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U.S. Plans to Act More Rigorously in Hostage Cases
By JUDITH MILLER
After a protracted debate that pitted the State Department against the Pentagon, the Bush administration has
adopted a new policy that requires the federal government to review every kidnapping of an American
overseas for possible action, administration officials say.
Parts of the new approach, which was approved by President Bush, were to be adopted without public
disclosure or fanfare. The new policy was described by officials who said its provisions marked a significant
turn in this country's handling of a problem that has confronted a succession of presidents.
The policy results from a study that was begun in the Clinton administration and was hammered out in recent
months before Pakistani and American officials began collaborating in the search for Daniel Pearl, the Wall
Street Journal reporter kidnapped in Karachi while researching a story on Islamic militants.
Under the policy a committee of officials from several agencies led by the National Security Council, the
Hostage Subgroup, will examine every case in which an American is taken hostage in another country to assess
whether intervention is warranted.
In the past the government sometimes declined to review cases that did not involve American officials or
members of the armed forces.
Officials say the policy envisages a wide range of options to save hostages, from providing advice on
negotiations to American-led commando raids, and emphasize that it does not require the government to
become directly involved in every kidnapping.
"The government will still consider kidnappings on a case-by-case basis," one official said. "What the new
policy ensures is that the government will no longer ignore cases simply because a private citizen is involved,
or because the kidnapping seems to be motivated primarily by money rather than political goals."
Opponents of the policy, particularly at the Pentagon, said the approach would build pressure on the
government to win the release of hostages and would give foes of the United States more incentive to kidnap
Americans.
Officials said the policy dropped a longstanding blanket prohibition of private companies paying ransom.
Although Washington will continue to strongly discourage families and companies from making such payments
or other concessions, officials said the new policy acknowledged that some companies and families might feel
that they have no choice.
"The shift is subtle but very important," one official said.
Under the new policy, families and companies are entitled to basic administrative support from the American
embassy in the country in which an American has been seized, if they request it.
It also puts a high priority on ensuring that hostage takers are apprehended, tried and punished. "Justice is part
of deterrence," a senior official said.
Officials said the government would identify countries where the risk of being taken hostage is greatest and
give them priority in law enforcement training and other technical assistance programs if they want America to
give such help.
The changes are a response to the growing number of kidnappings by criminal and militant groups, particularly
in the Philippines and South America.
Officials said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials had opposed the shift
at first, warning that the policy could have the opposite of its intended effect. Requiring high-level attention for
all such kidnappings, they said, puts a higher "market value" on each hostage and could prompt more hostage
taking by groups eager to attract American attention.
The State Department, on the other hand, argued that an immediate review of hostage cases and greater
emphasis on tougher, more flexible efforts to bring hostage takers to justice would ultimately save lives and
deter kidnappings. State Department officials also wanted greater flexibility in dealing with individual cases.
"The new hostage policy ensures that efforts to secure the release of Americans taken captive abroad will
remain low-profile, but of much higher priority," one Defense Department official said.
Late last year a compromise was fashioned by the National Security Council, which on balance favored the
State Department's position, officials said. But it made a crucial concession to the Pentagon: the decision for an
automatic review of each case will not be publicly disclosed.
Only some aspects of the policy will be made public, officials said. Intelligence and military options for
freeing hostages will be kept secret as part of a classified National Security Presidential Directive.
The policy, one senior official emphasized, still calls for "no deals, no concessions" to kidnappers of private
citizens or government officials. But another official added: "The bottom line is: if you take an American
hostage, even if ransom is paid, you will never benefit. You will be found and prosecuted."
One official said the government would continue to avoid becoming involved in domestic disputes in which,
for example, children were seized by feuding parents.
A senior official described the new policy's objectives as deterring the taking of American hostages and, when
a kidnapping occurs, securing the hostage's safe release in a way that does not encourage more hostage taking.
Finally, the policy underscores the importance of bringing hostage takers to justice.
The Hostage Subgroup will consider many factors in determining whether direct intervention is warranted, an
official said. One factor is whether the hostage is abroad "at the service of his nation." Another factor is "the
extent to which local authorities have the willingness and ability to handle a situation."
The new policy puts a greater emphasis on close cooperation with the government of a country where a
kidnapping occurs. If the local government and the hostage's family or company request assistance, officials
will provide communications and other support, as well as advice about negotiating strategies.
If the administration decides that a rescue operation is warranted, the Pentagon will conduct the mission.
The shift comes as officials assess the status of Mr. Pearl, whom a previously unknown militant group has
threatened to kill if their demands are not met.
In e-mail messages last month to several newspapers, a previously unknown Pakistani group claimed to have
taken him to secure legal protections for 177 Pakistanis detained in the United States, the repatriation of
Pakistanis held in Cuba and the completion of a sale of fighter jets to Pakistan that Congress blocked in 1990.
Despite Pakistan's arrest of some high-profile militants and even some security officials, Mr. Pearl's status and
whereabouts remain unknown. Senior administration officials have been deeply involved in efforts to secure
his release. President Bush raised the issue in his meeting with Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on
Wednesday.
Hostage policy has long bedeviled American policy makers. In 1980, after President Carter's failed diplomatic
and military efforts to free American Embassy officials held hostage for more than a year by radicals backed by
the Iranian government, Ronald Reagan campaigned on a platform of standing firm against terrorism.
During his tenure, he pledged that Washington would never negotiate with terrorists.
But he was deeply moved by the plight of Americans who had been kidnapped by Muslim militants in Lebanon.
To secure their release, Oliver North and other senior White House and intelligence officials sold weapons to
Iran, which was believed to have had influence over the kidnappers, and used the proceeds to finance rebels in
Nicaragua known as contras.
The Iran-contra affair erupted when the deal was publicly disclosed, crippling President Reagan's second term.
The review begun by the Clinton administration was partly a result of kidnappings in 2000 and 2001 by the Abu
Sayyaf group in the Philippines, which the State Department says has ties to Al Qaeda, and by a searing case in
Ecuador that continued into the Bush administration.
In October 2000, a sophisticated kidnapping gang of former leftist guerrillas seized four American oil workers
in Ecuador. One, Ronald Sander, was killed in January 2001 after the kidnappers decided that representatives
of the three ransom- negotiating firms and four governments involved had taken too long to make a serious
offer.
After the companies paid $13 million in February, the remaining hostages were freed. Working with Colombian
and Ecuadorean officials, the United States used the ransom to trace the kidnappers.
Ultimately, 57 of them were brought to justice. "Mr. Sander was the first American life lost effectively to
terrorism under the Bush administration's watch," said one administration official. It had a profound impact on
Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, and on other senior officials, the official recalled.
While the United States can send rescue teams like the Delta Force, Green Berets and Seals abroad, the F.B.I.'s
own Hostage Rescue Team is authorized to conduct rescues only in the United States.
In the case in Ecuador, Washington decided, despite strenuous objections from some officials, that a rescue
attempt was too risky and that it might cause a wave of anti-American sentiment there.
Some Clinton and Bush administration officials concluded from that and other cases that the United States
should focus less on the means used to free a hostage and more on the goal: securing a hostage's timely release
and deterring further hostage taking.
"If an American is in trouble, the U.S. government should and will do everything it can to bring them home
safely and deter further kidnappings by ensuring that the kidnapper is brought to justice," one official said.
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