Lynsey Addario Quotes
In so many countries, Western journalists are viewed simply as dollar signs. We're ransom objects.
Addario, Lynsey. It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War. Penguin Press, 2015.
Alluding to French willingness to pay ransom for hostages:
Asked if he would relent in his attitude toward Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if the Iraqi leader would free American hostages and make concessions:
Note how the second paragraph nullifies the first of the government declares an emergency. This is a trick that is very common in constitutions.
In 1904 a naturalized American citizen, Ion Perdicaris, was kidnapped and held for ransom by Achmed Ben Mohammed Raisuli, a Moroccan warlord and descendent of the Prophet Mohammad. Raisuli had made a series of economic and political demands on the Sultan of Morocco who was dragging his feet in dealing with the problem. The administration ordered a naval warship to stand off the coast of Morocco and this ultimatum was dispatched to the Sultan of Morocco, and was read aloud from the platform of the Republican National Convention in Chicago which was in the process of renominating Theodore Roosevelt for a second term as president. Two days later Perdicaris was released. Kidnapping to intimidate has been a classic Arab terror political and quasi military technique as well as one for pure economic greed.
For the last 300 years, Muslim terrorists—corsairs at sea and petty tribal leaders on land—have made a lucrative business of kidnapping people and holding them for ransom. When Thomas Jefferson went to war off the Barberry coast, the Americans were the only Western nation who did not want to appease the terrorists and pay the ransoms or pay an annual “tribute” to guarantee safe passage (protection money). The European powers at the time and since could crush the terrorists militarily but there would be an economic cost for the expedition and lives would be lost. The typical calculus was that it was cheaper to pay the ransom than to pay the cost of a military solution. Even the United States then paid the yearly tribute for a while. However, this has reinforced the hostage taking behavior over the years and it is still in force. While the United States has a policy against paying ransoms, our government maintains a blind eye to private citizens, families or private companies paying to free the hostages. The Europeans, in contrast, generally allow even the government to pay ransoms. Weddady and other Muslim leaders have and continue to urge a policy of no ransom and use of force wherever possible. Muslim nations like Algeria and Turkey have learned that this is the best way to handle kidnapping terrorists and every few years, new terrorists try again and they attack quickly. In contrast European hostages are taken by the hundreds throughout the year. Meanwhile, piracy and hostage taking for ransom has spread to some Asian cultures so the world problem is not uniquely with Muslim terrorists any longer.
By paying kidnappers who hold Americans hostage for ransom, the United States would just be encouraging the kidnappers and produce more kidnapping. However in some hostage situation, especially with ISIS and other terrorists the refusal to pay ransom means a horrible and cruel death for the American kidnap victims. Many of the European nations tend to secretly pay the hostage takers just as they were will to pay the Barbary Pirates and Corsairs in the 18th century. There is no right answer other than to defeat the terrorists and put them out of business.
Lynsey Addario is an American photojournalist. Her work often focuses on conflicts and human rights issues, especially the role of women in traditional societies.
