US government’s top hostage negotiator defends prisoner swaps with foreign adversaries

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government’s top hostage negotiator is defending prisoner swaps that free Americans wrongfully detained by foreign countries in exchange for the release of convicted criminals. Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, denies that the swaps incentivize additional arrests of U.S. citizens. He told a House subcommittee on Thursday that the number of wrongfully detained Americans has gone down even as the Biden administration has proved willing to make deals with adversaries. Carstens says the deals are “always hard decisions” but that without them, detained Americans wouldn’t come home.