The White House is responding to criticism of the administration’s interactions with families of Americans held hostage by terrorist groups by weighing the creation of a “fusion cell” to coordinate communications with them.
One day after President Obama acknowledged the killing of two civilian hostages of al Qaeda in a U.S. drone strike, White House press secretary Josh Earnest appeared to shoot down calls on Capitol Hill for a White House hostage czar and said instead that this new “fusion cell” could serve as a conduit for myriad government agencies’ communications with the families.
“These families are in a terrible situation to have a loved one, a family member, being held…,” he said. In these situations “there is a premium for direct, specific and reliable communications with these families and that can be difficult when you have a range of departments working with them.”
The White House and other departments that work with the families, such as the FBI, are working to “streamline” the communications in order “to provide information as regularly as possible for these families,” he added.
Obama launched a review of his administration’s interactions with families of American hostages last year after complaints about how the administration dealt with the family of slain American James Foley. Some of the families of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and other terrorist group hostages have complained that U.S. officials have failed to respond to their inquiries in a timely manner and, in the Foley case, the family said that the government threatened legal action if family members chose to try to collect money to pay the Islamic State ransom for their son.
After the February death of Kayla Mueller, a humanitarian activist held prisoner by the Islamic State, her family also said they were disappointed in the Obama administration’s handling of her years-long detention.
On Thursday, after Obama publicly acknowledged the drone strike tragedy and apologized to the families of the two civilians killed, the family of Warren Weinstein, the American, said the assistance it received from “elements of the U.S. government was inconsistent and disappointing” over the course of three and a half years.
“We hope that my husband’s death and the others who have faced similar tragedies in recent months will finally prompt the U.S. government to take its responsibilities seriously and establish a coordinated and consistent approach to supporting hostages and their families.”
Obama originally said the review of his administration’s interactions with the families of hostages held overseas would be completed in the spring. Earnest Friday said the review would be completed “relatively soon” but he wasn’t aware of any “impending announcements.”
