Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Why U.S. policy toward negotiating with terrorists may be risking Americans’ lives

  • Judy Woodruff:
    One of the arguments that is made about all this is that, when you pay, when you say you are willing to pay, you run the risk that you are encouraging more kidnapping, more hostage-taking in the future.
    How do you answer that?
  • Joel Simon:
    Well, first of all, I started, when I did the research, with that assumption. It's logical.
    But the data just doesn't support it. Kidnapping is really a crime of opportunity. And there is no evidence or very little evidence to suggest that kidnappers are checking passports, and your nationality is going to determine whether you're kidnapped or not, regardless of the particular policy that your government has.

Read more [HERE].