The White House is not hurrying to change its policies for rescuing hostages overseas and working with their families back home seven months after President Obama ordered a review of the policies.
President Obama’s public acknowledgment that a U.S. drone strike in January killed two civilian al Qaeda hostages, one of them an American, has stoked new complaints about the administration’s dealings with the families of hostages held overseas. The policy has come in for harsh criticism from families of Americans slaughtered by the Islamic State.
The wife of Warren Weinstein, the American killed in the January drone strike, praised her representatives in Congress Thursday for their “relentless efforts” to free her husband from al Qaeda, but she also said the assistance she received from “elements of the U.S. government was inconsistent and disappointing” over the course of the three and a half years he was in captivity.
While making clear that al Qaeda bears the ultimate responsibility for his death and “will have to face their God to answer for their actions,” Weinstein also stressed that she hopes her 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.”
While actual numbers are tightly held, knowledgeable sources told the Washington Examiner that there are roughly two dozen Americans currently being held against their will — not all by terrorist groups.
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.
The White House has said that review would conclude some time this Spring but hasn’t initiated concrete steps — at least that are publicly perceptible — to address the lack of coordination so far.
On Friday the White House responded to the Weinstein family’s criticism and renewed concern about American hostages overseas by saying that the administration is currently weighing the creation of a “fusion cell” to coordinate communications with the families — as well as information about their whereabouts with counter-terrorism agencies in order to avoid tragedies like the one that occurred in January, the first time a U.S. drone is known to have killed an American civilian hostage.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest offered few details about how the fusion cell would operate to help protect the hostages and plan rescue operations, other than to say it would help streamline communications with the families back home.
While noting that the review would be completed “relatively soon,” Earnest did not elaborate on whether the White House or anyone else in the administration has taken initial steps to change its approach to trying to bring captives home, such as appointing a point person to manage the process and interact with families.
“These families are in a terrible situation to have a loved one, a family member, being held…,” he said Friday. 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.”
Family complaints about the Obama administration’s handling of the hostage issues have made headlines every time an American is killed overseas. After the criticism last summer over Foley’s death and the circumstances surrounding it, the White House promised the families an integral voice in the process, but critics say no real changes have occurred.
Back in February, Obama publicly lamented the killing of Kayla Mueller, a dedicated humanitarian held prisoner by the Islamic State, and called her a force for human goodness and the best America has to offer, but provided no sign that the administration was restructuring its handling of these types of hostage situations.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has harshly criticized the administration’s interagency approach to hostage rescue operations and family engagement.
After Weinstein’s death by a U.S. drone attack, Hunter railed against the administration’s delays in installing an interagency coordinator to ensure that there’s effective and constructive engagement at all levels of the government.
“Warren Weinstein did not have to die,” Hunter said. “His death is further evidence of the failures in communication and coordination between government agencies tasked with recovering Americans in captivity — and the fact that he’s dead, as a result, is absolutely tragic.”
The FBI was the lead organization in Weinstein’s recovery mission, but Hunter argued, the FBI is incapable of handling these efforts in hostile areas of the world and the CIA’s focus in this case and others is first and foremost on counter-terrorism, not on the successful recovery of Americans held captive.
The only government organization seriously developing options to recover Weinstein and others in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region was in the Pentagon, he argued.
In the lead up to the trade of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders held at the Guantanamo Bay prison, the Pentagon’s hostage team were developing plans to recover all Western hostages in the area — not just Bergdahl, Hunter said.
“Their planning did not include a 5 for 1 trade, as occurred, but rather a 1 for 7 exchange that included Weinstein,” he said. “Due to infighting and disagreements among lead organizations, Amerine and his team struggled to get attention beyond the walls of the Pentagon and were ultimately sidelined.”
When the State Department-led 5 for 1 trade was initiated, Hunter said the deck was “reshuffled” for all the other Americans in captivity in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region.
“This is just one more failure in a string of failures related to the Administration’s decisions and efforts related to Bergdahl’s release,” he said.
Duncan, who has been in touch with several of the families whose children have been killed, has sent the White House a series of letters offering several steps to better handle hostage-rescue operations. One of his top recommendations would be tapping one individual to lead all recovery efforts for missing Americans, regardless of whether they are held in hostile or non-hostile areas.
Joe Kaspar, Hunter’s spokesman, said his boss supports the idea of a fusion cell and has written legislation that would give it the full statutory authority it needs to coordinate both rescue missions with counter-terrorism priorities.
He plans to offer the bill as an amendment to an upcoming national security bill.
