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The US has said payment of routine ransom to terrorist only puts other innocent American citizens at risk while defending its decision to swap five Taliban prisoners with the kidnapped soldiers in Afghanistan.
"Routinely paying ransoms only puts other innocent American citizens at risk of being kidnapped and held for ransom. And the last thing that we'd want to do is heighten the risk even more for innocent American citizens," White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest said yesterday.
"It is the policy of the United States of America that we do not pay ransom or make concessions to terrorist groups to secure the release of hostages. That is a policy that has been put in place for a couple of reasons," he said when asked about demands of ransom by ISIS terrorists for release of American nationals abducted by them.
"It is well documented that many extremist terrorist organisations use the revenue stream of ransoms to finance their broader operations. In some cases, that's actually the lifeblood of their organisation is being able to collect these ransoms and to roll that money into broader operations," he said.
"In the case of Sergeant Bergdahl, the President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief and he has a commitment to an unimpeachable value, which is ensuring that we do not leave men and women in uniform behind enemy lines in the hands of the enemy," Earnest responded.
"The President engaged in an effort that is typical of the end of armed conflicts for there to be prisoner exchanges. And that's what we saw in this case. In this case, Sergeant Bergdahl was returned to the US in exchange for a handful of detainees from Guantanamo Bay," he argued.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those innocent Americans who are being held hostage by extremist groups in the Middle East right now. This administration is exerting significant influence and resources and time and effort to secure the release of those individuals. We will not pay ransom for them, but the United States is engaged diplomatically to try to secure their release," he said.
The circumstances of Stave Sotloff's hostage-taking are tragic, he said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. And the United States is committed to doing everything that we can to try to recover him and rescue him safely and as soon as possible. We certainly would call on those who are holding him to release him," he said.
