In the executive order, Biden declared a national emergency to address the hostage-taking and wrongful detention of Americans abroad, saying such “heinous acts” pose an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States states” .”
“The United States government must redouble its efforts at home and with partners abroad to deter these practices and secure the release of those held hostage or wrongfully detained,” he said.
The executive order, which families were informed about when speaking with administration officials Monday, was widely hailed by some families as a key tool in bringing their loved ones home. But others expressed huge disappointment with its introduction, telling CNN that even as the White House touted the new order, it still did not address their larger concerns and demands, namely a meeting with Biden.
“I can’t speak to the president’s specific timetable, but I can speak to his commitment to these issues, to the priority he places on bringing home Americans held hostage overseas, wrongfully detained overseas,” a senior official said of the administration, asked by CNN on a call with reporters if Biden would meet with the families who will be in the nation’s capital this week.
The executive order directs the administration to “identify and recommend to the President options and strategies … to secure the recovery of hostages or the return of wrongfully detained United States citizens” and “coordinate the development and implementation of hostage recovery policies, strategies, and procedures or return of wrongfully detained United States citizens.” It allows the administration to impose sanctions and visa bans on individuals involved in hostage-taking and wrongful detention. It aims to increase transparency between the administration and family members of hostages and wrongful apprehended through enhanced information sharing, including intelligence.
In addition to the executive order, the administration announced it will use a new indicator in the State Department’s travel advisories for individual countries to highlight that a US citizen is at risk of being taken hostage or wrongfully detained if they travel there. Myanmar (also known as Burma), China, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela will receive this new “D” risk indicator, a second senior administration official said.
“Our goal is to bring people home”
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken described Tuesday’s action as a demonstration of the U.S. government’s commitment to the safety of U.S. citizens abroad, saying in a statement that “we will continue to be relentless in our efforts to reunify Americans who are being held hostage or wrongfully detained with their loved ones.”
The first senior administration official said there would be no new sanctions imposed immediately under the executive order’s sanctions authority.
“Our goal is to get people home, so we use the sanctioning authority with a primary focus on helping to free loved ones,” said a third senior administration official. “Now, using sanctions can’t always help secure someone’s release, so we’re going to be judicious and strategic in our use of that power.”
Tuesday’s executive order builds on processes for handling hostage cases established during the Obama administration. It also draws heavily from an existing law — the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Taking Act — that defines the criteria for who is considered wrongfully detained, expands tools to help free those detainees and hostages from the U.S., authorized sanctions and was intended to encourage greater engagement with families. This law is named after Robert Levinson, an American who was detained in Iran for decades and is believed to have died there.
The third senior administration official said there have been continuous meetings to craft the executive order since the law was passed in December 2020, “and the idea was that we have to get this right, it’s not something we want to rehash in any way way, to form , or form.”
“We wanted to have a tool that was useful and that took a lot of time to try to make sure that all stakeholders had a chance to weigh in so we could come up with something that was going to be useful, powerful and achieve end states , which we hoped to achieve. So it took a while, but if you want to do it right, sometimes you have to invest time, and I think that’s the case here,” this official said.
“Very welcome”
Elizabeth Whelan, whose brother Paul Whelan has been detained in Russia since 2018, called the executive order “a significant move and extremely welcome” and one she has been waiting for since the Robert Levinson Act was passed.
“This EO gives the U.S. leverage we wouldn’t otherwise have against wrongful detention anywhere, and sets an example for other countries to do the same,” she said.
“Ultimately, it will take a multi-pronged response to stamp out the truly evil practice of using ordinary citizens as political pawns, and I hope our government takes full advantage of this EO to help bring Americans home in the meantime,” Whalen said to CNN, noting that she appreciated getting a preview of the news during the call with the families on Monday.
Other family members of Americans wrongfully detained abroad told CNN they saw the executive order as a positive step forward, but said it was unclear what impact it would have on their loved ones’ cases. Veronika Waddell Wegemann, whose father, Tomeu Waddell, has been in prison in Venezuela since 2017, also said she appreciated the fact that she received word that the executive order was being issued, rather than being surprised by it.
“No way an answer to what we need”
However, other family members who spoke to CNN said they were very upset about Monday’s call and that they felt misled about the content of the call. They were informed of this on Sunday in an email that did not detail the content, leading them to believe there would be substantial updates or that Biden might join.
They were unable, they said, to voice questions or concerns during the conversation, which one family member described as “isolating.” Others said that if they had known in advance that the call would discuss the executive order, they would not have called because the call “is in no way a response to what we need and what we have repeatedly asked for.”
It was “poor delivery for the wrong message,” said one family member, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the conversation off the record.
Officials, according to family members briefed Monday, did not explain why the White House issued the order Tuesday. Some family members told CNN they believe the administration’s timing of the order is intended to distract from the negative attention and upcoming events organized by the detainees’ families in Washington, D.C., including the unveiling of a new mural commissioned by the “ Bring Our Families Home Campaign.”
In a statement, Jonathan Franks, the campaign’s spokesman, described the call as “an effort to pre-manage press attention from the many hostage families who are in D.C. this week to unveil their mural.”
CNN’s Kylie Atwood and Donald Judd contributed to this report.
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