Sotloff's parents told they could be prosecuted for paying ransom to IS

[karynnj]

65. I'm with you

If I were the mother, I don't even think there is a way that I could hear any official telling me the US position is not to pay ransoms as supportive, comforting or kind. All I would process is that there is nothing I could do to help save my child.

In addition, I wonder given that the US amounts were SO much higher and the US position was known if ISIS would really have released the Americans even if the money could have been raised. It seems hard to believe that an individual could raise something like $130 million dollars. Then would you trust that they would hand over the journalist unharmed? The fact that many of these people are said to have been Saddam's and then in AQ in Iraq may suggest that they want to use the American captives more to cause pain here than to raise money.

I really can't imagine the conversation ever getting beyond the officials saying that paying the money was illegal. Could the idea of prosecution have been just because they said it was illegal? I can't imagine that you could find 12 jurors who would agree to imprison a parent doing this or a prosecutor cold hearted enough to do so.