The concern I have is not that information gets transmitted to the families. Ambassador Fowler is quite correct that the families need to be informed of what's going on. However, when you're dealing particularly with terrorist hostage cases, there's intelligence involved, and the families are not necessarily cleared to receive that information. They might be under stress and information that could be prejudicial could be released, so there's a delicacy there in making information exchanges mandatory. There has to be discretion there.
On November 28th, 2024. See this statement in context.