KT McFarland: Raise $200 Million 'Bounty' to Kill Terrorists

The reported beheading of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto means it's time to "seize the momentum" in dealing with terrorists, and that's not through negotiations, an angry K.T. McFarland said Saturday afternoon.

"It just shows you can't trade, and you can't negotiate with terrorists," said the Fox News security analyst, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan. "This is the new normal in the region, and they have now got the momentum."

McFarland's idea for what to tell the Islamic State and other terrorists: "We are going to put money into a pool, we're going to raise $200 million, and we're going to use that money as a bounty on your heads."

McFarland said there are many hostages still being held, including an American woman, and "they're going to say we want a prisoner swap, or we want ransom paid, we want this or we want that, or we're going to behead your people."

To seize the momentum, Western countries should tell the terrorists "no more ransom, no more negotiation and no more terror swaps for hostages," she said.

McFarland noted that a $200 million pool would go "a long way in the Middle East," and she believes people in the Middle East would listen.

"I'd say to them, 'are you sure you don't have a cousin, or a neighbor who is willing to turn you in for $200 million?' " she said. "We need to seize the momentum or we are going to have more and more and more of these."

Terrorists, said McFarland, are "only getting bolder," and "now we've gotten to the point where we have made the message that this is valuable to them. It's like a currency that they're using so we need to find a way to devalue that currency, otherwise they are going to take more hostages."

Sending in more troops isn't the answer, she said.

"We had over 100,000 troops there and we couldn't stop the problem," she said. "Are we any better off than we were a decade ago?"

She called for giving weapons to anyone doing the fighting, not putting boots on the ground or even trainers.

"We tried that and it didn't work," she said. "That's why I think we really need to have a very different strategy."


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