American Killed In US Drone Strike Was A Former SUNY Professor

News broke Thursday that a counterterrorism operation, carried out by the United States in January, inadvertently killed an American hostage who once taught at SUNY Oswego. YNN reports, through a statement from the university, that Warren Weinstein was a tenured professor in Oswego’s political science department in the 1970s. He was reportedly abducted by al-Qaida from his home in Pakistan, on Aug. 13, 2011, and had been held captive since. The 73-year-old U.S. aid worker had pleaded for his life in a video released by the group, was killed in the U.S. drone strike. An Italian citizen named Giovanni Lo Porto, who had been held captive since 2012, was also inadvertently killed.

President Barack Obama said during a news conference Thursday, that the men were killed during a mission that targeted an al-Qaida compound in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obama said he has spoken with Weinstein’s wife and with the Prime Minister of Italy. “As president and as commander in chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations,” the president said. “We will identify the lessons we can learn from this tragedy. We will do our utmost to ensure it will not be repeated,” Obama said in a televised statement at the White House

According to a statement from White House spokesman Josh Earnest, Ahmed Farouq, a U.S. citizen and al-Qaida fighter, was also killed in the drone strike. A separate strike, killed Adam Gadahn, a long-sought American who worked for al-Qaida and was on the FBI’s most-wanted li

President Barack Obama says he takes "full responsibility'' for the deaths of both captives.