March 27, 2011:  France has refused al Qaeda demands for a huge ransom (over $30 million each) for four French captives taken from a uranium mine in Niger (where they worked) last September. France did not say it would not pay ransom, only that it would not negotiate as long as the amount was that high. The U.S. is opposed to paying any ransom to al Qaeda, insisting that this only makes the terror groups stronger. But European nations, and their mass media, tend to be more concerned with the captives than with the consequences.

And there are consequences. Two years ago, Islamic terrorists in Mali have released two Canadian and two European captives, in return for a $7 million ransom. The terrorists had earlier insisted on the release of several dozen imprisoned Islamic terrorists, but the governments holding these men refused to cooperate. One or more European nations paid the ransom, which financed more terrorist activity in Mali and Algeria. The U.S. protested, pointing out that these large ransoms only encouraged more kidnappings. In the meantime, Islamic terrorists kidnap locals as well, for much smaller ransoms (a few thousand dollars per person).

One of the activities getting some of the ransom money were religious schools that indoctrinate children to become suicide bombers. Al Qaeda is quite proud of this, and featured some of these kids in propaganda videos. Despite warnings to stay out the area, Europeans are still to be found, and kidnapped.