Hostage's Family Paid $250K Ransom, Got Nothing

It's one more wrenching detail in the death of American hostage Warren Weinstein, who was killed in error by a US drone strike. It turns out that his family paid his abductors $250,000 in 2012 for his release, to no avail, reports the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy. (The Journal has the specifics on the amount, while Foreign Policy spells out that it was Weinstein's family who paid it.) The family worked with the Pakistan government to have the money delivered via an intermediary.

“The money was delivered, but he [Weinstein] didn’t show up,” the intermediary tells the Journal. He turned over the money to the kidnappers in the form of $100 bills in the city of Peshawar. Before he did so, the kidnappers reportedly allowed Weinstein to speak on the phone with his wife, Elaine, to prove he was alive. (When the aid worker was abducted in 2011, Weinstein was just days away from returning to the US.)