Weinstein is not just a captive, he’s a human being. A good one at that

Al-Qaeda terrorists have held 72-year-old Warren Weinstein since mid-August 2011. On Wednesday, Al Qaeda released a video with Dr. Weinstein asking President Obama to negotiate his release. We know that he was alive when the video was made, but we don’t know when it was made and if he is alive now. The mainstream media covered the release of the video, but I knew Warren Weinstein; he is a human being, a good one at that.

“You are now in your second term as president of the United States and that means that you can take hard decisions without worrying about reelection,” said Weinstein, who was recorded sitting against a white wall wearing a gray tracksuit top and a black woolen hat. No one else appeared in the video.

The video included the logo of As-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s media production outlet, and was sent in an anonymous e-mail to several journalists who have reported from Afghanistan. Included were links to a handwritten note purportedly from Weinstein. The note is dated Oct. 3.

A State Department spokeswoman and a member of Weinstein’s family said Wednesday night that they had not independently received the note or video. The Washington Post provided a copy to both of them.

Weinstein said that his captors have agreed to arrange for relatives to visit him in custody if the United States releases unspecified prisoners as part of a “quid pro quo.” He also addressed Secretary of State John F. Kerry, telling him his captors have kept him abreast of peace deals that the top U.S. diplomat has sought to broker. Weinstein said a “first step” to getting him released would require taking “action with respect to their people who are being held as prisoners.”

Most news outlets reported that Warren Weinstein was a government contractor when he was kidnapped, which is true. His work in Pakistan was to boost the country’s dairy development, which according to his company, resulted in $63 million in new investment to Pakistan, at least 2,150 new jobs, and a 25 percent boost in producer productivity.

My first year and a half in college was spent at the State University of New York at Oswego. I was a political science major and Dr. Weinstein was a favorite professor and my department adviser. As president of the Hillel (the Jewish Student Union), I also worked closely with Dr. Weinstein who was our faculty adviser. He always impressed me as a man with a big heart. It is not a surprise that when his kidnapping took place he was teaching people how to get more food out of their land. That’s the type of person he is. Warren Weinstein was the guy who would invite students over to his house when they were stuck in Oswego for the Jewish holidays.

It was Dr. Weinstein who first taught me what liberalism did to City University. He talked of studying with Hans J. Morgenthau at Brooklyn College when it was known as the “Poor Man’s Harvard.” Once New York City decided that college was a G-d-given right, and everyone was allowed into any school no matter what their grades were, Dr. Weinstein said Brooklyn College quickly became a sub-standard school.

Dr. Weinstein also taught me that one person could make a difference, which is exactly how he has lived his life. He encouraged me to stand up for what I believed, as when a Palestinian professor, Dr. Faiz Abu-Jabbar, verbally attacked me in class because I didn’t accept his anti-Israel rhetoric as truth.

To most who read the reports of Warren Weinstein’s capture, he is a faceless government contractor kidnapped by the bad guys. The media will talk about him for a few days and then forget about him. To those who know him, such as his family, or his students who he treated like family, Warren Weinstein is a good man who helped to spark an interest in politics, which continues through till today. Although we lost touch after I left Oswego, I remember Warren Weinstein as a political science mentor who was a lifeline, who helped me get through a year and a half of college life in a student body that was not very friendly to Jews.

So this is the scum the United States is fighting: a group that would kidnap a 72-year-old man with a heart condition, a man who was only in Pakistan to help people become more successful. Warren Weinstein is someone who would go anywhere in the world to help people. His captors would go anywhere in the world to hurt people.

As for the United States’ refusal to negotiate for Weinstein’s release, it seems strange that the same government that is releasing terrorists from Gitmo and is pushing Israel to release people who have killed innocents through terrorist acts, will not negotiate the release of a 72-year-old scholar who’s greatest crime is teaching people to get more milk from their cows.

Please join me in praying for Warren Weinstein’s good health and for his quick release back into the loving arms of his wife Elaine and the rest of his family.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com