In other words, Obama won’t enforce the law. Just standard operating procedure.
Expect more Americans to die because of this....something Team Obama will ignore.
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?