Stategic Miner,

An excellent post full of justified anger.

We've all seen the crime shows where a group of folks is taken hostage.

The police's special hostage unit comes out and the negotiations begin....

The head negotiator for the police will first listen to what the demands are.

Then he/she will ask, "Do you need anything? Food, water, medical care?"

Then he/she will try to determine if the hostage taker is open to negotiation.

He/she will start off with..."show us some good faith...let some hostages go...starting with the children and women"

If the hostage taker is willing to do this then the negotiator will feel more comfortable in proceeding with the ransom demands....

In the case of the ROF...we have seen years of negotation, Money, more money...studies, more studies, more money, more money, more studies, more consulations, more money,..

And we have not seen a single hostage released.

There has been absolutely no visible progress.

It's very long overdue to change negotation tactics which have been completely one sided.

Or Fire the negotiating team.