>>How would anyone but one at least remotely connected have the information in the first place? And if the ransom is not paid now for the head of the guy that the US has priced so high, why would anyone be willing to risk the revenge of the followers next time? Not paying now would be very bad propaganda.
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>Resay it anyway you want, but they will not pay $25M to be put back into the terrorist network. Can you imagine the "bad probaganda" that would fall out from that? And if you say that no one would know about it, then that just supports my opinion that no one would know about it if they didn't pay.

Now is the time for them to clean up their ranks. Just shoot your opponent and claim you saw 25M on him. Or that's the story I'd spread instead of paying up.

Either way, they can turn the story to their advantage. If it's paid, "we sacrificed al-Zarqawi and got the money for more weapons", if it's not, "didn't we say you can't trust the Americans?".