WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration should create an additional senior-level position at the White House National Security Council to focus on cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained in foreign countries, and give more power and funding to an FBI-led interagency office tasked with helping free hostages, according to a report Wednesday from a leading advocacy group.
The report from the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation also recommends that Congress authorize funding to pay for hostage families to visit Washington to meet with U.S. government officials, as well as to provide support -- whether clothing, temporarily housing or medical care -- for returning hostages.
The annual research report is based on interviews with 60 people, including former hostages and wrongful detainees and their relatives as well as former government officials.
It was released amid heightened public attention on the plight of American hostages and detainees, thanks in part to the continued imprisonment in Russia of WNBA star Brittney Griner on drug-related charges. The U.S. has been trying to bring home Griner and another American jailed in Russia, Paul Whelan, but those efforts have so far not been successful.
There have been some high-profile releases in the last six months, including an April prisoner swap with Russia that secured the release of Marine veteran Trevor Reed and a deal with the Taliban that last week freed an American contractor, Mark Frerichs, who had been abducted in Afghanistan more than two years ago. Two Americans, including an oil executive, were released from Venezuelan government custody in March, though Caracas is continuing to hold numerous other Americans.
In addition, family members of detainees have demonstrated in recent months outside the White House and in New York, and a mural unveiled this summer in Washington depicting faces of Americans jailed abroad has added to the publicity.
Yet more than 60 Americans are still being held hostage or wrongfully detained, and the report's authors say such cases appear tougher to resolve than they were a decade ago. Nearly half of the U.S. nationals who are still held hostage have been held for more than five years, the report says.
The report also says the number of countries holding Americans captives has grown over the last decade, totaling 19 in 2022. Seventy-five percent of currently detained Americans are being held by China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela, the report says.
The Biden administration has said publicly that it regards the release of hostages as a top priority, though officials have also noted that such resolutions can involve difficult decisions -- particularly in the case of prisoner swaps involving lawfully convicted felons in the U.S. -- and that the U.S. is not the only country with a say in the matter.
In the case of Griner and Whelan, for instance, the administration says it has not received a productive response from Russia to a substantial offer it made several months ago for their release.
The report makes 10 recommendations, including empowering and funding the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, a unit based at FBI headquarters but composed of representatives from different agencies.
FILE - Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was arrested for alleged spying, listens to the verdict in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, June 15, 2020. The Biden administration should create a new position at the White House National Security Council to focus on cases of Americans wrongfully detained in foreign countries. That's according to a report from an advocacy group, which recommends funding an interagency office to help free hostages. The U.S. has been trying to bring home Whelan, but those efforts have so far not been successful. (Sofia Sandurskaya/Moscow News Agency photo via AP, File)
FILE - WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted from a courtroom after a hearing in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, Aug. 4, 2022. The Biden administration should create a new position at the White House National Security Council to focus on cases of Americans wrongfully detained in foreign countries. That's according to a report from an advocacy group, which recommends funding an interagency office to help free hostages. The U.S. has been trying to bring home Griner and another American jailed in Russia, Paul Whelan, but those efforts have so far not been successful. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)