The same day the White House and her family confirmed the death of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria prisoner Kayla Mueller, it said there is at least one American hostage being held in the Middle East.
The White House did not specify whether the Islamic State is holding the person prisoner.
“There is at least one other hostage that is being held in the region,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday. “We have avoided talking about individual cases but there are other Americans being held in the region.”
“We don’t believe it is in the best interests of these people” or their families to name them or discuss details of their cases.
The White House has undertaken a review of the administration’s inter-agency dealings with families of Americans taken hostage, and Earnest said it hopes to conclude that process in the spring.
President Obama launched the review last year after complaints about how the administration dealt with the family of slain American James Foley.
Some of the families of Islamic State hostages have complained that U.S. officials have failed to respond to their inquiries in a timely manner and, in the Foley case, have even threatened legal action if family members choose to try to collect money to pay the Islamic State ransom for the freedom of their son.
The United States and Great Britain have a policy of not paying terrorist groups ransom, although other European countries don’t and have paid the Islamic State and had their prisoners freed.
Earnest said Obama has been willing to commit significant U.S. resources to try to free Americans held by the Islamic State, including a failed rescue attempt to U.S. Special Forces last summer.
“The reasoning behind the policy that the administration has followed, along with past administrations, is not difficult to explain,” he said. “By refusing to pay ransom, [the Islamic State] will not financially benefit by taking Americans” and will not create more incentive for more hostage-taking.
The review does not include any type of reconsideration of the policy of not paying ransom, Earnest said. Instead, it is an effort to better serve the families and streamline the broad inter-agency process of communicating with them.
“Because there is a broad inter-agency approach to each case, that means that these families are hearing form a large number of agencies” often separately, he said.
“We want to make sure that all those communications are carefully integrated,” Earnest said.
