Biden administration authorizes new sanctions to target hostage takers abroad
CBSN
The Biden administration announced a new sanctions authorization Tuesday to target those complicit in hostage taking or wrongful detentions of Americans in an effort to bring those Americans home. But some families of American hostages, who were apprised of the executive action before it was announced, were unimpressed and viewed the White House outreach to them as a cynical ploy.
"In an effort to pre-manage the press attention from many hostage families being in D.C. this week to unveil their mural, the White House summoned families to a last-minute call they insisted families keep off-the-record and then proceeded to tell every reporter in Washington the call was going to take place," Jonathan Franks, spokesman for Bring Our Families Campaign, said in a press release Monday.
The executive order authorizes agencies to impose financial sanctions on any "terrorist organizations, criminal groups, and other malicious actors" involved in hostage-taking or wrongful detentions. However, no new sanctions were announced along with the order.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.