( CNN ) -- ISIS demanded 100 million euros ( $ 132.5 million ) in ransom for the release of James Foley , the American journalist kidnapped and killed by the terrorist group in Syria , according to a spokesman for GlobalPost , the news website for which Foley freelanced . It was never a serious demand , far exceeding the amounts of money paid for hostages held by jihadist militant groups in the past , which typically ranged up to several million dollars . But the demand does shine a light on two uncomfortable facts about `` Kidnap & Ransom , '' or K & R , the dark netherworld of professionals who work to negotiate between murderous groups like ISIS and the terrified families whose loved ones have been kidnapped . It also includes their worried employers and Western governments such as France that will pay ransoms , and other governments , notably the United States and the United Kingdom , that will not . The first uncomfortable fact is that if you pay a ransom a hostage is more likely to be released . The other is that every time a ransom is paid it increases the chance that other hostages will be taken to help fill the coffers of a terrorist group . According to an investigation by The New York Times , al Qaeda and its affiliates have netted at least $ 125 million in ransoms since 2008 . That finding is similar to a 2012 U.S. Treasury estimate that $ 120 million had been paid to terrorist organizations during the previous eight years . Much of this revenue reportedly comes from France . French media reported that the government had paid 20 million euros ( about $ 28 million ) for the release of four employees of a French nuclear firm . They were held by an al Qaeda affiliate for three years in northern Niger and were released last year . The French government denied paying a ransom , but The New York Times indicated -- based on reports from Le Monde and Agence France-Presse -- that France did pay in that case and has paid out a total of some $ 58 million to al Qaeda or related groups . Not surprisingly , the Times also found that of the 53 hostages known to have been taken by al Qaeda and its affiliates during the past five years , a third were French . The French government 's purported policy of negotiating with militant groups for the release of kidnapped citizens does appear to work . Four French journalists -- Nicolas Henin , Pierre Torres , Edouard Elias and Didier FranÃ§ois , who were kidnapped in Syria last year by ISIS -- were released near the Turkish border in April , blindfolded and with their hands bound . One of those hostages , Henin , had been held by ISIS alongside Foley . Henin is free , and Foley is dead . These are the facts that policymakers must confront as they consider what to do about the other Western hostages still held by ISIS . Who is ISIS currently holding ? ISIS holds three Americans , including Steven Sotloff , a freelance journalist who was kidnapped last August and who the terrorist group threatened to kill in the video it released showing Foley 's beheading . The names of the other two Americans being held by ISIS have not been publicly disclosed ; CNN is withholding their names and occupations . Two Italian women are reported to be among the militant group 's newest captives . A Dane and a Japanese national were seized along with the two Italians . The group of four was recently moved to Raqqa , an ISIS stronghold in northern Syria . For these hostages , there is always the chance that their governments will mount a rescue operation as the United States did in Syria in July to try and rescue Foley and the other Americans . That mission failed because the hostages had been moved from a location they had been kept in for some months . There is also the possibility that hostages could escape , as American photographer Matthew Schrier did last year when he managed to crawl out of a window of the prison where he was being held in in the Syrian city of Aleppo by an Islamist militant group . But such escapes are rare , and while successful rescue efforts do happen , they are fraught with risks for the hostages . Linda Norgrove , for instance , a British aid worker held by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2010 , was killed in a U.S. rescue operation , likely by a grenade that exploded near her . If there 's not an escape or a successful rescue effort , Western governments whose citizens are held by ISIS have only the options of either a negotiation involving ransom or the real possibility that their hostages may be executed . This is the sobering choice that faces President Barack Obama and his national security advisers . It 's not much of a choice at all .
James Foley , Peter Bergen : CNN wanted at least $ 125 million in ransom for Peter Bergen . Sometimes ransom works , but it can lead to more kidnapping , the writers say . Minus a rescue or escape , options grim for nations -- ransom or execution , they say .