“Tomorrow we will release the report,” Earnest said. “It will also include a presidential policy directive as well as an executive order that the president will sign.”
The spokesperson said the goal of the review was to ensure that the United States better integrates government assets used to safely recover US citizens who are being held hostage.
“We also wanted to improve the process of communicating with families who have loved ones who are going through this terrible situation,” Earnest added.
Earlier on Tuesday, local media reported that the US government will stop threatening families of US captives abroad who try to pay ransom to the hostage takers.
The White House said, however, that Washington would not pay ransoms for US citizens held hostage overseas despite the policy review.
“To offer concessions to terrorists, only does allow them to more effectively fund their operations, but also makes American citizens around the globe an even more significant target than they already are,” Earnest argued.
In April, Earnest announced that the US government is in the process of creating an interagency “fusion cell” that would deal with securing the return of US hostages. The cell would be comprised of US federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Defense and State as well as other agencies in the intelligence community.
