Is Team Obama Really Going To Allow Families to Pay Ransom For Hostages? A Terrorist Funding Bonanza

The White House is reviewing its policy preventing families of hostages to pay ransom to kidnappers, officials said.

Under the current policy, families who wish to pay terrorists ransom for the release of their loved ones are threatened with prosecution.

The parents of James Foley, a freelance journalist kidnapped and killed by the Islamic State in August, said they were repeatedly told they could be prosecuted for supporting terrorism if they paid their son's ransom.

"We were told at that point that there was going to be no intervention, there was going to be no negotiation, and that no ransom would be paid -- and, if in fact, we attempted to raise the money and pay it we would be potentially prosecuted. So that was pretty upsetting," John Foley said on ABC News' World News Tonight on Sunday.

While the government isn't looking to change its stance on using taxpayer dollars to pay ransom, it could loosen the restrictions on families doing so, a U.S. official told the Los Angeles Times.

"It's only a baby step, it's a tiny step. If the government can't help, I would hope that families would be free from prosecution of getting their loved ones home," Diane Foley, James Foley's mother, said.

Critics, though, say that allowing the funds to go to terrorists could encourage them to continue kidnapping.

"If you say that we'll pay them, there'll be many more hostages," Richard Clarke, a former U.S. counter-terrorism official said on ABC's This Week.

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