Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, talks about his new book, “We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages and Ransom.”
Simon will be joined by David Rohde who was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2008 as a New York Times reporter before escaping seven months later. “PBS News Hour” anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff will moderate the conversation.
“We Want to Negotiate” explores the ethical, legal and strategic considerations of a bedeviling question: Should governments pay ransom to terrorists?
Starting in late 2012, Westerners working in Syria, including journalists and aid workers, were taken hostage by the Islamic State. But while Europeans came home, Americans were executed, including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff followed by British hostages.
Simon, who’s worked on dozens of hostages cases, delves into the hostage policy debate. While the Europeans paid millions of dollars to a terrorist group to free their hostages, the United States and United Kingdom refused to do so, arguing that any ransom would be used to fuel terrorism and would make the crime more attractive, increasing the risk to their citizens.
Welcoming Remarks:
* Jan Neuharth, Chair and chief executive officer, Freedom Forum
* Diane M. Foley, President and executive director, James W. Foley Legacy Foundation
Program:
* Judy Woodruff, Moderator, Anchor and managing editor, PBS NewsHour
* Joel Simon, Executive director, Committee to Protect Journalists; author of "We Want to Negotiate"
* David Rohde, Executive editor, newyorker.com; global-affairs analyst, CNN
Audience Q&A
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