Families of Americans taken hostage see some progress in interaction with U.S. government
Lisa Monaco, senior counterterrorism adviser to President Obama, often is in
contact with families of Americans who have been taken hostage. (Jeff Chiu/AP)
By Greg Jaffe and Ellen Nakashima National Security, December 25 at 4:42 PM
Inside the White House, it is known as “the tragic summer of 2014.” Islamic
State forces were rampaging across Iraq and Syria, erasing borders and
massacring opponents and minority groups.
President Obama and his national security team knew they had to stop the advance, and they knew that any military action would put at risk the lives of at least four Americans being held by the group in Syria. One after another the American hostages — James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig — were murdered. The fourth, Kayla Mueller, was killed in 2015.
In the tense months before and after their deaths, Lisa Monaco, the senior counterterrorism adviser to the president, was meeting with the grief-stricken families.
“They told me about their frustration and their disappointment; their confusion about how the government was handling finding and recovering their loved ones,” Monaco said.
(Published 2016/12/26 at 6:57 pm)
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