President Obama’s Executive Order on US Hostages
Obama Softens Hostage Policy to Ease Families’ Pain
The Editorial Board – The Sacramento Bee
We don’t make concessions to terrorists, or pay ransoms for hostages. That’s the long-standing policy of the U.S. government – one that President Barack Obama should continue to stand behind.
But it’s understandable why he’s expected to announce Wednesday that the government will no longer threaten criminal charges against families who offer ransoms to try to rescue Americans captured by militants abroad. That was cruel, given the heartache they were facing….
Obama ordered the review last year after complaints from relatives of hostages killed by the Islamic State and others who had been taken captive. The family of aid worker Kayla Mueller – killed in February while being held by the Islamic State – also said government policy was contradictory and prevented her rescue….
U.S. officials are right that paying ransoms to terrorist groups helps bankroll their deadly operations and will only put more Americans in danger of being taken hostage. But they’ve correctly realized that prosecuting family members who are only trying to get their loved ones back is unnecessary.
In this Tues., Feb. 10, 2015 file photo, a small memorial honoring American hostage Kayla Mueller has been put up by the community in Prescott, Ariz. (AP File)
Obama Was Right on Ransoms
Tom Rogan – National Review
As horrific as the kidnapping are, paying to return hostages will only result in more dead Westerners. Absent personal experience, it’s impossible to understand the emotional turmoil that burdens James Foley’s family. Or Steven Sotloff’s family. Or David Haines’s family….
Recent news emphasizes this truth. James’s mother, Diane Foley, told ABC News that the Obama administration threatened to prosecute her if she and her family paid a ransom for her son…. At first glance, these warnings seem callous and morally inexcusable.
But for the White House, ransom was never an option. Allowing ransom negotiations with the Islamic State would only motivate the terrorists to kidnap more Americans. This would in turn escalate the immediate threat the group presents to the United States.
A sign outside a shop remembers James Foley, beheaded by the Islamic State while in captivity, in his hometown of Rochester, New Hampshire on Aug. 20, 2014. (Reuters)
Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay: Why Countries Should Think About Paying Ransoms
Tom Keatinge – CNN.com
Without doubt, paying ransoms encourages more kidnappings — it is a self-perpetuating, self-reinforcing cycle….
While paying ransoms increases the risk of further kidnappings, it also clearly increases the likelihood of a safe and successful outcome. Offering to consider ransom demands introduces a critical prerequisite for success — namely, a willingness to negotiate….
Stomach-churning (and illegal, in most jurisdictions) as it may be to finance designated terrorists, in recent months, citizens of France, Germany, Denmark, and Italy have returned safely home. Citizens of the UK and the U.S. have not.
The point blank refusal to pay ransoms is wrong-headed. A more nuanced approach that leaves all options, including payment, open for negotiation is much more likely to result in success.
Islamic State militants stand behind what are said to be Ethiopian Christians in this still image from an undated video made available on a social media website on April 19, 2015. (Reuters)
Should Nations Just Pay ISIS Ransom?
Peter Bergen and Emily Schneider – CNN.com
The first uncomfortable fact is that if you pay a ransom, a hostage is more likely to be released. The other is that every time a ransom is paid it increases the chance that other hostages will be taken to help fill the coffers of a terrorist group….
The French government’s purported policy of negotiating with militant groups for the release of kidnapped citizens does appear to work. Four French journalists — Nicolas Henin, Pierre Torres, Edouard Elias and Didier François, who were kidnapped in Syria last year by ISIS — were released near the Turkish border in April, blindfolded and with their hands bound.
One of those hostages, Henin, had been held by ISIS alongside Foley. Henin is free, and Foley is dead….
An area of possible wiggle room would be to leave the door open so that ransoms for Americans could be allowed to be paid — not with U.S. government funds but with private donations…
This is the least bad solution to a terrible quandary, which is if that if you don’t pay the ransom the hostage dies, and if you do pay the ransom, you are helping a terrorist organization.