The murder of James Foley, the threatened murder of his co-hostage Steven Sotloff, and the reported kidnapping of further hostages in Syria have revived interest in an old question: should ransoms be paid, thereby generating a market for abductions, or should negotiations be abjured on principle, leaving hostages to certain death? James Foley’s kidnappers had demanded a multimillion dollar ransom for his release, but the United States, like Britain, but unlike other European nations, holds to a policy of not making “substantive concessions” to terrorists.
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