James W. Foley Legacy Foundation 2024 Bringing Americans Home Event on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON – On July 24, the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation will release the sixth annual edition of Bringing Americans Home, an independent research report that provides new information about the ongoing crisis of Americans taken hostage abroad by terrorists or wrongfully detained by nation states. In addition to data that convey the scale, scope, and recent trends of the crisis, the report highlights the lived experiences of family members of captives and of captives themselves – devastating realities that numbers alone cannot convey.

The Bringing Americans Home reports inform executive branch policymaking and congressional legislation. The research highlights where the government’s efforts are working and where changes could resolve cases more quickly, deter future hostage-taking, hold captors accountable for their crimes and support victims of a hostage-taking event.

The report will be released at an event featuring Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, Foley Foundation President and Founder Diane Foley, members of Congress, a former hostage, the husband of a detained journalist, and report author Cindy Loertscher.

DATE:  July 24

TIME:  10 AM – Noon (end time approximate); arrive by 9:30 AM to process through security

WHERE: Capitol Hill, Senate Visitors Center, Room 215

LIVESTREAM OPTION: After registering, the event may be viewed at bringingamericanshome.org

PROGRAM (subject to change):

Report Overview: author Cindy Loertscher

Panel Discussion: Experiences of Families of Americans Held Captive and Returned Captives

Jeff Woodke, formerly held hostage by JNIM in West Africa for over six years
Pavel Butorin, spouse of Alsu Kurmasheva, detained in Russia since October
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Sagui Dekel Chen, held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October
Diane Foley, President of the Foley Foundation and mother of conflict journalist James W. Foley, who was publicly killed by ISIS in August 2014
Cindy Loertscher, author of the Bringing Americans Home research series
Moderator: Peter Bergen, Vice President, Global Studies & Fellows, New America; Professor of Practice, Arizona State University

SPEHA Interview: U.S. Government Hostage Recoveries: Policy & Practice

Roger Carstens, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, State Department
Interviewer: Peter Bergen

Closing Remarks: Members of Congress

About the Event Partners

New America

Since 1999, New America has nurtured new voices and ideas to help solve complex public problems. Today we are a diverse community of policy experts, technologists, and social entrepreneurs, combining our core expertise in research, reporting, and analysis with new areas of coding, data science, and human-centered design to develop solutions to some of today’s most pressing challenges. Prizing its intellectual and ideological independence and diversity, the organization seeks to reflect and celebrate a new America.

McCain Institute at Arizona State University

The McCain Institute is a nonpartisan organization inspired by Senator John McCain and his family’s dedication to public service. Based in Washington, D.C., its programs defend democracy, advance human rights and freedom, and empower character-driven leaders. The Institute’s unique power to convene leaders across the global political spectrum enables it to make a real impact on the world’s most pressing challenges. With the goal of action, not talk, the Institute, like Senator McCain, is fighting to create a free, safe, and just world for all.

About the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation

The Foley Foundation was established the month after the brutal murder by ISIS of conflict journalist and humanitarian James “Jim” Foley in August 2014, with the firm conviction that the United States must prioritize the freedom of Americans unjustly held captive abroad over other policy considerations. Today, the Foundation seeks to inspire the moral courage needed to secure the freedom of Americans held captive unjustly abroad, prevent future hostage-taking, and promote journalist safety. The Foley Foundation connects families of those held hostage or wrongfully detained with the resources needed to endure their loved one’s captivity, and it supports these families’ public advocacy efforts to secure their freedom.

For more information or to learn how you can make an impact, please visit jamesfoleyfoundation.org or contact Amy Coyne at amy.coyne@jamesfoleyfoundation.org or +1 (800) 803-7010.

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