This will, of course, encourage more hostage-taking. At a time when European governments have funneled tens of millions of dollars in ransoms to jihad groups, essentially financing their operations, that is hardly wise.
“White House says more than 30 Americans held hostage abroad,” by Jeremy Diamond and Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, June 24, 2015:
Washington (CNN)The U.S. government will now communicate with terrorist groups holding the more than 30 Americans currently hostage abroad, one of a slew of changes to the nation’s hostage policy that President Barack Obama announced Wednesday.
The U.S. government will stick to its “no concessions” policy — often incorrectly interpreted as “no negotiations” — while also allowing government officials going forward to talk with terrorist groups like ISIS that have kidnapped Americans, according to a presidential policy directive Obama outlined on Wednesday.
More than 30 Americans are currently held hostage abroad, Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, who oversaw the policy review, told reporters on Wednesday.
The tally includes those who are held hostage by terrorist groups as well as criminal gangs and cartels, according to a senior official, who said the government couldn’t provide a further breakdown for safety reasons.
READ: FBI assisted Weinstein family with ransom payment
The changes to the hostage policy, which also include the creation of an interagency “fusion cell” to streamline efforts to free American hostages and improve communication between the government and families, follow a months-long review of U.S. policy that included interviews with nearly two-dozen families of current and former U.S. hostages.
Obama also made it clear that the U.S. government will not prosecute families looking to pay ransoms to terrorist groups holding their loved ones hostage — a threat some families faced during their ordeals.
“No family of an American hostage has ever been prosecuted for paying ransom for their loved one. The last thing we should ever do is to add to a family’s pain with threats like that,” Obama said at the White House.
“The bottom line is this: When it comes to how our government works to recover hostages, we are changing how we do business,” he said.
The presidential directive issued by Obama reiterates U.S. policy “to deny hostage-takers the benefits of ransom, prisoner releases, policy changes, or other acts of concession.
“However, this policy does not preclude engaging in communications with hostage-takers,” the directive says.
Obama noted that many changes he ordered on Wednesday “are a direct result” of the families’ feedback and said that he considered the policy changes not just through the lens of president, but as a husband and father.
“If my family were at risk obviously I would move heaven and Earth to get those loved ones back,” he said. “I’m making it clear that our top priority is the safe and rapid recovery of American hostages,” he added.
But Obama also noted that he would not authorize the government to make ransom payments, noting that it would put “in danger more Americans” by incentivizing kidnappings.
The parents of James Foley, the first American hostage beheaded by ISIS, applauded the “in-depth” work of the hostage policy review team and thanked the leaders of that group in a statement on Wednesday.
And they pledged to continue to work to improve U.S. policy on the matter to help American hostages still held abroad.
“Jim wanted to make a difference in the world. Perhaps his horrific death was necessary to awaken the American public and our government,” John and Diane Foley said.
The payment of ransoms to terror groups has long been tolerated in many instances, though it is technically illegal. The administration has looked the other way when families of Americans held overseas have paid ransoms.
But several families — including the family of James Foley — have said they were threatened with prosecution as they considered making ransom payments. A member of the National Security Council staff had threatened Foley’s family with prosecution during their ordeal.
Lawmakers ‘disappointed’ with hostage policy reforms push legislation
House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday said he feared the erosion of the U.S.’s policy of not paying ransoms and the principle of not negotiating with terrorists.
“I’ve not seen the report nor have I seen an analysis of it, but we have had a policy in the United States for over 200 years of not paying ransom and not negotiating with terrorists and the concern that I have is that by lifting that long held principle you could be endangering more Americans here and overseas,” Boehner said.
U.S. policy actually does not prohibit negotiations, but prohibits making “substantive concessions” to captors in the process.
Family members of former hostages met Tuesday with officials at the National Counterterrorism Center to learn of the administration’s decisions after a months-long review of U.S. policies in dealing with American citizens held captive.
In interviews with the hostage policy review group, families expressed concerns that officials displayed a lack of compassion and the new presidential directive explicitly directs officials to “treat all families and hostages equitably and fairly while respecting their dignity and privacy.”
Hostages killed in U.S. drone strikeHostages killed in U.S. drone strike 01:51
PLAY VIDEO“All interactions with the family should be undertaken with the utmost professionalism, empathy, and sensitivity to the psychological and emotional disruption the family is experiencing and should be informed by the family’s needs, wishes, and rights,” according to the policy directive.
Obama’s Wednesday executive order establishes the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, which officials described as a full-time, inter-agency body with the goal of coordinating the U.S. government’s response to hostage-takings.
A senior FBI official will serve as the taskforce’s first director, responsible for overseeing hostage recovery efforts and the fusion cell’s office will be housed in the FBI.
The cell will include officials from the State, Treasury, Defense and Justice Departments as well as the CIA and Director of National Intelligence.
The order also created two new positions: a family engagement coordinator to act as a single point of contact for families of hostages, and the designation of a senior representative from the State Department for diplomatic outreach abroad….
nacazo says
OK, it’s going to be open season on Americans to become targets for kidnapping. Now there will be money incentives added.
dave says
no problem – tax payers will fund it.
gerard says
BHO is in a quandary here: Should he help his friends in IS or should he make more of a show of concern for American hostages?
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
particolor says
And the only thing Missing in that Photo is a Bid Round Red Nose !
Angemon says
http://liberallogic101.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/clown-500×467.jpg
particolor says
Thank You 🙂 That’s Wonderful !! 🙂
We printed it and put it on the Bike Club Wall ! 🙂
larry says
Jim wasnt raised right, dumbass
gravenimage says
The only “negotiations” we should be involved in with ISIS or any other terrorists holding kidnap victims is letting them know just how large a can of whoop ass we intend to open if they don’t release all American hostages forthwith.
Angemon says
My feelings exactly, GI.
Westman says
Instead of asking, “What would Jesus do?”, we should be asking “What would Darth Vader do?”
Pay ransom and “maybe it will go away” is not a valid policy.
The Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell sounds like a facility to where the dead bodies of hostages are taken to make electricity.
Sam says
Wow. This Obama is out of control. How did we come to this?
Lynn says
by being complacent. People are more interested in what’s on TV and if they can watch the next game. They don’t want to study any topic. Don’t want to read a book. Don’t want to listen to a lecture. Don’t want to learn. They want to find the remote and grab a beer; gt the bbq and yard dog it.
Read at least the comments and inside story of Catastrophic Failure on Amazon. Buy it and read the whole thing. Watch Coughlin’s Red PiII briefings on youtube.
Learn what Hillary meant by good old fashion peer pressure and shaming to get Americans to change…
Buckle up and pray we live thru this sobpotus last months. He will certainly fill them with excitement.
Joseph says
The U.S. government will stick to its “no concessions” policy — often incorrectly interpreted as “no negotiations”
_______________________________________________
Sgt Bowe Bergdahl ? ? ? ?
Robert.Spencer. sure has that correct with the “often incorrectly interpreted as “no negotiations”
Ed says
Obamatrade
DVult says
If the US armed forces were given instructions to kill as many as possible of whichever groups were holding American hostages and to keep killing them until they were all dead if any hostages were killed then that might pass a more useful message.
rooare says
Your are correct, force is all terrorist’s understand, especially Islamic terrorist’s. Negotiations of any kind are seen as weakness by these savages. But they will understand demands backed up by overwhelming force if not followed.
Jerry says
The “good news” now is that HBO is going to facilitate and streamline ransom payments to the Jihadi terrorists without having to bother with deterrents to hostage taking or rescue attempts.
In all such efforts he will be consulting closely with the Imam of the White House.
Don’t get confused when that happens by him appearing to be talking to himself.
karen says
So, we’ve had a venerable history of two centuries of not paying ransoms. That can only mean President Obama will find a way to ruin that policy too, and weaken us further, despite his big talk.
AJLIVERPOOL says
Is anybody in any doubt that this is a further deliberate attempt to undermine the USA? Obama is certainly going to plan:
“The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions. […] It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is…”
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/sabotaging-our-miserable-house.html
I always believed that the USA had the right policy. It was the traitorous French and others, who paid for hostage releases behind the scenes. It should be a law in the UN forbidding any ransoming by States or their families. By doing this, hostage taking would be eliminated.
Inch by inch, everything is being undone and undermined, through the guise of ‘humanitarian’ reactions. The vast majority are blinded, without looking at deeper, longer term consequences.
I equate this to a clear and deliberate abuse of ‘asylum’ and refugee response to the ‘migrant boat crisis’ in Europe. Again i think this was a deliberate Obama plan, to destabilise North Africa and speed up the Islamisation of Europe. This is ably assisted by the EU, who then collect these refusgees en masse and dish them up around Europe. Some of these boats are being ‘rescued’ off the Libyan coast, THEN taken to Europe.
Paying ransom only causes more hostage taking and provides funding for further terrorism. ‘Rescuing’ all ‘migrants’ and bring them to Europe just encourages hordes more to try their luck, and further funds to the traffickers (ISIS and other jihadists).
Obama in his time in office has furthered the Muslim Brotherhood agenda faster in a few years, than the decades that preceded it.
Alaskaninfidel says
Well…at least he created some jobs….
duh_swami says
How is this ransom paid? In gold? A check? A suitcase full of cash? Stock in Facebook? When the ransom is paid first how does that guarantee a release? Maybe the captors want a little more than what they got, so the squeeze is on…Just don’t send the check to an address in Nigeria…
spot on says
ISIS may be taking credit cards soon.
particolor says
Don’t the Barbarians know that America is broke from Chasing their Rotten Hides all over the joint ? Will they take an IOU !
Dave Schwep says
Alright – we must then communicate with the Jihadis on video holding a pig on the dead body of another of jihadi.
ninetyninepct says
The arshole has simply made it easier for his islamist terrorist relatives to get money.
rooare says
The message that should be sent is demands to immediately release all American hostages backed up by overwhelming force if not followed. Furthermore if any group harms one hair of any American citizen our military will hunt them down and kill them even if it takes years. This is what savages understand and it is the only thing that will deter them from harming Americans.
Champ says
Obama administration will now communicate with jihad groups holding hostages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sigh …
Here’s another example that keeps me asking ..’which side is obama on?’
Our *president* has made our country/world much more dangerous, and he’s the enemy from within!