01-21-2015, 08:45 PM
(01-21-2015, 07:55 PM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: I don't believe Prime Minister Abe will pay the ransom. There would be too much condemnation from other countries and he'd be putting a price tag on other Japanese nationals in Islamic countries.
If IS really expected payment, I think they would have approached Japanese officials privately, not in a very public forum. And, I think the ransom amount would have been more reasonable. This is a show of power and global-reach by IS, in my opinion, not an income-generating strategy. IS doesn't want to be dwarfed by the resurgence of al-Qaeda.
Yeah.. I dunno.
I just find it very weird that ISIS has come out and asked for a ransom for the first time. It's very much not their modus operandi. It makes even less sense if they are not expecting to be paid. Agreed though, they would have probably had more chance of securing a payment from the Japanese had it been negotiated out of the spotlight like the deal that was done to free the two Italian women from the Nusra Front/al Qaeda.
Abe is in a tight spot. If he does nothing he faces blowback from his own country like he copped after the In Amenas incident. If he pays, he faces gloal blowback for putting a price on the heads of a hostage, as you say.