Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that if the government had been serious about trying to help Alan Henning

44 replies

textingdisaster · 04/10/2014 08:19

it (and parliament) wouldn't have authorised the British involvement in the bombing of IS until he had potentially been released?

I am so very sad about what has happened.

OP posts:
Hexu2 · 04/10/2014 10:07

Problem is it then potentially paints target on the back of every other UK citizen abroad - as any violent group could then view a way of making money or changing UK foreign policy is to target and kidnap or kill any UK person they can get their hands on.

It doesn't mean that behind the scenes negotiations don't happen.

How ever on the news this morning heard this group discussed and the view was this group is impossible to negotiate with - they just don't want to even come to the table.

Hexu2 · 04/10/2014 10:11

Rescue missions can and do go wrong potentially giving the group a propaganda win and yet more hostages.

I'm sure it's an option that is looked at regularly and all the risks assessed - and when appropriate they'll give it a go.

GlacindaTheTroll · 04/10/2014 10:20

Rescue missions were considered, but before you can attempt one, you need to know where hostages are being held and that seemed to be the missing information here. They control so much territory, it's would be close to looking for a needle in a haystack.

I have a nasty feeling that those held are not going to come out from this alive, whatever is done in the short term.

And the brutal bottom line is that if a group thought they could influence policy by kidnap there would be more kidnapping of those nationals, and over time even worse torture carried out on camera to keep up the shock and revulsion.

ScarlettlovesRhett · 04/10/2014 10:23

We don't pay ransoms "a lot less than other countries", we don't pay them at all.

While I am sure that if it were my own family I would want a ransom paid, I am glad (bigger picture) that as a country we don't negotiate with terrorists.

If we did, more British people would be taken hostage than at present and the terrorists would be even better funded.

He wasn't murdered because of air strikes, he was murdered for propaganda and air time for the psychopaths.

Plateofcrumbs · 04/10/2014 10:27

I don't understand why this particular case had ever been allowed to become so high profile. For an organisation like IS looking to instil terror and further their reputation, killing a high profile hostage is invaluable. It just felt like every news report and broadcast plea about Alan Henning increased his commodity value and made his murder more and more inevitable.

Generally speaking the status of hostages is not publically broadcast in great detail, I don't understand why it has been allowed to happen in this case?

TiggyD · 04/10/2014 10:27

They started killing hostages BEFORE the bombing started.

ArsenicFaceCream · 04/10/2014 10:31

They wouldn't have released him for a ransom.

Messygirl · 04/10/2014 10:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ArsenicFaceCream · 04/10/2014 10:34

Not Brits or Americans?

Thebodyloveschocolateandwine · 04/10/2014 10:36

What DamnBamboo says.

Messygirl · 04/10/2014 10:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sanfairyanne · 04/10/2014 10:46

i am implacably opposed to ransom payments - what do you think terrorist organisations choose to spend that money on?

ArsenicFaceCream · 04/10/2014 10:52

I just think US/UK nationals have greater propaganda than ransom value to the terrorists.

DippyDooDahDay · 04/10/2014 11:08

My heart utterly sank when I saw this news this morning. But I agree it was utterly inevitable. Isis have used British bombings as a reason for his murder, but it was sadly preordained as soon as Alan Henning was paraded. I agree with whoever said that there will be many more of these horrific killings. It's a dreadful time, that poor man and his family. Worries me about the future of the world...

AgaPanthers · 04/10/2014 12:13

But ISIS killed lots of people recently. Lots of innocent Syrian people. Alan Henning went to Syria to help people. He didn't go to help himself. You can't reduce a large conflict area to a few foreign aid workers.

windchime · 04/10/2014 12:22

There will be a reckoning.

Nusalembongan · 04/10/2014 12:44

News blackout on hostage killings is something I wonder about the possibility of, they crave the horror and revulsion from the West which they are justifiably getting at the moment.

They will kill all the hostages that they have taken I suspect, more the better for them. It is horrific.

OP the Americans and British never pay ransoms.

impatienceisavirtue · 04/10/2014 12:48

You can NOT negotiate with terrorists, for very good reason. It's horrific for the families but what are we supposed to do? Capitulate so that it teaches them that this kind of thing gets them what they want?

Nancy66 · 04/10/2014 12:49

Was just reading about the Italian women they are holding. They're very young, can't imagine how their families are feeling right now.

www.thelocal.it/20140821/isis-kidnap-italian-aid-workers-marzullo-ramelli

New posts on this thread. Refresh page