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Al Qaeda or Taliban likely abducted US aid worker
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by YankeeJim | August 13, 2011 at 05:04 am
149 views | 4 Recommendations | 7 comments
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Highly vulnerable are US aid workers in Pakistan. Guards were distracted by breakfast when the residence was stormed by more than eight people, kidnapping the J. E. Austin Associates worker.
“U.S. Development Worker Abducted From His Home in Pakistani City of Lahore
Q
By Haris Anwar - Aug 13, 2011 7:13 AM ET
A U.S. citizen has been abducted from his home in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, U.S. Embassy and police officials said today.
The U.S. is working with local authorities to secure the man’s release, Alberto Rodriguez, a spokesman at the American embassy in Islamabad, said by phone, identifying him as Warren Weinstein. The LinkedIn networking website lists a Warren Weinstein as the Pakistancountry director for J.E. Austin Associates Inc. since 2004. It says he has worked on dairy production, horticulture and manufacturing projects, some funded by the U.S. government.
Between eight and 10 people broke into the American’s house this morning at a time when guards were busy preparing for an early meal during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, according to Abdul Razaq Cheema, a Lahore police official, who spoke to the GEO television channel.
U.S. relations with Pakistan have deteriorated since Raymond Davis, a contractor working for the Central Intelligence Agency, killed two men in February in a Lahore street. Ties suffered a major setback when U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani army garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2. U.S. officials later said Pakistan had not been informed in advance of the raid over concerns those hiding bin Laden would be tipped off.
Travel Warning
Arlington, Virginia-based J.E. Austin Associates has among others aided programs to develop Pakistan’s dairy farming, according to the company’s website. It lists Warren Weinstein as the company’s chief representative in Pakistan, saying he had worked in international development organizations for 25 years. A call to the company’s U.S. headquarters was not answered.
The State Department in its latest travel advisory for the South Asian country warned that the presence of al-Qaeda, Taliban militants and local sectarian groups posed a potential danger to U.S. citizens. “The kidnapping of Pakistani citizens and other foreign nationals, usually for ransom, continues to increase dramatically nationwide,” it said.
In May a U.S. consulate vehicle was attacked in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing one person and injuring a dozen, including two U.S. employees of the mission. Unidentified gunmen killed six local staff members of World Vision International, a U.S.-based Christian charity in March last year.”
Cut the aid and abandon Pakistan. Next big mistake by Pakistan should bring about a big boom.
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YankeeJim
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (7)
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"thirty-aught-six" (not verified)at 05:38 on August 13th, 2011
As far as Obama is concerned the NGO's are on their own. Got a problem? Talk to your Embassy representative. Oh wait. Wait. Wait. Nope. They're not answering! LOL.
at 05:38 on August 13th, 2011
In my opinion, Pakistan will always have elements of Al Qaeda or Taliban. And has been an almost complete waste of American resources and political effort. Not to mention the tens of billions of dollars that America has just given away to them. The fact they harbored Bin Laden, and have little respect for Americans in general, indicates an adversary more than any suggested ally.
at 05:52 on August 13th, 2011
This is where we need a radical change in foreign policy. We cannot afford the Middle East policy that has a legacy of no return on cost in dollars and lives.
at 11:04 on August 13th, 2011
Pakistanis too want the US to leave them alone i.e. neither pump dollars nor interference in the internal affairs of the country as well as in the surrounding, at least after the death of Osama bin Laden. Those hungry for the US dollars are a few from the ruling elite, otherwise public does not need those dollars nor the funds play any role in the improvement of their lives.
It is the US that is pumping dollars in the countries like Pakistan and also killing innocent people besides getting her own soldiers killed to feed her high and mighty i.e.big corporations, etc.
The world would become a hub of peace when the US stopped poking its nose in every corner of the world. It is, however, very astonishing that why the American people do not press their rulers to stop wars as well as funding ruling elite in other countries.
By the way, the man kidnapped from his Lahore residence was not an aid worker. He may be a CIA operative as Lahore is so far away from the tribal region that his stay in Lahore and work in tribal region does not make a sense. The fact shall, however, be revealed in the due course.
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"thirty-aught-six" (not verified)at 12:49 on August 13th, 2011
If the Pakistanis wanted to live as you suggest, Pakistan should have kept it's nose out of Afghanistans business and not have created, armed, and funded the Taliban. With out US assistance right now, you'd be Taliban or you's be dead or enslaved to their extremist religious views. The dog you bred and pushed on your neighbor has come back to bite you on the hind end. Very fitting.
at 15:01 on August 13th, 2011
Taliban were not created by Pakistan but that too was the US blunder of dumping Afghans after achieving its objective of disintegrating Soviet Union with the help of Afghans and Pakistanis. The people of Pakistan do not need the US assistance come what may. The Pakistanis are not afraid of death like non-Muslims and can't be enslaved, as Pakistan is a nuclear power and perhaps you do not know that the Pakistani nation is determined to protect its nuclear assets as well as installations and this fact is well known to the American rulers, otherwise they would have not resorted to abetting and committing terrorism in Pakistan through CIA operatives and agents and would have outright attacked the country and took away nuclear weapons. Keep in mind that the US did not attack North Korea, which had just two or three nukes whereas Pakistan has hundreds of such weapons. Had Pakistan been an easy prey, its arch-rival next door would have occupied the country long ago. It is more in the interest of the American people, who have been befooled by their government, that the US and NATO troops leave Afghanistan before it is too late.
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"thirty-aught-six" (not verified)at 16:30 on August 13th, 2011
Best piece of outright propaganda I've read in a while. ISI is still funding the Taliban with many well known high placed military and government people still giving direct support to them and their Pakistani J.U.I. religious extremist views. Pakistan has been on the prod since it's conception to the point of even pushing out the people and province of what was to become Bangladesh. Same with the Kashmiri. Pakistanis don't have a friend in the world. Nobody trust them. If there wasn't the real and present danger of Pakistan becoming a terrorist State the US wouldn't be trying to buy it's officials with tens of billions each year. And we wouldn't be in Afghanistan either if the Taliban weren't trying to create a terrorist State with the aid of al-Qaeda. The Afghan people don't want the Taliban in authority or to bow to their religious extremisim. So why don't you bring the Talibani back home and carve out a little State in the NWT just for them. That is if they aren't completely running your country by now.