pakistan and the list goes on. more goods and people being able to go from egypt to gaza, so it is really running the gamut of specific things that deal with al qaeda to all muslims and arabs. that is a big list of big asks, and what is the reaction from the white house and the state department? well, if you remember, soledad, mr. weinstein was kidnapped in august and in december al qaeda claimed responsibility and the leader of al qaeda now that bin laden is dead, aman al zawahiri laid out the demands at the time, and the u.s. has a no negotiation policy and not only with the kidnappers per se, but with the terrorists certainly, so there has not been official reaction to the video and what the u.s. has said since december is that it is working with the pakistanis who are taking the lead on the investigation to find out where he might be and i suspect they are working with people in the tribal areas the try the track him down, but i don t anticipate a meeting of the deman
on it, u.s. hostage warren weinstein, begs president obama to agree to his kidnappers demands or else he will be killed. he was abducted last august in pakistan. the 70-year-old maryland executive has a bunch of health issues, including heart problems. here s part of the video militants posted online. i d like to talk to president obama and ask and beg him that he please accept and respond to the demands of the mujahadin. if you accept the demands, i live. if you don t accept the demands, then i die. it s important you accept the demands and act quickly and don t delay. there will be no benefit in delay. it will just make things more difficult for me. but it is very important that you act quickly and i m now waiting for your response. cnn foreign affairs reporter eli elise joins us. is this the first concrete evidence that he s still alive? it s the first proof of life. mr. weinstein was kidnapped in august. al zawahiri said basically if the u.s. meets the demands for
after the kentucky derby. this morning, the search for his killer. look, i am vice president of the united states of america. the president sets the policy. i am absolutely vice president joe biden giving us a couple of hints that the white house view of same-sex marriage could be evolving just as a key vote on the matter comes up in the battleground state. this is cnn breaking news. up first we begin with breaking news. a chilling video just released by al qaeda. on it, u.s. hostage warren weinstein, begs president obama to agree to his kidnappers demands or else he will be killed. he was abducted last august in pakistan. the 70-year-old maryland executive has a bunch of health issues, including heart problems. here s part of the video militants posted online. i d like to talk to president obama and ask and beg him that he please accept and respond to the demands of the mujahadin. if you accept the demands, i live. if you don t accept the demands, then i die. it
it will make things more difficult. it is very important that you act quickly, and i m now waiting for your response. cnn s elise lapin joins us from the white house. before we get to reaction, let s talk about the demands. what are they demanding? well, soledad, a range of demands starting from releasing all al qaeda and taliban prisoners and in particular those responsible for the 1993 bombing of the world trade center, the attempted attack on the world trade center, and also a halt to all air strikes in yemen, somalia, afghanistan and pakistan and the list goes on. more goods and people being able to go from egypt to gaza, so it is really running the gamut of specific things that deal with al qaeda to all muslims and arabs. that is a big list of big asks, and what is the reaction from the white house and the state department? well, if you remember, soledad, mr. weinstein was kidnapped in august and in december al qaeda claimed responsibility and the leader of al qa
scheduled to land just a little while ago in havana, cuba on a very important mission to try to win the release of an american alan gross, 62 years old. he s been a u.s. government subcontractor. he was arrested in cuba in december of 2009. accused of subversive activity. been held there ever since. we re getting a statement now from the state department from the state department spokeswoman courtesy of our own elise lapin, our producer, the state department saying we are aware of governor richardson s trip to cuba and have been in contact with him. while governor richardson is traveling as a private citizen, we support his efforts to obtain alan gross release. we re also told the cuban government invited richardson to come with this specific mission in mind. we re told he s expected to spend the next few days in havana to find a way to release alan gross. the obama administration has been trying very strongly over these past 2 1/2 years or so to improve u.s./cuban relations