Al Qaeda has released a video of a kidnapped elderly American Jew pleading to President Barack Obama to save his life by freeing terrorists.

Warren Weinstein was kidnapped in Pakistan last summer, and is the first American citizen kidnapped by terrorists there since the 2002 abduction and subsequent murder, of  Daniel Pearl, also a Jew.

He said in the video, posted on YouTube in jihad forums but later removed by YouTube because of its content, “My life is in your hands, Mr. President. If you accept the demands, I live; if you don’t accept the demands, then I die.”

“There’ll be no benefit in delaying; it will just make things more difficult for me.”

Weinstein’s wife lives in the Baltimore-Washington area suburb of Rockville. He stated on the video that if President Obama frees terrorists, “I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters.” One of the terrorists whose release Al Qaeda has demanded is the “blind sheik” Omar Abdul Rahman, who was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The video appearance is the first indication that Weinstein is alive since he was kidnapped in the eastern city of Lahore, where he was working as an aid expert for a Virginia firm that is contracted by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Weinstein told his wife in the video, “I’m fine, I’m well, I’m getting all my medications, I’m being taken care of.” He suffers from heart disease and diabetes.

His employer, J. E. Austin, has said littlie since he was kidnapped. Last August, it issued a press release stating, “His efforts to help make Pakistani industries more competitive have resulted in many hundreds of well-paying jobs for Pakistani citizens and contributed to raising the standard of living in the communities where these businesses are located.”