The White House to Announce Major Terrorism Policy Shift That is Raising Alarm Bells

By Kyle Becker (2 hours ago) | Headlines, Nation, Politics

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The White House is announcing a major shift on terrorism policy: The U.S. will allow negotiation with terrorists.
CNN reports about a policy change that will run directly counter to decades of U.S. posture against terrorism:

The White House will release on Wednesday a presidential directive and an executive order that will allow the government to communicate and negotiate with terrorist groups holding Americans hostage, a source briefed on the matter told CNN.
While the government will maintain its policy of not making “substantive concessions” to captors or paying ransoms, the White House will announce that officials will no longer threaten with criminal prosecution the families of American hostages who do pay ransoms to their relatives’ captors, according to a senior administration official.

The policy will specifically permit the payment of ransom money by private families to terrorist groups. This would not only encourage terrorists to commit such heinous acts again, it would provide them with the funding to do so.
After American journalist James Foley was captured by ISIS terrorists, his family was very outspoken about the lack of effective action freeing their son.
Diane Foley said that she was “embarrassed and appalled” by the government’s inability to rescue her son.
“I think our efforts to get Jim freed were an annoyance” to the U.S. government, Foley said, as quoted by CNN. “It didn’t seem to be in (the U.S.) strategic interest.”
Another high-profile case that raises questions is that of Bowe Bergdahl, a former soldier who many believe to have defected to the Taliban through military desertion. President Obama traded five high-ranking Taliban commanders for the captive, who is now charged with desertion.
The policy change was informed by interviews with 82 families and former hostages going back to 2001, and was conducted by Lisa Monaco, who is a top counter-terrorism adviser for President Obama.