White House: Ransoms not on the table

The White House said Tuesday it is not reconsidering its policy of refusing to pay ransom for U.S. hostages as part of an administration-wide review.

{mosads}”The reason for that is simple: We don’t want to put other American citizens at even greater risk when they’re around the globe, and that knowing that terrorist organizations can extract a ransom from the United States if they take a hostage only puts American citizens at greater risk,” press secretary Josh Earnest said.

The Pentagon said in a letter to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) released Monday that the federal government was undertaking a “comprehensive review” of the handling of international hostage cases, “with specific emphasis on examining family engagement, intelligence collection, and diplomatic engagement policies.”

Families of the kidnapping victims of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have complained of disorganization in the government’s response to the incidents. They also said that different parts of the government had told them different things in regards to paying a ransom, including threats of prosecution.

Earnest said the review would include the Department of Defense, State Department, FBI and intelligence community.

“Given sort of the extraordinary nature of some of the hostage takings that we’d seen this year, the president felt it was warranted to direct the relevant departments and agencies who have traditionally been involved in assisting families as they try to recover the safe return of their family members,” Earnest said.

News of the review came days after ISIS released a video showing the beheading of U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig. He was the third American decapitated by the terror group.