In October 2021, 17 missionaries – one Canadian and 16 Americans – were kidnapped near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a country with one of the highest rates per capita of kidnappings in the world. This incident was one of the dozens of kidnappings of American citizens that occur abroad every year. While the majority of hostages return home once the ransom is paid, others aren’t so lucky.
Will the US government rescue you in a different country if you are kidnapped or taken hostage? Most likely no, but there are rare instances where they can assist you. This article explores this topic in depth.
What Can the US Government Do in a Hostage Crisis
In 1985 President Ronald Reagan famously proclaimed that America does not and will not make concessions to hostage-takers. He argued that doing so would only encourage the problem, making kidnappings and ransoms the order of the day. His remarks came after TWA flight 847 was hijacked by Shiite Hezbollah militants.
At the time, the plane had dozens of Americans on board. One US Navy diver was killed, and 39 other passengers were held hostage. The militants were demanding the release of 700+ Lebanese prisoners who were detained in Israel.
In an interesting turn of events, three days after the American hostages were released, the Israeli government set free roughly half of the Lebanese prisoners. One thing did become clear, though.
Despite the US maintaining, on paper, that it does not and will not make concessions nor pay ransom to kidnappers, the government has long worked with allied forces to assuage militants and terrorists to release hostages.
“No Concessions”
Today, the US stands by its “no concessions” stance. Some exceptions go against the spirit of this policy.
- The US government tends to be open to negotiation if the hostage-taker is a nation state. Technically speaking, there’s a legal distinction between a hostage (someone abducted and held by a non-state actor) and a detainee (someone held by the state). This line becomes blurred when an American is detained for the express purpose of being used as a bargaining chip.
- The US government negotiates if the hostages are soldiers. Case in point – when the Taliban kidnapped Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for the release of five members of the terrorist group from Guantanamo. As controversial as it was at the time, the provisions of the Geneva Convention allow for the exchange of prisoners of war.
- The US government may negotiate with a hostage-taker if another entity is paying the ransom. The law explicitly prohibits the provision of “material support” to a terrorist organization even if this so-called support comes in the form of paying a ransom for a loved one kidnapped by terrorists.
That said, no American citizen or organization has ever faced prosecution for paying a ransom to recover the victim. This permissive environment creates room for third-party intermediaries like military contractors to step in and conduct private hostage rescue missions.
Finally, the US government permits ransom payment provided that the hostage-taker is not a designated terrorist organization. American citizens routinely pay ransoms to foreign-armed-political-militia and criminal organizations. These are usually handled by crisis management personnel, kidnap and ransom insurance policies, and the government’s interagency Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell.
In light of this, the US no concessions policy can simply be summarized as “the government will not pay a ransom to a foreign terrorist organization in exchange for a civilian.”
Will the US State Department get involved?
Almost always, the answer is: NO.
The US Department of State (DOS) is a federal division of the US government responsible for advancing America’s foreign policy to promote the security and interests of the American people. The State Department represents the US at the United Nations and negotiates agreements and treaties with foreign entities.
Rescuing Americans is not within their wheelhouse or mission set, but there are a few things the DOS does to assist its citizens abroad.
What Does the US State Department Do in a Crisis
The actions taken by the DOS in an emergency depend on the nature of the crisis. In some cases, it might be in the form of US State Department travel warnings. A US State Department Travel Advisory provides information on the conditions in a country, including the high-risk areas, where to seek help, what to do in that situation, and lots more useful information. If a particular country poses a higher-than-usual security risk, it will usually feature on the US State Department Do Not Travel list.
If you’re traveling overseas, you can enroll in the Smart Traveler Program (STEP) to receive up-to-date security alerts in real-time. This information is also available on the US Embassy and Consulate website of the country you’re in or the main DOS Bureau of Consular Affairs website.
But, if you travel to a high-risk area and end up getting kidnapped, there’s not much the government can or will do to help you. This could be for any number of reasons, including armed conflict, ineffective local authority policies, the absence of a functioning government, poor governance, and so forth.
Moreover, in a country that does not maintain consular or diplomatic relations with the US, the government has no means of providing consular services to its citizens stranded abroad.
Even if you are a US government employee at a Consulate or Embassy, a US Embassy evacuation would only be possible if:
- There’s no commercial transportation available;
- Consular and embassy officers are present and available; and,
- The conditions permit.
Only then would the DOS try and identify the evacuation options available – such as repatriation flights – to rescue US citizens out of the crisis area. One need only to look at the evacuation of the US Embassy in Afghanistan in August 2021 to see that the DOS provides extremely limited assistance to rescue its own personnel who are stranded overseas.
Bottom Line
Will the US government rescue me in a different country? The short answer is – very unlikely. Your best bet would be to take security matters into your own hands by consulting with a security firm that specializes in high-risk private hostage rescue operations.
That way, if you’re traveling to a high-risk area, you can rest easy knowing that there are highly skilled hostage negotiators, elite extraction teams made up of former US Special Operators, and robust logistics and intelligence support on stand-by to rescue you and bring you home if you end up getting kidnapped and held hostage.
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