Islamic militants had asked the United States to pay a multi-million dollar ransom for journalist James Foley’s release before executing him, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The U.S. had refused to pay a requested $100 million ransom for Foley’s release, a representative of the journalist’s family and a former hostage held alongside Foley told the Times. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an extremist group that has been terrorizing parts of those countries, released a video Tuesday that showed Foley’s beheading.
The newspaper pointed out that al-Qaeda and its affiliates had earned at least $125 million over the last five years in ransom sums for kidnapped Europeans. ISIS had been recently expelled from al-Qaeda.
Separately, Philip Balboni, the president and CEO of GlobalPost, a news website that Foley had been writing for, told the Wall Street Journal that ISIS had asked both Foley’s family and Global Post for a $132.5 million ransom. Balboni didn’t disclose how they responded to the demand.
The White House said Wednesday that a rescue operation had tried and failed to rescue Foley and other hostages during a secret mission earlier this summer in Syria.
Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.
President Romney would have traded hostages for arms.
he was not executed. he did nothing illegal or wrong.
he was murdered by demented assholes.