Last week, ISIS forcefully re-entered the public spotlight when the terrorist group released a video showing the murder of Jordanian fighter pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was burned alive in a cage. Photos of the murder are unbearably horrifying, let alone footage of the killing.
In response to this savagery, Jordan conducted massive airraids against ISIS positions throughout the Middle East. According to ISIS, NAU alumna Kayla Mueller was killed in one of these raids. Her parents and the White House confirmed her death Tuesday, though it's not yet certain whether she did die in the airstrikes.
Mueller’s death is only the latest blemish on the Obama administration’s poor record of protecting U.S. citizens abroad.
Mueller, who was originally from Prescott, was passionate about ending inequality. She had travelled the world conducting aid work, eventually landing in Syria. While working to help Syrian refugees, Mueller was taken hostage by ISIS and imprisoned for a year and a half.
As a humanitarian, Mueller’s decision to travel to dangerous locations entailed risks of which she would have been aware. However, Mueller could also reasonably expect for her nation’s government to help her in the event of an emergency. The U.S. government has not done so for Mueller, or other U.S. citizens abroad.
In August of last year, it was revealed that U.S. Special Forces unsuccessfully attempted to free U.S. hostages, such as James Foley, being held in Syria. This information only became available after Foley’s beheading. Since then, no other successful raid appears to have occurred. Either no excursion attempt has been attempted, or repeated attempts have been made, all unsuccessful.
I once understood this policy in principle, particularly when terrorist organizations demanded ransom money in exchange for the safe return of hostages. The continued inability of our government to find alternative means of rescuing U.S. citizens has cast my faith in this system into doubt.
In the absence of a viable military option to save the lives of American hostages abroad, our government should more aggressively pursue diplomatic channels to secure the release of such Americans. But, as was revealed in the December 2014 article in The New York Times, U.S. diplomats have intentionally turned down opportunities to negotiate with ISIS representatives. U.S. policy since the Bush administration has been to not negotiate with terrorists and President Obama has not altered this precedent.
Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig were all held in the same prison with 19 other foreign nationals. All 19 held with these Americans have been released after their governments negotiated with ISIS (sometimes paying ransoms). In contrast, Foley, Sotloff and Kassig are all dead and Mueller has also perished.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough recently said that the U.S. is doing everything possible to ensure of the safety of U.S. citizens held hostage by ISIS. If the evidence presented by The New York Times is credible (which it appears to be), McDonough’s statement is not entirely accurate.
Survivors of ISIS prisons have also revealed that prisoners were brutally tortured while in captivity. If this is true, our government's failure to rescue Kayla Mueller is all the more disgraceful.
Moreover, if ISIS militants are indeed telling the truth, Mueller’s death during a Jordanian airstrike reveals an alarming lack of coordination between the U.S. military and a close Arab ally. If U.S. officials were aware of Mueller’s location, the Jordanians should have been notified. More alarmingly, perhaps U.S. officials simply didn’t know where Mueller was.
The Obama administration’s failure to protect U.S. citizens abroad is not new. Beginning with the brutal murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, then the killings of Foley, Sotloff and Kassig, and now the death of Kayla Mueller, the current administration has seen too many U.S. citizens die on foreign soil.
Reach the columnist at burmasamoa@asu.edu or follow @ConnorLMurphy on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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