http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/01/world/middleeast/q-and-a-on-isis-hostages-held-in-syria.html 2014-10-31 22:06:46 Q. and A. on ISIS Hostages Held in Syria Rukmini Callimachi, a Times reporter, answers readers’ questions about the 23 Western hostages who were held by the Islamic State in in Syria. === The New York Times published a Why hasn’t the United States penalized countries that pay ransoms? Q. — A. U.S. officials have told me that they have leaned on the Europeans privately in meetings held behind closed doors. The general sense I got from speaking to the relevant authorities is that the United States needs its allies for more important things — for example, to show a united front in combating ISIS, or in order to set a common agenda in dealing with the conflict in Ukraine. They explained to me that ransom-paying has not — as of yet — escalated to a level where they would want to be public in their criticism. What you will notice is that former administration officials will often break their silence once they leave public office. One example is Vicki Huddleston, the former American ambassador to Mali, the country where Al Qaeda’s kidnapping-for-ransom business began. See her particularly strident comments Hasn’t the U.S. negotiated for prisoners of war? Q. — A. Thank you for your comment. Many people have wondered the same thing. The release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in return for five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been the subject of enormous frustration for the families of the ISIS hostages. Once Sergeant Bergdhal was released, it became even harder for the families to negotiate on behalf of their loved ones — because ISIS was asking The U.S. government has argued that Sergeant Bergdahl was in a different category than the ISIS hostages because he was a prisoner of war, and there are international treaties governing P.O.W.s. In normal warfare, nation-states are allowed to exchange prisoners. Critics have pointed out that this only applies to nation-states, and that the Taliban are hardly a legitimate government. They also point to the fact that U.S. law forbids making concessions to a terrorist group. The administration has countered by saying that the Taliban over all — unlike ISIS — has not been designated a terrorist group. Of course, these distinctions are purely rhetorical for people like Diane and John Foley, who saw their son James beheaded on TV. How does ISIS use its money? Q. — A. I know that in the case of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al Qaeda’s branch in northern Africa, the millions of euros that it netted in ransom money was hidden in what one source jokingly called its “desert bank.” Basically they would dig holes in the dunes and stash the money inside, rolled up in layers of plastic. They noted down the GPS coordinates of the hole and returned to the spot when they needed “to cash a check,” if you will. Until Mr. Cohen’s recent statements, I assumed that ISIS was also holding its money outside the financial system, perhaps in safes inside the various buildings they control. If they are using local banks, that would create another dimension of sophistication. Why do journalists put themselves in such danger? Q. — A. Journalists travel to war zones because it is our duty to bear witness and to report on world events. Because of what has happened to James Foley and the others, major news organizations including The New York Times have pulled back from traveling into the rebel and insurgent held areas of Syria. This pullout has meant that there is little objective, on-the-ground reporting that is coming out of the Syrian civil war right now. How can we help? Q. — A. Thank you for your thoughtful comments. The families of the American hostages have tried to raise money privately. This has been anything but easy. Diane Foley, the mother of the slain journalist, described to me the agonizing task of having to ask for donations. It was humiliating and frightening. In an effort to save her son’s life, she was essentially passing around a hat asking people to donate money, which they knew would go into the coffers of one of the world’s most brutal terrorist groups. Of the 15 hostages that were released from ISIS captivity, the majority were freed after their governments paid their ransoms through a network of intermediaries. The one exception is the ransom paid to free Daniel Rye Ottosen, a 25-year-old photojournalist from Copenhagen. Mr. Ottosen is a former athlete, and his family and friends bonded together to raise the sizable ransom, organizing to deliver it to the captors when the Danish government refused to intervene. The Foley family is in the process of creating a legacy fund and resource center, which aims to help other families in the same predicament as them. You can reach them through What impact does the American policy have on ISIS? Q. What real difference would one or two ransoms have made to events on the ground? None, except to save these hostages. Does anyone imagine that ISIS will now forgo taking any American hostages because we didn’t pay? Does anyone imagine they are short of money, that one ransom would have made a difference? We should never abandon our people. — A. You are correct in stating that ISIS makes most of its money from the war economy they control, including as much as $1 million per day in oil revenue. What we know is that there were 23 Western hostages, and that at least 15 were released for ransom. I don’t know the exact number that was paid to free each one, but former hostages say that the ransoms were, on average, 2 million euros per person. This of course means that some were more and some were less, but let’s just take this estimate at face value and assume that each hostage paid 2 million euros, or approximately $2.5 million, to be freed. That would mean that ISIS has netted around 30 million euros so far from ransoms for hostages they held for up to 13 months. This pales in comparison to the oil revenue, which at $1 million per day would mean that the group is making $30 million in a single month. Families of the American hostages have been critical of the government’s decision not to pay, and some people sympathize, particularly when the outcome for people like James Foley and Steven Sotloff was a horrific death. The United States maintains, though, that the no-concession policy protects Americans in the long run by reducing their value in the minds of potential kidnappers. Before setting to work on the story of the ISIS hostages, I spent several months researching I cannot say for sure if terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda are avoiding kidnapping Americans. But the numbers suggest that they are targeting nationals of countries that are known to pay ransoms. What role does Saudi Arabia play? Q. Why can’t we call a spade a spade? Let that whole region rot with those bushy bearded criminals biting the hand that feeds them. Blockade is the answer. — A. I don’t have any evidence that Saudi Arabia is financing ISIS. All of the information we have suggests that ISIS, unlike other terrorist groups, is largely self-financed through the war economy they control. For example, they have seized oil fields in Syria as well as in Iraq, and the United States Department of Treasury now estimates that they are making as much as $1 million per day from the oil they sell. They also control other aspects of the economy like grain silos and wheat production. See So far, no such intermediary has emerged for dealing with ISIS. What about other Arab countries? Q. — A.