Louis’s Reviews > We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages and Ransom > Status Update

“Despite the illegality, she was still prepared to negotiate. The FBI made clear that the government had never prosecuted a family for paying ransom and that she would not face legal jeopardy for doing so. ‘I was told this early on and throughout,’ Mulvihill recalled.”

“While Milne has faced some difficult moments - one of his clients in Colombia was cut into tiny pieces for daring to report his kidnapping to the police - the vast majority of the approximately eighty cases Milne handles each year "go to plan," meaning the hostages are released. "If kidnappers are not making it on the money front, they will start making political demands, or sell their hostages to terrorists.”

“International hostage negotiation is high stakes, but it is also like a business transaction. Often, the haggling over the amount of the ransom is typical of a commercial transaction, except that lives are on the line.”

“Ransom paid to criminal groups are generally between 5 and 10 percent of the initial ask. More than 97 percent of kidnappings handled by professional negotiators are successfully resolved through the payment of ransom. A small percentage of hostages escape and a very few are rescued through high-risk operations.”

“Milne, the insurance broker, soon discovered a vast, untapped market. Hostage negotiation had become something of an industry, with conferences, conventions, and shared strategies.”

“The main reason piracy declined was that the local people rebelled when these newly wealthy pirates began using drugs, drinking alcohol, and abusing local women. Somalia is a violent place, but it’s also a conservative place.”

We should be careful comparing numbers, like the amount that Europe has paid in ransom with the sale of weapon to Saudi Arabia and other countries which are suspected of having ties to terrorism.

"Eighty-one percent of European Union hostages held by Jihadi terrorist groups were freed," the New America study noted. Meanwhile, hostages from the U.S. and the UK, both of which refuse to pay ransom, were freed 25 and 33 percent of the time, respectively.”

“One of the most frequent arguments against the payment of ransom is that it encourages further kidnapping. This correlation appears so obvious that it has been taken as an article of faith among governments that have adopted a no concessions policy. But the research is far from conclusive.”