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Obama Softens Policy on Hostage Negotiations With Terrorist Groups In Hostage-Terrorist Policy Shift, Obama Admits Failures
(about 7 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama said on Wednesday that his administration had too often failed the families of American hostages held overseas by groups like the Islamic State, announcing a wide-ranging policy overhaul that will publicly state for the first time that the United States government can communicate and negotiate with hostage takers. WASHINGTON — President Obama said Wednesday that his administration had too often failed the families of American hostages held overseas by groups like the Islamic State, announcing a policy overhaul that will publicly state for the first time that the United States government can communicate and negotiate with hostage takers.
“The United States government will not make concessions, such as paying ransom, to terrorist groups holding American hostages,” Mr. Obama said, restating a longstanding policy that he acknowledged had become controversial as terrorist threats have evolved and kidnappings have become more commonplace. Mr. Obama said the government would not change a longstanding policy against paying ransoms to terrorist groups, a stance that he acknowledged had become controversial as terrorist threats have evolved and kidnappings have become more common. But he said he was making clear that the rule “does not prevent communication with hostage takers by our government, the families of hostages or third parties who help these families.”
“At the same time, we are clarifying that our policy does not prevent communication with hostage takers by our government, the families of hostages or third parties who help these families and, when appropriate, our government may assist these families and private efforts in those communications,” he said. “We’re not going to abandon you,” the president said. “We will stand by you.”
Speaking in the Roosevelt Room of the White House shortly after signing a presidential directive and executive order laying out the hostage policy changes, Mr. Obama also said families should not be threatened with criminal charges if they attempt to pay ransoms for the release of their captured relative. Speaking in the Roosevelt Room of the White House shortly after signing a presidential directive and executive order laying out the changes in the hostage policy, Mr. Obama also said families should not be threatened with criminal charges if they try to pay ransoms.
“No family of an American hostage has ever been prosecuted for paying a ransom for the return of their loved ones,” the president said, shortly after meeting with former hostages and families of captives, both living and dead. “The last thing that we should ever do is to add to a family’s pain with threats like that.” “The last thing that we should ever do is to add to a family’s pain with threats like that,” the president said, shortly after meeting with former hostages and families of captives, some of whom were killed by the hostage takers.
The changes constituted Mr. Obama’s attempt to come to terms with what has become a brutally painful chapter of his presidency. Families of United States citizens taken hostage abroad have increasingly criticized his administration for its handling of their cases, saying they were deprived of information, given conflicting guidance, ignored and threatened by a confusing patchwork of government agencies, none of which seemed to be primarily concerned with bringing home their loved ones. The changes were an effort by Mr. Obama to come to terms with a brutally painful chapter of his presidency. Families of Americans taken hostage abroad have increasingly criticized his administration for its handling of their cases, saying they were deprived of information, given conflicting guidance, ignored and threatened by a confusing patchwork of government agencies, none of which seemed to be primarily concerned with bringing home their loved ones.
“I acknowledged to them in private what I want to say publicly, that it is true that there have been times where our government, regardless of good intentions, has let them down,” Mr. Obama said. “I promised them that we can do better.”“I acknowledged to them in private what I want to say publicly, that it is true that there have been times where our government, regardless of good intentions, has let them down,” Mr. Obama said. “I promised them that we can do better.”
The policy directive made official and public what has long been the United States government’s unspoken practice in some hostage cases, but has been inconsistently applied and poorly understood both inside federal agencies and among family members desperate to win the release of their relatives. Many of the families have been told that the “no concessions” policy barred the government from even talking about potential terms of release for a hostage, and warned that they could face criminal charges for offering ransoms. But in doing so, the president put forth a somewhat tortured logic for addressing hostage cases. He argued forcefully that offering money in exchange for hostages would only enrich terrorists and endanger Americans, but said the government would back family members who wanted to do so.
“I firmly believe that the United States government paying ransom to terrorists risks endangering more Americans and funding the very terrorism that we’re trying to stop, and so I firmly believe that our policy ultimately puts fewer Americans at risk,” Mr. Obama said. But addressing the families, he said: “We’re not going to abandon you. We will stand by you.” Top White House officials have been at pains to explain how the government could keep a no-concessions policy while essentially blessing decisions by families to violate it.
As part of the overhaul, Mr. Obama said he was reorganizing the government’s hostage recovery efforts, including creating an interdepartmental “fusion cell” headquartered at the Federal Bureau of Investigation with primary responsibility for freeing American captives. A new hostage response group at the National Security Council, to be led by his counterterrorism adviser, Lisa Monaco, will oversee hostage policy and report directly to the president. A family engagement coordinator who will work with the F.B.I. task force will also have a role in the White House group, serving as a voice for hostages’ families inside the administration and a conduit from the government to the relatives. “These are very hard issues,” Lisa Monaco, Mr. Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, said in an interview. She said the White House was “wrestling with not abandoning families while also being quite clear that the vast resources of the United States government are not going to be put towards fueling terrorist activities.”
“I’m making it clear that these families are to be treated like what they are, our trusted partners and active partners in the recovery of their loved ones,” the president said. In the end, the announcement did not go far enough for some of the hostages’ relatives, some of whom pressed Mr. Obama on Wednesday to scrap the no-concessions dictate altogether.
Some lawmakers who have called for the creation of a hostage czar, and who had questioned whether Mr. Obama’s organizational changes would do enough to enhance hostage recovery efforts, praised his actions on Wednesday. “He was asked to keep considering whether that is, in fact, the right policy,” said Marc Allen Tice, the father of Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012. “There was skepticism and there was pushback,” he said, adding, “Over all, we feel like this is a good beginning.”
“While I have expressed my frustrations in the past, I believe the president has listened to the concerns of the families and is creating the new management structure that we need to bring more Americans home,” said Representative John Delaney, Democrat of Maryland, whose district is home to the family of Warren Weinstein, the aid worker who was taken hostage and accidentally killed in a drone strike in Pakistan targeting Qaeda leaders. In a joint statement, the families of Kayla Mueller, Peter Kassig and Steven J. Sotloff, American hostages killed by the Islamic State, called the changes “a step in the right direction.” Diane and John Foley, the parents of James Foley, who was also killed by the militant group, praised the policy review, saying of their son in a statement, “Perhaps his horrific death was necessary to awaken the American public and our government.”
In a statement, Mr. Delaney said Mr. Obama had “effectively” created a hostage czar, as envisioned in legislation he introduced with Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, a version of which passed the House last month as part of the defense bill. The policy directive made official and public what has long been the United States government’s unspoken practice in some hostage cases. But that practice has been inconsistently applied and poorly understood both inside federal agencies and among family members desperate to win the release of their relatives.
Mr. Obama’s order includes a requirement that officials involved in hostage recovery efforts work to try to declassify as much information as possible to share with hostages’ families or furnish unclassified summaries of material deemed too sensitive to be shared. Mr. Obama’s orders reorganized the government’s hostage recovery efforts, creating an interdepartmental “fusion cell” based at the F.B.I. with primary responsibility for freeing American captives. A new hostage response group at the National Security Council, to be led by Ms. Monaco, will monitor the efforts and oversee hostage policy. A family engagement coordinator will work with the F.B.I. task force and the White House team to support hostages’ relatives.
The order also requires that the government declassify as much information as possible to share with hostages’ families.
Some family members who had hoped for the creation of a senior-level “hostage czar,” charged exclusively with freeing American captives, said they were concerned that the new system could be hampered by the same bureaucratic dysfunction that has plagued efforts to date.
“It feels like a lot of committees,” Mr. Tice said.