(BREAKING) White House to announce US won't prosecute hostages' families who pay ransom

Fox News ^ | 06.23.2015 | AP via Fox News

[Sopater]

Not punishing families is very different than announcing to the world that they should go ahead and kidnap Americans for ransom.

Agreed. Perhaps he should have just whispered it to the families who are or might be involved?

[Forgotten Amendments]

Agreed. Perhaps he should have just whispered it to the families who are or might be involved?

Bingo! That is EXACTLY what should've been done. Great point.

[Pontiac]

[ I guess the president needs to issue Letters of Mark against those who practice this kidnapping for ransom against US Citizens. ]

Well, that would be a NO.....

Why not?

Oh! That’s right. Its Constitutional!

/S

[SFmom]

Open season on American tourists (and I leave for South America in a week!)
:(

[Cboldt]

Heck, not even that - just don't threaten the families with prosecution, and use prosecutorial discretion. In a dog-eat-dog world with a nation against a bunch of pirates, and the law forbidding ransom to the pirates, it is beyond stupid to announce it is okay to pay ransom to the pirates.

Tough spot for any families with hostages. Me, I'd break the law, probably, and submit to whatever punishment the government chose.

[jwalsh07]

Well this will certainly curtail the taking of hostages!

[GeronL]

or just not charge them with anything, doesn’t take a huge announcement to the enemy

[Forgotten Amendments]

It's like Uber announcing that they will forbid their drivers to carry guns. Well, for all I know, there may be liability reasons or something that might make that rule justifiable. But why ANNOUNCE IT?????

BTW - are airline pilots allowed to carry nowadays?

[Cboldt]

-- BTW - are airline pilots allowed to carry nowadays? --

Yes, if they apply for and obtain clearance. I don't know how many go armed, I'd guess somewhere between 10 and 40 percent.

[Sherman Logan]

A very tough situation.

Paying a ransom and getting loved ones back is of course good for that family.

Paying ransom and encouraging the kidnappers to take more people in order to get more ransom is terribly bad for society. It is in essence a form of tribute or extortion, and of course it only continues and increases. Which is of course bad for other families in the future.

The comments on this thread seem somewhat conflicted. Do we want Obama to enforce all the laws, including this one? Which would mean prosecution and jailing of people just trying to do what they can to rescue a loved one. Do we really want that?

There’s also the fairly obvious problem that not all families with a kidnapped family member will have the needed resources. In those cases, do we raise money for them on GoFundMe? Or do we have the government provide funds, perhaps under the table? Or do we let poor Americans remain in captivity or be beheaded on the internet when rich Americans walk away?

There is a great deal of precedent for this. For many centuries there were Catholic groups that raised money to buy Christians out of slavery in the Berber pirate states and elsewhere in Islam. Were they wrong?

[Morpheus2009]

I don’t like how he publicly announced it to the world though. Now the terrorists know too. And they can just go about their merry ways.