Between the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations, the United States has had an awful lot of occasions to kill innocent civilians, and has adopted the regional practice of paying “blood money” to the families of the slain, in compensation for the deaths. This amount can vary from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on how keen the US is to placate a given victim’s family.
In the wake of today’s admission that they killed a pair of Western hostages in Pakistan, the White House seems to be trying to adapt this practice to Western victims as well, saying they intend to make payments of “compensation” to the families of American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto.
While wrongful death compensation isn’t an entirely foreign concept in the West, the White House’s combination of these payments with an insistence that the killings were in accordance with international law likely won’t sit well with many.
The families of the slain aid workers are already criticizing the administration for its “inconsistent” response to the initial hostage-taking, and are likely to see the pledge of money as trying to buy their silence on the matter, particularly with the administration so clear that the killings aren’t going to spark any real policy changes.
The "White House" isn't going to pay doodah. The American taxpayer is going to foot the bill, just as we pay for everything the idiots in charge do. It's time the American taxpayer finally gets that salient point.
Bingo. Until government functionairies at all levels (including the police) are held personally responsible for their depredations and malfeasance, the abuses will never stop.
Will these victims be given the same amount as the people killed by Obama at weddings? Americans no longer have rights. We have a price on our heads.
What is the current "rate" for an Italian and American. How is it determined? Is there an app, or maybe a big roulette wheel the government uses to determine this? Does it cost more because they were snuffed together, or less, kind of a two for one deal? The American public demands answers!
I'm sure there's a table some bean counter dreamed up and I'm sure there's no difference in that table between Afghani male and American male or Afghani male and French male…there's just male. And if I remember correctly from previous reporting, the base number is around $3500 per.