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Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, left, and Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman sentenced to death in Jordan for her involvement in a 2005 terrorist attack on a hotel that killed dozens of people.(Photo: AP)
Islamic State militants holding two hostages are pursuing a prisoner swap with Jordan because they believe such negotiations with a country will bring them international standing and also demonstrate that recruits won't be forgotten if captured.
"This suggests they are operating on the same plane as a state," said Daniel Benjamin, a former State Department counterterrorism official who is now director of Dartmouth's Dickey Center for International Understanding.
To meet the Islamic State's demands, Jordan said it was willing to release Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman arrested after her suicide vest failed to detonate during a 2005 Amman hotel attack. In exchange, the militants would free a Jordanian pilot being held hostage.
USA TODAY
ISIL deadline passes; fate of captive pilot unknown
The militant group's deadline passed Thursday with the fate of the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, unclear. The Jordanian government said it wanted proof the pilot was still alive before proceeding with the swap. The government said it had not yet received such proof.
The United States is just one of a handful of countries that categorically refuse to make deals with terrorist organizations, partly out of concern such negotiations can confer legitimacy on such groups.
"We are definitely the exception, and even we make exceptions," said James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, referring to the U.S. agreeing last year to release five Taliban prisoners in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
The White House characterized that as a prisoner of war exchange toward the end of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and said it was not negotiating directly with terrorists. The exchange was brokered by Qatar, which took in the Taliban prisoners.
Israel has agreed to numerous prisoner exchanges, including a deal in 2011 with Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States and other countries.
USATODAY
Jordan ready to swap inmate for pilot
The Islamic State would have a number of reasons for pursuing the exchange, but a key factor is the group's quest for status. Unlike other terrorist groups, the Islamic State controls large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, including Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.
"It's very important for them to be recognized as a state," said Abdulkader Sinno, an Indiana University professor who has written about insurgency groups. "They call themselves in an aspirational way an Islamic state."
But even a successful swap would boost its standing only with those who already sympathize with the group and would have no impact beyond those core followers, Benjamin said.
"It doesn't in any way enhance their status with other countries," he said. "This is appealing to followers and potential followers."
The deal would also give the Islamic State a chance to convince its fighters they won't be abandoned if captured.
If al-Rishawi is released, it "will reinforce a narrative that they are defending the mujahideen at all costs," said Sterling Jensen, an assistant professor at the United Arab Emirates' National Defense College in Abu Dhabi.
At first glance al-Rishawi seems an odd choice to be at the center of such high-profile negotiations. She is a would-be suicide bomber who was following her husband's lead when she went to Amman, Jordan's capital, to carry out an attack.
The attacks were devastating. She was part of the coordinated attacks on three hotels that killed 59 people on Nov. 9, 2005. It was the first time that violence in neighboring Iraq had spilled into Jordan, and the bombings stunned the generally peaceful city.
Al-Rishawi was one of four Iraqis dispatched by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, on the suicide mission in Amman.
She and her husband entered a ballroom at the Radisson SAS hotel, where a wedding party was celebrating. Her husband detonated his suicide vest, killing dozens, including family members of the bride and groom. His wife, who was 35 at the time, was unable to detonate her vest. She was later captured and imprisoned by the Jordanians.
She is not an influential leader, but her release would provide a propaganda boost for the Islamic State. "They'll get no tactical value out of her by herself," Jensen said. "It's symbolic."
In a 2005 profile in USA TODAY al-Rishawi was described by a relative as an illiterate but religious woman who was bent on revenge after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
She had family members who joined the anti-American insurgency, and her older brother was killed by coalition forces in the battle for Fallujah in 2004, according to several news accounts at the time.
She was not known to U.S. officials prior to the bombing and had been influenced by her husband to participate in the attack, Jeffrey said.
Since her arrest she has remained unrepentant for her role in the attack, and her status among jihadists has risen.
"She is a big fish," said Jeffrey, the former U.S. ambassador. "She is the most prominent of people the Jordanians are holding."
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