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Government Threatened Foley Family Over Ransom Payments

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Sep 12, 2014.

  1. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Heartbreaking to be in such a situation:

     
  2. Justin_Rice

    Justin_Rice Well-Known Member

    Right wing: "We never negotiate with terrorists!!!! ... unless somehow we can bludgeon Obama with it!"
     
  3. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    That's been a bone of contention between the U.S. and European governments. They will pay ransoms. The U.S. is firm that it won't, for fear that will only create more kidnappers, and that it will only continue to enrich the terrorists who do this. "Europe has become an inadvertent underwriter of Al Qaeda."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/world/africa/ransoming-citizens-europe-becomes-al-qaedas-patron.html?_r=0
     
  4. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    Amazing someone can be so obtuse as to confuse the difference between a massive government with a family.
     
  5. Justin_Rice

    Justin_Rice Well-Known Member

    This.
     
  6. Big Circus

    Big Circus Well-Known Member

    It certainly sounds like the NSC officer could have handled it more delicately, and I certainly feel for the Foleys. However...are they arguing that giving massive amounts of money to terrorists isn't supporting terrorism? Or that an exception should have been made for them, because...why?

    Furthermore, I'd be interested to know what, exactly, made this a "threat." I wouldn't say "We'll prosecute you if you do something illegal" qualifies.
     
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Firmly with the government on this one.
     
  8. Big Circus

    Big Circus Well-Known Member

    And yes, if it were my son and I somehow had access to such an obscene sum of money, I'd gladly go to prison to bring him back.
     
  9. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    But the ransom was not likely to have worked. They would have given the money and still not gotten their son back.

    And the Foley family paying a ransom would put more Americans in harm's way as it would have emboldened the terrorists to take more Americans as hostages.

    The government was right to tell them to leave it alone.
     
  10. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Why didn't the Foley family find some other high-ranking officials to confirm that they would be prosecuted if they paid? Why did they just take this one guy for his word?
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    It would have worked. That's the reason they do these kidnappings - it's a fund-raiser.
     
  12. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    If I were my kid they would offer them the paper to draw up my deportation papers on.
     
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