I heard on the news this morning that ISIS/ISIL has beheaded another American. I believe he had even converted to Islam.
I know that his parents pleaded publicly for his release, but to no avail. Perhaps a ransom was offered privately, but I don’t ISIS/ISIL really needs the money.
I assume that ISIS/ISIL isn’t planning to give the body to the family so they can have a proper burial in the US, but perhaps there are intermediaries who can help them.
What are the chances that this American’s remains will be returned to the family at some point in time?
One, there are no diplomatic channels through which to transfer the body.
Two, as a generalization Muslims tend to inter remains quite quickly, and therefore the body is probably already buried. Disinterring and transferring isn’t unheard of, of course, but it does make it more complicated and less likely.
Another note is that I don’t know how stable the executioners are: given the vagaries of war, will we even know who knows where to find the body a week, a month, a year from now?
They ended up getting Daniel Pearl’s remains back, but yeah it’s unlikely, Pearl was murdered in a region with an active U.S. troop presence. Jihadists do tend to bury people though, so he got some form of a proper burial, oddly enough. In the old days it was considered par for the course to leave those you detested rotting in public, but IS doesn’t seem to do that.
As for needing money, IS absolutely needs money. Running an organization like that is a constant cash churn, and they make money every which way they possibly can. They have people who inspect cargo trucks and levy tariffs, they sell oil, and they’ve made millions from ransoming other hostages. French, Danish and German hostages have all been ransomed from IS and for most likely over $1m each time.
It’s unlikely ransom could have saved this most recent hostage because at that point in the game IS had decided to execute him for propaganda reasons. However in general IS has been more than willing to accept money in return for releasing their hostages. Back in 2013 when most of these hostages were taken, they actually first killed a Russian (he was seen as worth the least and they did it to demonstrate they were serious) then they opened negotiations. Likely if the United States had reached out back then they could have gotten all the hostages home, but we don’t give ransoms (neither do the British.)
Tough love at the extreme. Paying them only encourages them more - hard on the families concerned (and the individuals of course) but better for the rest of us.
If the French really do pay up (cite?) they put their citizens at even more risk than the others.