United States: We do not pay ransoms to terrorists

(IraqiNews.com) The US State Department confirmed on Friday the government’s refusal to pay financial ransoms to the terrorist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The department explained that the kidnappers of the American journalist James Foley demanded a ransom of 100 million Euros before cutting his head.

The spokeswoman for the State Department Marie Harff said, in a press conference, followed by IraqiNews.com, that “We do not pay ransoms,” indicating that “the party to whom the American journalist James Foley was working with confirmed that the kidnappers demanded a ransom of 100 million Euros (135 million dollars).”

Harff added, that “the ransoms paid by the others is one of the main ways by which ISIL funds itself,” pointing out that “the payment of ransoms or making concessions that would lead to an increased risk of kidnapping and harming all Americans abroad.”

Harff pointed out that those ransoms will also be used to fund groups that we are trying to weaken its capabilities.”