This still image taken from video and released by the SITE INtelligence Group on December 26, 2013 shows Warren Weinstein, a US contractor held by Al-Qaeda militants. According to a SITE statement, Weinstein, a US citizen held hostage by al-Qaeda in Pakistan since August 2011, appeared in the new video, appealing to US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, as well as the US public and media, to negotiate for his release and to negotiate with his captors for his family to visit him. According to media reports, the video was sent in an anonymous email to several journalists. While the Washington Post provided the video on its website on December 25, 2013, it has not yet been issued on jihadi forums.  = RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / SITE INTELLIGENCE GROUP" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS =  
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Family of captive fear Bergdahl backlash
01:57 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

American aid worker Warren Weinstein is being held by al Qaeda

Alisa Weinstein says she's worried backlash over Bergdahl could hurt her father's case

She says she wants to know what the U.S. government is doing to bring him home

"They have shown with this exchange that...if they want to, they can do this," she says

CNN  — 

Alisa Weinstein was thrilled when she heard about Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release. She hopes her father will be next.

Gunmen abducted Warren Weinstein nearly three years ago from his home in Lahore, Pakistan. They posed as neighbors, offered food and then pistol-whipped the American aid worker and tied up his guards.

Now he’s being held by al Qaeda. And as political backlash over the controversial prisoner swap for Bergdahl grows, Weinstein’s daughter says her happiness for the soldier and his family has turned to worry.

“We started to realize that the administration is going to be a lot less likely to do this again if it causes some political problems for them,” she told CNN’s “AC360” on Wednesday. “So does that mean that the door is closed for us?”

For years, when Warren Weinstein’s case came up, U.S. officials called for his release but repeatedly said Washington wouldn’t bargain with al Qaeda.

Now, Alisa Weinstein says it’s clear that negotiating is an option.

“They have shown with this exchange that they can get this done. If they want to, they can do this,” she said. “So I know that they can do it for us and they can do it for others.”

Just as health was a concern for U.S. officials who negotiated Bergdahl’s release, Weinstein says she’s worried about her 72-year-old father’s health. He has a heart condition and severe asthma, she said, and a video of him released by al Qaeda on Christmas showed he’s suffering.

“It was clear from that video that he is not in good physical condition. He was incredibly pale and gaunt. His voice was weak. … My father is certainly not in good health,” she said.

Listening to Obama administration officials justify the swap by pointing out that Bergdahl was a soldier doesn’t ease her worries.

“My father is just as deserving of freedom as Sgt. Bergdahl, as are all of the Americans who are being held abroad,” she said. “You cannot distinguish between these hostages. … They can’t just pick and choose, decide that it works to get one person out and then leave everybody else there.”

Just a few months after Weinstein’s capture, al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri released a recording claiming the terror group was holding Weinstein – and demanding, among other things, an end to airstrikes by the United States.

He described the captive as “a former employee and a current contractor working with the U.S. government in its aid program to Pakistan, which aims to fight the jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and just like the Americans arrest any suspect linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban, even if they were far related.”

Weinstein was employed by J.E. Austin Associates Inc., a U.S. consulting firm based in Arlington, Virginia, that is a USAID contractor. He is a world-renowned development expert, according to the company’s website.

In the video al Qaeda released of him in December, Warren Weinstein said he felt abandoned.

“Nine years ago, I came to Pakistan to help my government and I did so at a time when most Americans would not come here,” he said. “And now, when I need my government, it seems I have been totally abandoned and forgotten.”

What about other Americans held captive?

CNN’s Randi Kaye, Moni Basu and Ed Payne contributed to this report.