By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--August 26, 2016
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This is one of the worst stories I've ever had to write. There is one silver lining to it, and that's that Kayla Mueller stood firm in her testimony for Jesus Christ in the face of the ISIS monsters who had made a habit of raping and torturing her - before they brutally murdered her.
That's no small thing. But that's the only thing.
The supposedly benevolent organization Doctors Without Borders is a despicable bunch of cowards. Barack Obama is an evil piece of garbage.The only period in Mueller's 18 horrifying months as an ISIS hostage when she wasn't subjected to some form of torture, verbal abuse, prolonged isolation, sensory deprivation, stress positions, forced labor or sexual assault before she died in captivity was the six weeks she was held at an abandoned oil refinery in Syria, with other Western hostages in 2014. Because many of the ISIS captives were being individually negotiated for ransom with their governments, employers or families, the women, at least, inside the makeshift prison south of ISIS stronghold Raqqa were not subjected to the kind of abuses that Mueller said she experienced in other ISIS prisons before and after her time there, according to the Mueller family and those held captive with her. Three of the Westerners released by ISIS and a Yazidi teenager who escaped captivity provided eyewitness accounts to ABC News of Mueller's strength, selflessness and will to survive amid her considerable suffering, including details she gave them of her treatment when she was completely alone for most of her confinement by the terrorist group. "They would scream at her, and they would, you know, blame her for everything that America has done in the world," Frida Saide, one of three women from Doctors Without Borders who shared a cell with Mueller at the oil refinery, told ABC News in an interview this month. "They picked her apart," said Patricia Chavez, one of the other Doctors Without Borders aid workers held with Mueller.
Mueller was killed in ISIS captivity in February 2015, 18 months after she was taken. She was kidnapped as she accompanied her boyfriend, Omar Alkhani, to Syria to help install communications equipment for Doctors Without Borders, also known by its abbreviation in French, MSF. The organization's top U.S. official said the group had no obligation to help the young American woman because she was not their employee. "I don't think there was a moral responsibility," Jason Cone, MSF's U.S. executive director, said in an interview with ABC News. "We can't be in the position of negotiating for people who don't work for us." Cone said Mueller had not been asked by the group to come to Syria and would have not have permitted her to travel there if it had been asked because of her American citizenship. At least seven staff members of Doctors Without Borders were released by ISIS after the group helped to negotiate ransom payments. But the group refused to include Mueller in the negotiations, or to speak with the FBI case agent handler her case, according to an April 2014 email from a senior Doctors Without Borders official in Brussels provided to ABC News by the family. Chris Voss, a retired FBI chief hostage negotiator who once oversaw hostage recovery operations in Iraq, said he found MSF's decision not to aid Kayla Mueller or her family "stunning." "I think that's totally abandoning someone that you had no reason to abandon. I mean, it sets that person up for incredibly negative, horrific consequences," he told "20/20." "They could've said, 'Yes, you work for us.' And they could've extended her some sort of protection, some sort of legitimacy that would've cost them nothing. And why they leave her out there like that? It's frightening. It scares me."
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The Muellers say White House officials threatened them with criminal prosecution if they tried to pay the $6.2 million ransom ISIS had demanded for the release of their daughter. Over the July 4, 2014, weekend the president authorized a U.S. military raid by the elite special mission unit Delta Force to free the hostages. But the squadron of Special Forces operators discovered the hostages had been moved to another location just a few days earlier. Later when several wealthy donors volunteered to contribute money for the ransom, the Muellers say a senior White House official refused their request for a letter that would guarantee the donors would not be prosecuted. The White House declined to respond directly to the Muellers’ criticisms, but spokesperson Ned Price this week provided a statement to ABC News: "The United States worked tirelessly to recover Kayla Mueller, as well as the other American hostages held by ISIL in Syria, using every tool at our disposal. In Kayla's case, these efforts included the personal involvement of senior Administration officials, including the Secretary of State, and extensive intelligence analysis that culminated in an attempted rescue operation by the U.S. Military," Price said. "Despite our best efforts, we recognize these families were frustrated by and disappointed in the way their government supported them in their time of need. That is why President Obama ordered a comprehensive review of our hostage policy and the way we work with families. We relied on direct feedback, including from the Muellers, to inform the actions the President directed in June 2015 to create the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell that brings under one roof law enforcement, intelligence, and military capabilities as well as the designation of a Special Presidential Envoy to coordinate diplomatic efforts. In addition, the Justice Department clarified its practices - stating publicly that it has never used the material support statute to prosecute a family for paying a ransom for the safe return of their loved one."The president in June 2015 said it was “totally unacceptable” for his administration to threaten hostage families with prosecution. President Obama also said at the time that he told the Muellers and others “there have been times where our government, regardless of good intentions, has let them down.” Now, for Obama to claim that he disapproved of the prosecution threat? B.S. He owns that threat. He owns the decision to sit on his hands and not order the raid for months when good information was available concerning Kayla Mueller's location. And oh, by the way, Obama also promised the Mueller family he would make a contribution to a foundation they set up in her name. He welched on that commitment. Why? Because he doesn't care. He never did care about Kayla Mueller. He is more interested in pretending ISIS is not a real threat, and that the U.S. is winning the war against it, even though evidence clearly suggests he is not. I try very hard not to ascribe evil to the people with whom I disagree politically. For the most part I find that to be a wrongheaded exercise. I am convinced that many liberal Democrats would have made at least some good-faith effort to help Kayla Mueller. I think Joe Biden would have. I think Ashe Carter woud have. I think Bernie Sanders would have. They are wrong but they are not terrible people. Today I cannot say the same about Barack Obama, not given the details we've learned about the abandonment of Kayla Mueller. And that goes for the immoral, evil cowards at Doctors Without Borders too. May the gracious God of Heaven have mercy on their souls. And may they be grateful that He will decide their fate, and not me.
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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
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