

Ransoming Citizens, Europe Becomes Al Qaeda’s Patron - tysone
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/world/africa/ransoming-citizens-europe-becomes-al-qaedas-patron.html

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deciplex
>Several senior diplomats involved in past negotiations have described the
decision to ransom their citizens as an agonizing calculation: accede to the
terrorists’ demand, or allow innocent people to be killed, often in a
gruesome, public way?

At least if they're killed in a gruesome, public way, their killers are outed
as the barbarian savages that they are. This may be a widely-known thing in
the West, but not everyone has gotten the message.

And if you're going to pay the ransom, don't _deny it_ later. If you deny it,
you're leaving the kidnappers with absolutely no downside - people don't even
have to know how these organizations are funded.

