Pew Poll: 70 Percent Want No Negotiating With Terrorists

Despite heartrending statements from the parents of American aid worker Kayla Mueller, slain while held hostage by the brutal assassins of the Islamic State (ISIS), that the U.S. should have paid the demanded $6.2 million ransom, U.S. policy to refuse to negotiate with terrorists remains unchanged, and Americans want it to stay that way.

In a new Pew Research Center survey, 70 percent of those asked said the U.S. policy of not paying ransom to terrorist groups to free kidnapped Americans is correct.

Only 25 percent felt American policy should be changed, while 58 percent of younger respondents approve of the policy and 38 percent disapprove, Pew reports. Some 78 percent of Republicans, 68 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Independents also support the official policy of not paying ransom to terrorists.

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Mueller, 26, was kidnapped in Syria in August, 2013, and confirmed dead on Feb. 10, in what ISIS claimed was a coalition airstrike, People Magazine reported.

Mueller's parents Carl and Marsha Mueller and her brother Eric told the NBC "Today" show that the negotiated release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May of last year in return for the release of five terrorists "made the whole situation worse."

Eric Mueller told NBC, "That's when the demands got greater. They got larger. They realized that they had something. They realized that, 'Well, if they're gonna let five people go for one person, why won't they do this? Or why won't they do that?' "

Carl Mueller told NBC, "We understand the policy about not paying ransom. But on the other hand, any parents out there would understand that you would want anything and everything done to bring your child home. And we tried. And we asked. But they put policy in front of American citizens’ lives."

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Fox News reported that the Obama administration in November ordered a full review of the government's policy on U.S. hostages taken overseas.

Terrorist groups al Qaeda and affiliates have reaped $120-$125 million from ransom demands, largely from France, CNN reported.

While countries publicly deny giving in to ransom demands, the New York Times alleges Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Qatar and Oman have paid to free hostage citizens.

Two Japanese citizens were killed by ISIS when the Japanese government failed to pay the $200 million demanded for their release. A Kyodo News survey found 60.8 percent of Japanese approved of the government's action, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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The Pew survey also found that 63 percent favor the use of U.S. armed forces in military action against ISIS, and only 30 percent oppose it. While 70 percent of Republicans support U.S. military intervention, 58 percent of Democrats oppose it.

The number is an increase from last October, when 57 percent approved of military action, Politico reports.