Jack Laurence

Many of those hostages were released.

American hostages like journalist James Foley and British hostages like aid worker David Haynes were not.

They were executed.

Of course, it's impossible to say whether negotiations would have saved them.

ISIS have propaganda goals beyond money.

But the pattern was stark.

Countries that engaged got their people back more often than not.

Countries that refused often didn't.

For sure, Langen, being held by the Haqqani Network in 2008, the stakes were just as high.

He was British.

And back home, the question wasn't theoretical.

It was life or death.

The government stance was still the same.

We don't negotiate.

However, luckily for him, the company he was working for at the time were prepared to negotiate.

Although it didn't exactly go very smoothly.

Next time, on What I Survived.

Imagine for a moment that you wake up tomorrow and your freedom is gone.

Not because you did something wrong, not because you made a terrible choice or crossed the line you knew you shouldn't cross, but someone else had and let you take the fall.

Your freedom is taken from you by forces you can't control, can't reason with and can't fight.