White House says it will retain its policy of no concessions to terrorists but allow officials to help families and remove threat of criminal prosecution over ransoms

The families of more than 30 American hostages currently held around the world were given a green light by the White House to negotiate private ransom payments, despite a longstanding ban on making concessions to terrorist groups.

Barack Obama confirmed new policies on Wednesday for communicating with terrorist groups, and for families to pay ransoms to hostage-takers.

Despite insisting the US government would continue its policy of not making direct “concessions” or payments to hostage takers, the president met with families and former hostages at the White House and announced it would help arrange talks, and would not prosecute those involved in ransom negotiations.

“The last thing we should ever do is add to a family’s pain with threats like that,” Obama said.



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“I firmly believe that the United States government paying ransom to terrorists risks endangering more Americans and funding the very terrorism that we are trying to stop,” said Obama. He added that the US government will assist in efforts “in part to ensure the safety of those family members and to make sure they are not defrauded.”



Lisa Monaco, Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser, revealed there were more than 30 hostages currently held around the world but insisted the US policy of no concessions stands.

“I want to take issue with the term ‘facilitate’, [the new system] will not facilitate ransom payments, it will give the families advices,” she said in a briefing for reporters.

“No concessions does not mean no communications,” added Monaco.

But critics of the White House review argue that allowing families to do what the government will not could lead to those same troubling consequences.



“We have had a policy in the United States for over 200 years of not paying ransom and not negotiating with terrorists,” said John Boehner, a senior Republican Congressman. “The concern that I have is that by lifting that long-held principle you could be endangering more Americans here and overseas.”

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Despite the ban on the US government making concessions to terrorists, the Obama administration did negotiate with the Taliban last year to win the release of Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured after walking away from this post in Afghanistan. Five Guantanamo Bay detainees were exchanged as a condition of his release.

White House officials say those negotiations were permissible because Obama sees a special responsibility to leave no American service member behind on the battlefield. Some hostages’ relatives have argued against the government making such distinctions between US citizens.

The White House announced the creation of a Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, one of the newly announced mechanisms for streamlining communications between the government response and families. The cell was already up and running, the president said.

Obama apologised to families of American hostages, who have been sharply critical of the administration’s attitudes in the past, and thanked them for their recommendations, many of which were incorporated into the policy change.

“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,” said Obama, who had met with some of the families in “a very emotional meeting” at the White House. “I promised them that we can do better.”

“Today my message to anyone who harms Americans is that we do not forget,” Obama said in his final remarks. “Our reach is long. Justice will be done,” he said.