WASHINGTON – Today James W. Foley Legacy Foundation Founder and President Diane Foley participated in a bipartisan roundtable meeting of the Congressional Task Force on American Hostages and Americans Wrongfully Detained Abroad, chaired by Representative Ted Deutch (D-FL). Ms. Foley was joined by former hostages and wrongful detainees, and by fellow family members of Americans who are both currently being held overseas and who died during their captivity.
Ms. Foley and her fellow advocates shared their experiences, urged members to prioritize bringing Americans home as a nonpartisan national security emergency, and to press the Biden Administration to elevate these issues. They offered practical recommendations for ways Congress can better support hostages, detainees, and their families, including improving communication across government branches and supporting survivors as they return home and recover from their ordeals. They also emphasized the urgent need to galvanize public attention around these issues, empower the people and structures in the Executive branch that handle these issues, and for President Biden to personally meet with families and survivors.
“I am grateful for the progress that the Levinson Act and the 2022 Executive Order have brought, and for the leadership Congressman Deutch and bipartisan Task Force bring to the urgency of bringing Americans home,” said Ms. Foley. “But despite these efforts, U.S. nationals continue to be taken hostage and held unjustly—at least 65 public cases as of today. Our people are being held longer, an average of over four years. And more state actors are detaining our citizens for leverage over the U.S. government.
“My son Jim aspired to be a man of moral courage,” continued Ms. Foley. “This is a moral issue. It is a national security issue. It is a human rights issue that impacts every American. And the only true measure of our moral resolve is to actually bring Americans home, however difficult and complex that may be.”
Ms. Foley also previewed that the fourth annual Bringing Americans Home report will be released on September 28 at the New America think tank in Washington, DC.
Participants were:
- Diane Foley, whose son James Foley was kidnapped and beheaded by ISIS in Syria in 2014;
- Sarah Moriarty (Levinson), whose father Robert Levinson died while being held hostage in Iran and who is the longest-held American hostage in history;
- Neda Sharghi, whose brother Emad Sharghi is currently a wrongful detainee in Iran
- Elizabeth Whelan, whose brother Paul Whelan is currently detained in Russia;
- Jason Rezaian, who was unjustly detained by Iran and released in 2016;
- Anaïse Kanimba, whose father Paul Rusesabagina is currently a wrongful detainee in Rwanda;
- Nizar Zakka, who was unjustly detained by Iran and released in 2019.
