"I have been a negotiator for 30 years … never before have I seen such an increase in the number of abductions as during the last decade," he told her. "We are facing a kidnapping crisis of global proportions … This type of exponential growth makes my job more difficult; it increases the risks and reduces the rate of success. The kidnapping business is like a cancer that has metastasised."
... "The hunting season on foreign hostages began in Syria in 2012," she wrote.
Napoleoni says IS realised several years ago the powerful propaganda value of viral hostage execution videos – but they kept negotiating on the quiet, aware that some hostages were worth more in ransom than they were dead.
But IS didn't invent "criminal jihadism". Napoleoni's book, Merchants of Men, traces it back to the turn of the century. As one Algerian former jihadist "Rashid" told her: "We began trading arms, drugs, then someone had an idea: let's have a go at kidnapping."
Read more from TheCourier.com.au [HERE], check out the book, Merchants of Men [HERE].