Friday, October 31, 2014
Inside Terrorist Hostage Negotiations
Disappearance -- and First Contact
Every hostage situation is different, but many start the same way -- with sudden silence. When Foley was kidnapped in Syria in November 2012, neither his family nor his employer, GlobalPost, heard a word for weeks from the reporter or his captors.
At the urging of the government, Foley’s family decided to keep quiet until January 2013, when they stepped in front of news cameras to plead publicly for their son’s release. The U.S. government embarked on aninternational effort to find Foley, but still there was no news until November 2013 – one year after Foley was kidnapped – when one email changed everything. GlobalPost CEO Phil Balboni told ABC News about the gut-wrenching process that followed:
Have a look at the ABC report from Brian Ross. It includes a few stories and videos [HERE].