The father of the American aid worker recently killed after being held captive by the Islamic State terrorist group is questioning the U.S. policy of not paying ransom for hostages.
“We understand the policy about not paying ransom, but on the other hand, any parents out there would understand that you would want anything and everything done to bring your child home,” said Carl Mueller, the father of Kayla Mueller. “And we tried, and we asked. But they put policy in front of American citizens’ lives. And it didn’t get it changed.”
The death of aid worker Kayla Mueller, 26, was confirmed earlier this month days after the terrorist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, claimed she was killed by a Jordanian airstrike.
“I really feel that we had a chance to get Kayla out,” Carl Mueller said in the interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie. “We were in communications with them, unlike the other families. But how do you raise $6.2 million? It pretty much made it impossible, but we feel they really did want to release Kayla.”
Kayla Mueller’s brother, Eric Mueller, said last year’s swap for soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive by the Taliban, in exchange for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, made the situation worse.
“Because that’s when the demands got greater. They got larger. They realized that they had something,” he said. “They realized that, ’Well, if they’re gonna let five people go for one person, why won’t they do this? Or why won’t they do that?’ “
Carl Mueller said he brought up the prospect of a similar trade when he met with President Obama at the White House.
“Yeah, that was pretty hard to take,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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