U.S., Europe Must Adopt Same Policy For Paying Kidnapped Ransom, Former Taliban Hostage Writes
In the wake of the recent, tragic death of American hostage James Foley, a former Taliban hostage argues that the U.S. and Europe must find a consistent approach to dealing with hostages and the ransoms demanded by terrorists.
David Rohde, a former hostage of the Taliban who escaped in 2009, argued his position in a Wednesday Op-Ed piece for his company, Thomson Reuters. In the piece, Rohde argued that Europe and America have different approaches to freeing hostages held by terrorist groups including the Taliban and the Islamic State.
Rohde writes that while European countries often secretly pay the ransoms demanded by terrorist groups in order to free hostages, the U.S. regularly refuses to pay the ransoms, and many times American hostages are killed as a result.
Rohde uses the example of American photojournalist James Foley, who, according to a YouTube video, was executed in an undisclosed desert location this week by the Islamic State jihadist group. Although the group claimed the execution was done as retribution for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, emerging facts indicate Foley was in fact executed because the U.S. refused to pay a $132 million ransom for Foley's release.
"[Foley's execution] is the clearest evidence yet of how vastly different responses to kidnappings by U.S. and European governments save European hostages but can doom the Americans," Rohde writes.
Rohde is quick to note that such kidnapping cases are delicate and complicated, but he argues that Europe and America must find a uniform response to hostage situations to enable a more effective foreign policy. "[…] security threats are more effectively countered by united American and European action. The divergent U.S. and European approach to abductions fails to deter captors or consistently safeguard victims."
"A consistent response to kidnapping by the U.S. and Europe is desperately needed. The current haphazard approach is failing. James Foley must not die in vain," Rohde adds.
