they deprived these men of precious, irreplaceable years with family who miss them terribly. in a statement put out by elaine winestein, the wife of the american aid worker who was killed, she faulted some elements of the u.s. government in negotiating for her husband, but she said the ultimate responsibility for her husband s death rests with his captors. quote, we do not fully understand all the facts surrounding warren s death, but we do understand that the u.s. government will be conducting an independent investigation of the circumstances. we look forward to the results of that investigation. but those who took warren captive over three years ago bear ultimate responsibility. i can assure you that he would still be alive and well if they had allowed him to return home after his time abroad, working to help the people of pakistan. u.s. congressman john delaney of maryland has worked for years to help get warren weinstein released. he joins us now along with nbc news terrorism ana
isn t it still better, i argue, than going to a middle east ground war? well, today president obama revealed the tragic news of the hostages deaths. let s watch. as president, and as commander in chief, i take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of warren and giovanni. i profoundly regret what happened. on behalf of the united states government, i offer our deepest apologies to the families. it is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war, generally, and our fight against terrorists specifically, mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur. but one of the things that sets america apart from many other nations, one of the things that makes us exceptional, is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes. richard engel is nbc s chief foreign correspondent. richard, how d this happen? well, it seems that in january, according to u.s. officials who
news terrorism analyst, evan cumming. tell us how you have succinctly tried to get him out. what was the effort like and how did the u.s. government help or not help you? we worked closely with the family, with elaine who is a remarkable woman, who showed incredible strength and held her family together while she worked to try to get warren home. what we tried to do was make sure all of the assets of the u.s. government whether they be intelligence assets or relationships with other partner nations, who have more assets on the ground in pakistan were all working to try to get warren home. and quite frankly, where we saw gaps or where we saw problems was not the people in the u.s. government weren t trying hard as individuals, because the fbi and the state department they were all working really hard but i really believe, based on this experience and based on working so closely on warren s case that we do need better coordination of all the capabilities the u.s. government has, so we
who flew his gyrocopter to the capitol to worn of political corruption, let s start with this front question of drone warfare? isn t it still better i argue, than going to a middle east ground war? well, today president obama revealed the tragic news of the hostages deaths. let s watch. as president, and as commander in chief, i take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of warren and giovanni. i profoundly regret what happened. on behalf of the united states government, i offer our deepest apologies to the families. it is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war, generally, and our fight against terrorists specifically mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes can occur. but one of the things that sets america apart from many other nations, one of the things that makes us exceptional, is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes. richard engel is nbc s