WASHINGTON — With terrorists
beheading Americans, President Barack Obama has ordered a review of how
the United States responds when citizens are taken hostage overseas. The
review comes as some family members of those killed have complained
that the United States did not take enough action in an attempt to save
their loved ones. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama
ordered the review of recovery efforts over the summer given “the
extraordinary nature of some of the hostage takings that we’ve seen this
year.” Earnest said the review will not include the United States’
longstanding policy of refusing to pay ransom, which stands in contrast
to many other governments.
“The president continues
to believe as previous presidents have concluded that it’s not in the
best interest of American citizens to pay ransoms to any organization,
let alone a terrorist organization,” Earnest said. “And the reason for
that is simple — we don’t want to put other American citizens at even
greater risk when they’re around the world.” On Sunday, ISIS released a
video showing they had decapitated American aid worker Peter Kassig following the beheading deaths of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff earlier
this year. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said Tuesday that a
“small number” of U.S. citizens are still being held by ISIS, but
refused to provide a specific number.
Foley’s mother, Diane
Foley, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday that she hopes families
of hostages will be part of the White House’s review. “I think it’s
very hard for people outside to this to understand the problems we’ve
encountered,” Diane Foley said. While she didn’t say whether or not she
agrees with paying a ransom, she acknowledged that it's a tricky
position and there remains no substantive data saying that paying
terrorists for hostages actually decreases kidnappings. “That’s one of
the things I hope Jim’s foundation can do is actually research this issue and see if there’s any data that shows this is the case,” she added.
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