the Pentagon to secure the release of Weinstein, according to a staff member on Hunter's committee.

That plan was to release Haji Bashir Noorzai, a prominent and influential member of the Taliban who is in prison in the States on drug trafficking charges, in exchange for U. Army Sgt. It's not clear how far this plan of action went. Amerine is invoking whistleblower protection and denies making an unauthorized disclosure. As an Army captain, Amerine led a small detachment of U. The operation was instrumental in helping to topple the Taliban and to install Hamid Karzai as the new leader of Afghanistan.

Who kidnapped Weinstein? IMU is an Uzbek terrorist group headquartered in the tribal regions of Pakistan along its border with Afghanistan. According to the Pakistani official, the leader of the Weinstein kidnapping cell was a relative of Tahir Yuldashev, the former IMU leader killed in a CIA drone strike in the Pakistani tribal regions in The initial lead that traced the Weinstein kidnapping to the IMU came from another high-profile kidnapping in Pakistan two weeks after Weinstein's abduction.

Shahbaz Taseer, the son of a leading Pakistani liberal politician Salman Taseer -- who was killed by a Pakistani militant eight months earlier -- was kidnapped in Lahore on August 26, At the scene of Taseer's kidnapping one of the kidnappers dropped a cell phone and SIM card that eventually led Pakistani officials to focus on the IMU group in Lahore, according to the senior Pakistani counterterrorism official. The police subsequently arrested three Uzbeks and four Pakistanis who were part of the IMU cell that had carried out the Weinstein kidnapping.

Members of the IMU cell told Pakistani interrogators that after they had kidnapped Weinstein they moved him while he was tranquilized and semi-conscious among three safe houses in Lahore.