WASHINGTON: The FBI will work to “zero out” the population of Americans detained or held hostage in foreign countries, Director Kash Patel said Thursday at a State Department ceremony honoring the hostage community and their families.
“My singular promise to you in this community is that I will do everything as the director of the FBI to marshal the resources necessary to make sure that no other American family feels that pain,” he said during the flag-raising event.
Patel spoke as the Trump administration is working to bring home Americans from multiple countries, including Russia and Venezuela. The government is also trying to secure the release of remaining American hostages held by Hamas, with Adam Boehler, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be special envoy for hostage affairs, leading direct talks with the militant group.
“We still don’t have everybody back,” Patel said. “Whatever lawful authorities we have at the FBI, we are going to give 24/7, 365 days to make sure that we zero out this number and to make sure we prevent others from going into situations that you are now all too familiar with.”
The FBI houses a multiagency fusion cell that handles hostage cases involving Americans in foreign countries. The State Department, meanwhile, relies on a special presidential envoy — the position for which Boehler has been tapped — to negotiate the release of Americans who are wrongfully detained.
“When the president asked me if there was any job that I thought that I wanted to focus on,” Boehler said Thursday, “I told him that this was the only one I would look at because I think there’s nothing more important for this country than for everyone to know that if they’re abroad and they’re taken, that the country has their back.”
The Trump administration last month returned home Marc Fogel, an American schoolteacher jailed in Russia on drug charges, as part of a prisoner swap.
FBI committed to bringing home American hostages held in foreign countries, director says
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FBI committed to bringing home American hostages held in foreign countries, director says
- Trump administration working to bring home Americans from multiple countries, including Russia and Venezuela
- US government also trying to secure the release of remaining American hostages held by Hamas
Cuba says a 5th person died after people on a Florida-flagged speedboat opened fire on soldiers
- Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops
- The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities
HAVANA: Cuba said a fifth person has died as a consequence of a fatal shootout last month involving a Florida-flagged speedboat that allegedly opened fire on soldiers in waters off the island nation’s north coast.
The island’s interior ministry said late Thursday in a statement that Roberto Álvarez Ávila died on March 4 as a result of his injuries. It added that the remaining injured detainees “continue to receive specialized medical care according to their health status.”
Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops. They said the passengers were armed Cubans living in the US who were trying to infiltrate the island and “unleash terrorism”. Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others.
“The statements made by the detainees themselves, together with a series of investigative procedures, reinforce the evidence against them,” the Cuban interior ministry said in its statement, adding that “new elements are being obtained that establish the involvement of other individuals based in the US”
Earlier this week, Cuba said it had filed terrorism charges against six suspects that were on the speedboat. The government unveiled items said to have been found on the boat, including a dozen high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.
Cuban authorities have provided few details about the shooting, but said the boat was roughly 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off the country’s north coast. They also provided the boat’s registration number, but The Associated Press was unable to readily verify the details because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.
The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities. The island’s economy was until recently largely kept economically afloat by Venezuela’s oil, which is now in doubt after a US military operation deposed then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
