A group of South Africans worked hard to accomplish what their government could not, the release of Yolande and Pierre Korkie held hostage in Yemen by Al Qaeda. Yolanda was released in January without a ransom paid, and recently negotiators received confirmation that her husband, Pierre, would also be set free for a $200,000 payment. On Saturday morning a convoy set out from Aden to collect him at a remote desert outpost. But then the Current Occupant decided to try to improve his shattered credibility by authorizing another high-risk Seal Unit 6 operation to free an American hostage held with Korkie. The US has an official 'no ransom paid policy', so the GI Joes were American Luke Somers' only hope of avoiding execution. Unsurprisingly, the raid failed. In the melee eight civilians were killed and both Korkie and Somers were killed by their guards. US officials claim they knew nothing about the peaceful efforts by his wife and a South African charity, Gift of Givers, to free Pierre Korkie. If that is truly the case, then it is an indication of how poor US intelligence gathering is in Yemen, or for that matter in South Africa. Earlier during the negotiation process, Yemeni tribal contacts traveling to meet with the kidnappers were killed by a US drone strike, which prompted the Al Qaeda kidnappers to reduce the ransom from an initial $3 million to just $200,000 to be split with the families of the deceased negotiators.
The official line in the US is that paying ransom will only encourage more terrorists to take hostages. However, that ridiculous rigidity is undermined by the fact that several European nations have secretly funneled millions to free their citizens. $5 million Euros was paid to free 32 European hostages in Bamako, Mali in 2003. Since then ransoms have been paid many times and in large amounts. According to the New York Times, Al Qaeda and its affiliates have taken $165 million in exchange for captives; $66 million of that was paid last year. US officials, ever able to make distinctions without practical differences, say the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl by the Taliban was different from paying a ransom because the Taliban has not been designated a terrorist organization and Bergdahl was considered a prisoner of war. Whatever bureaucrat in the bowels of the security state makes these designations ought to have his eyes examined. The practical effect of the policy is that US private citizens, often exposed in unsafe countries for humanitarian purposes, are placed at risk of death by their own nation's militarism. It is a sure bet the failed raid that led to the death of Korkie and Somers cost a lot more than $200,000.