Pope Francis has called the family of an American journalist whose videotaped beheading by Islamic State (IS) militants has sparked outrage around the world.

Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi confirmed the pope telephoned James Foley's parents, Diane and John Foley.

The Vatican usually describes such personal calls by the pontiff as private without revealing the contents of the conversations.

The Foleys have declined to comment from their home in Rochester, New Hampshire.

James Foley was covering the fighting in Syria when he was abducted on Thanksgiving Day 2012. The 40-year-old journalist had not been seen until a video of his killing surfaced on Tuesday on the Internet.

His murder began a new debate between the long-time US and British refusal to negotiate with terrorists, and Europe and the Persian Gulf's increasing willingness to pay ransoms in a desperate attempt to free citizens.

The dilemma is how to save the lives of those kidnapped without financing terror groups, and encouraging more kidnappings.

By paying ransoms, governments in the Middle East and Europe have become some of the biggest financiers of terror groups.

By refusing to do likewise, the US and Great Britain are in the thankless position of putting their own citizens at a disadvantage.

Mr Foley's captors, the IS militants, had for months demanded 132.5 million dollar (£80 million) from his parents and political concessions from Washington.

They got neither, and the 40-year-old freelance journalist from New Hampshire was savagely killed within the last week inside Syria, where he had been held since his disappearance.

Extremists called his death a revenge killing for the 90 US airstrikes that have been launched against IS militants in northern Iraq since August 8.

But the ransom demands began late last year, even before the IS - one of the world's most financially thriving extremist groups - had begun its brutal march across much of western and northern Iraq.

"They don't need to do this for money," said Matthew Levitt, a counter-terror expert at the Washington Institute think tank.

"When you ask for 132 million dollars, for the release of one person, that suggests that you're either trying to make a point ... or you don't really need the money."

A senior Obama administration official said the IS had made a "range of requests" from the US for Mr Foley's release, including changes in American policy in the Middle East.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the IS - which controls land across northern Syria and Iraq - has collected millions of dollars in ransoms so far this year alone.

"We do not make concessions to terrorists," she said. "We do not pay ransoms.

"The United States government believes very strongly that paying ransom to terrorists gives them a tool in the form of financing that helps them propagate what they're doing."

The issue of payments by American families or US corporations is now under debate within the Obama administration.

The USA Patriot Act prohibits any payment or assistance to terror groups that could boost their support.

The families of three Americans held by a rebel group in Colombia for five years, for example, were repeatedly advised against sending even medication and trainers to the hostages to avoid potentially breaking the law.

But prosecution in those types of cases is rare and enforced haphazardly.

"I never saw, in my time as an FBI agent, where the US government threatened to prosecute a family for paying a ransom," said Clinton Van Zandt, the FBI's former chief hostage negotiator.

Diplomats say ransoms paid or arranged by western European governments and the Gulf state of Qatar have provided the bulk of financial support for violent groups.

That has spurred the US and Britain - as well as some north African states - to push a campaign discouraging ransom payments.

In January, the US and Britain secured a UN Security Council resolution appealing to governments not to pay ransom to terror groups.

But the US treasury department has estimated at least 140 million US dollars (£84 million) worth of ransoms have been paid to al Qaida and other terror groups in Africa and the Middle East since 2004.

France and Qatar are most often identified as governments that frequently pay or arrange ransoms - usually to free European nationals.

But France has denied doing so, as have Germany, Italy and the Nordic counties of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. All are accused by security experts, diplomats and others of having paid ransoms in some cases.

Rather than pay ransoms, the US often tries to rescue its hostages with covert military teams trained to raid extremist camps.

That was how the three hostages in Colombia were freed in 2008 in a joint operation with Colombian spies and US intelligence, for example.

And a secret operation was launched in early July to rescue Mr Foley and other US hostages being held by the IS in Syria.

US special forces engaged in a firefight with the IS, and killed several militants, but did not find any American hostages at the unspecified location.

At least three Americans are still being held in Syria. Two of them are believed to have been kidnapped by the IS.

The third, freelance journalist Austin Tice, disappeared in Syria in August 2012 and is believed to be in the custody of government forces in Syria.

Money alone may not have been the main reason that the IS killed Mr Foley.

The militancy is already rich from donations from supporters in the Persian Gulf and a broad criminal network of extortion and robbery.

It is also believed to have stolen what US officials have estimated as millions of dollars from a bank in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul when the IS overran the area in June.

See blog http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140821/blogs/oh-my-god-thats-horrible-and-then-go-on-eating-their-dinners.532682

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