DHS Avoids Details to Maintain NatSec

By Susan Jones

(CNSNews.com) – The United States must use “all of the tools at our disposal” to deal with the threat posed by Americans and other Westerners who go to Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS, a State Department official told Congress on Tuesday.

But so far, that does not include revoking the passports of U.S. citizens who have traveled to Syria to fight with ISIS.

“Has the State Department cancelled the passports of any U.S. citizens who have joined any terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq?” Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) asked Ambassador Robert Bradtke on Tuesday at a hearing of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.

“To my knowledge, the State Department has not cancelled any passports,” responded Bradtke, a senior adviser with the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism who was called out of retirement to focus on foreign fighters.

“As Secretary Kerry said, he does have the authority to revoke passports. And this is something we would only do in relatively rare and unique circumstances because of the importance for average Americans (to) have the freedom to travel,” Bradtke said.

“We would only do it also in consultations with law enforcement authorities. And we have not yet had any requests from law enforcement authorities to cancel the passports of ISIS or foreign fighters. So again, we have the authority; it is one tool; we do have other tools to use as well in this regard.”

A second government official told lawmakers that the no-fly list is one of those other tools:

“Congressman, if we have indications that someone on the no-fly list is trying to fly back to the United States, we would deny them boarding,” said Thomas Warrick, a deputy assistant secretary for counter-terrorism policy at the Department of Homeland Security.

“If someone shows up in the United States and there’s indications that that person has been a foreign fighter in Syria, it would be referred to the FBI, and then it would be a matter for law enforcement,” Warrick explained.

Video of hearing is below:

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/foreign-affairs-subcommittee-witness-says-us-has-not-cancelled-passports-any-foreign-fighters

“We would have the ability at the border to ask any questions that were necessary and appropriate; we would have the ability and the authority to inspect their luggage, inspect their personal possessions, in order to determine whether they were or were not a foreign fighter who had been fighting with ISIL. Anything like this, I can assure you, is taken extremely seriously.”

Later in the hearing, Warrick was asked what would happen if an Irish national, for example, tried to come to the U.S. after fighting with terrorists in Syria.

“Where somebody has been identified as a foreign fighter fighting for ISIL in Syria…they’re going to be in all likelihood on a no-fly list or another list of the U.S. government that is going to attract a great deal of attention before they’re allowed to get on board an airplane for the United States.”

But Warrick admitted that the no-fly list can’t guarantee that foreign fighters will be kept out of this country:

“Well, they wouldn’t be able to fly here,” he said. “The no-fly list obviously doesn’t apply to other modes of transportation. However, I can assure you that there are equal or equivalent measures in place so that somebody on the no-fly list is almost certainly not going to be allowed entry into the United States, if they come by cruise ship or if they fly to Canada, for example…and they were to try, let’s say, to come across the U.S.-Canadian border.”

No one mentioned the U.S.-Mexico border, which was overwhelmed by an influx of people from Central America just a few months ago.

Additional video of hearing is below:

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/dhs-witness-cant-guarantee-no-fly-list-will-keep-foreign-fighters-out-us

Warrick put the number of U.S. citizens fighting with ISIS/ISIL at “greater than a hundred,” and he said some of those returning fighters have been arrested on arrival in this country. He did not say how many have been arrested, but when it happens, he  said the returning fighters move from DHS purview to FBI purview.

Two Democrats on the subcommittee asked why the State Department has not hired its own expert on Islamic law.

“It is incredibly important that we get Islamic scholars, experts and jurists to issue rulings adverse to ISIS and favorable to the United States,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.).

“It is about time that the State Department hire its first Islamic legal expert to work full time on that — maybe a couple (of experts). And it is time that at least somebody be hired at the State Department, not because they went to a fancy American school or because they did well on the foreign service exam.”

Sherman said he’s been told that the State Department is relying on outsiders to provide expertise on Islamic law and issue statements that are favorable to the United States.

Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) said the Middle East is “unraveling,” posing “a threat to us and the West.”

“As the United States moves forward, it just seems that the State Department needs to be promoting leadership from within that has particular focus on this region, since that’s what we’re dealing with…I do think Mr. Sherman has a point, that longer term, the United States has got to get serious about this region and expertise in this region if we’re going to address the challenges we face.”

Shhh, But Obama Currently Hiring Amnesty Staff

Dec 03 2014

Discovered: Obama Admin Launches And Staffs New Facility In Virginia To Immediately Implement Executive Amnesty

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee and a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following comment today on a bulletin issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announcing a new facility in Crystal City, Virginia, with plans to hire 1,000 staff, in order to begin immediate implementation of the President’s wage-reducing amnesty and work authorization decree:

“It has just been discovered today that the Obama Administration is now opening a new USCIS facility in Crystal City, Virginia, for the purpose of immediately implementing the President’s imperial immigration decree. They are in the process of hiring 1,000 full-time staff to quickly approve applications for the President’s illegal amnesty, which will provide work permits, photo IDs, Social Security, and Medicare to illegal immigrants—all benefits rejected by Congress. This action will mean that American workers, their sons, their daughters, their parents, will now have to compete directly for jobs, wages, and benefits with millions of illegal immigrants.

This facility is a clear symbol of the President’s defiance of the American people, their laws, and their Constitution. He is hiring federal employees to carry out a directive that violates the laws Congress has passed in order to foist on the nation laws Congress has repeatedly refused to pass.

Some have suggested that implementing this amnesty would not have a financial cost, but this action unmistakably demonstrates otherwise. Moreover, the USCIS employees themselves have made plain that taxpayers will be on the hook, warning through their union that the agency is an ‘approval machine’ that will ‘rubber stamp’ applications for amnesty.

Year after year, our annual spending bills include numerous restrictions on how federal money can and cannot be spent. Congress funds programs that are worthy and does not fund programs it deems unworthy. The President cannot spend money unless the Congress approves it, and certainly the Congress should not approve funds for an illegal amnesty.

The American people need a voice. Why were we elected, if not to serve the citizens who sent us here?”

BACKGROUND:

You can view the bulletin here. Text is below:

USCIS Bulletin:

“USCIS is taking steps to open a new operational center in Crystal City, a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, to accommodate about 1,000 full-time, permanent federal and contract employees in a variety of positions and grade levels. The initial workload will include cases filed as a result of the executive actions on immigration announced on Nov. 20, 2014. Many job opportunities at the operational center will be announced in the coming days and please continue to monitor USAJOBS if you are interested.”

Sent : Monday, December 01, 2014 11:52 AM Eastern Standard Time
Subject : USCIS Today e-News 12-1-14
USCIS is taking steps to  
open a new operational center in Crystal City, a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, to accommodate about 1,000 full-time, permanent federal and contract employees in a variety of positions and grade levels. The initial workload will include cases filed as a result of the executive actions on immigration announced on Nov. 20, 2014. Many job opportunities at the operational center will be announced in the coming days and please continue to monitor USAJOBS if you are interested. Current vacancies include:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

‘The initial workload will include cases filed as a result of the executive actions on immigration announced on Nov. 20, 2014. Many job opportunities at the operational center will be announced in the coming days and please continue to monitor USAJOBS if you are interested.’

The bulletin lists 32 examples of job openings, each of which was posted online on November 21.

They include a chief of staff who will earn between $124,995 and $157,100 per year, and program analysts who will earn more than $138,000. Jobs earmarked for recent college graduates start in the range of $34,415 to $55,421.

The White House did not respond to a question about how far in advance the decision was made to open the hiring floodgates.

USCIS similarly did not respond to a request for comment about how long its plan had been in the works.

Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions blasted the administration on Wednesday for the move.

Meanwhile Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a federal lawsuit that involves the following states: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. More details here.

Sedition: Education and Media

C’mon parents, your children are being indoctrinated to Islam and Sharia in public schools and at university.  That is bad enough, but do you approve of seditionist infiltration on campus where you pay for tuition for classes taught by Marxists, Leninists and Communists?

Where is the FBI?

Former President Bill Clinton pushed back against the charge that President Obama and his fellow Democrats are card-carrying members of the Communist Party — telling supporters Monday that “nobody’s seen a communist in over a decade” and chastizing a freshman Republican for name-calling.

Invoking the specter of Communist-hunter Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Clinton blasted Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), who in April said that he could identify 80 members of the U.S. House who were Communists — pointing to a caucus of House liberals when pressed for evidence.

Where is the FBI?

Former President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary and hundreds in the Obama administration who full well there are communists in the federal government, at universities across the country and across all spectrums of media. Need more proof?

Well look at Ferguson, Missouri. Leftist organizers are using Ferguson to rehearse the Big Ugly

Scan the signage in the photos taken at Ferguson street protests across the nation and note that a handful of groups’ names reoccur.  Among them are REVCOM.US (Revolutionary Community Party USA , A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition (founded by the pro-Leninist Becker brothers and aligned with the Party for Socialism and Liberation), Peoples Power Assemblies, Socialist Worker.org, and the International Action Center (founded by Jimmy Carter’s former Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, in 1992). There are more.

Standing behind the signs are well-funded 501(c)(3) groups that receive millions of dollars every year through donations and foundation grants, and then allocate monies to promote social change.

It’s a one-two-three punch involving community organizers, supported by moneyed enablers, who marshal protesters to the street carrying signs with organizational ties most know nothing about.     

All of it is well-organized, well-executed, and well-funded by intelligent, well-rehearsed, highly-motivated, ideologically-driven zealots for fundamental transformation in America, and, for some, the world. It’s all perfectly legal.

Where is the FBI?

Where does the money come from that is financially supporting these groups and protests? Organizations that, in recent years, have received direct funding and assistance from George Soros and his Open Society Institute (OSI), For a complete list go here.

But there is more and you need to pay attention as the leadership of these groups get unfettered access to the White House and to media.

Where is the FBI? Who performed the background checks of these people and approved access?

This website did some good work as noted below.

If there were any more reasons Van Jones should step down or be fired. In 2006 he signed a petition by the Radical Black Panther Collective for Social Progress. The petition states, “resist so that we will not be crushed. Our resistance gives other people courage.”

Among the supporters, a who’s who of socialist/communistic organizations.

Individuals and Organizations

* Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), San Francisco
* American Civil Liberties Union, Sonoma County, CA
* Asians for Mumia/Jericho
* Association of Micro-Power Broadcasters
* Barrio Defense, San Jose, CA
* Bay Area Police Watch
* Philip Berg, Libertarian Candidate for Congress California District 8
* Berkeley Copwatch
* Geoffrey Blank, No Police State Coalition, NY
* Elombe Brath, Patrice Lumumba Coalition
* Mary Browne, Michael Randall Ealy Social Justice Foundation
* Caduceus Outreach Services
* Center for Constitutional Rights
* Center for Tactical Magic
* Communities United Against Police Brutality
* Chalice Farm
* Todd Chretien, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate
* Omowale Clay, December 12th Movement
* Coalition for Justice and Accountability, San Jose, CA
* Chris Daly, Supervisor for SF District 6
* Dan Dileva, October 22 Coalition Seattle affiliate
* Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party
* Jeremy Dreher
* Education Not Incarceration, Oakland, CA
* Samina Faheem Sundas, Executive Director of American Muslim Voice (for ID purpose only)
* Freedom Socialist Party, San Francisco
* Fr. Paul Gawlowski OFM Conv, Pastor, St. Paul of the Shipwreck Church, San Francisco
* Green Action
* Greenwood Earth Alliance
* Grey Panthers
* Guerrilla Wordfare
* HACKBLOC.org (Anarchy)
* Haitian Coalition for Justice, NY
* Marie Harrison, Candidate Supervisor for SF District 10
* Barry Hermanson, Green Party candidate for CA State Assembly
* Goldy Holmes
* Idriss Stelley Foundation, San Francisco, CA
* ISO (International Socialist Organization), San Francisco
* Van Jones and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
* Justice4Palestinians
* Krissie Keefer, Green Party candidate for Congress
* Jane Kim, President, San Francisco People’s Organization, Youth Organizer, Chinatown Community Development Center
* Richard Konda, Coalition for Justice and Accountability
* Larry Holmes, Troops Out Now Coalition
* Latinos for Mumia
* Dorinda Moreno, Hitec Aztec Communications, Elders of the 4 Colors 4 Directions
* National Jericho
* New Black Panther Party, New York Chapter
* Efia Nwangaza, African American Institute for Policy Studies and Planning
* NYC Jericho
* Party for Socialism & Liberation
* Pastors Against Injustice
* P.O.W.E.R. (Police Observers Working to Effect Reform), San Francisco
* Project Common Touch, Tommie Escargaza, Director
* Radical Women, NY
* San Francisco African American Community Policing Relations Board
* San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper
* San Francisco Code Pink
* San Francisco Faith Based Coalition, Rev. Ted Frazier
* San Francisco Peacemakers
* Alicia N. Schwartz, People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) (for ID purpose only)
* SEIU-Local 790
* Seven Generations Consulting
* O’Maly Sinclair
* Lynne Stewart, attorney, NY
* Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai, reporter for Environmental Medicine
* Celeste Taylor, Coordinator for Pittsburgh Oct. 22
* Tiny, Editor, Poor Magazine, San Francisco
* United for Peace and Justice
* United Playaz, Rudy Corpuz, SF SOMA
* Vox Populi Collective
* Mary Weaver, People’s Organization for Progress
* Wilson Riles
* Patricia St. Onge
* Oakland CAN (Community Action Network)
* Workers World

Where is the FBI?

Then in 1954 a law was passed title the Communist Control Act. The spirit of the law is to identify organizations and people attempting to overthrow the system of government including the Federal and State level. Sure in garden variety terms this has not happened, but when it comes to political correctness, edicts, mandates, enforcing law and prosecution, Communism is here and it is effective, as noted by meetings today in the White House and in towns such as Ferguson, Oakland, St. Louis and Chicago.

Where is the FBI? Where are you parents? Where is the top leadership at the Department of Education? Where is the leadership of universities and the donors?

 

 

Groups Behind Closing Gitmo

A few years ago, Marc Thiessen wrote a book titled Courting Disaster. The spirit of the book delivers proven evidence that interrogation of enemy combatants kept America safe and offered up more actionable knowledge in the terror networks globally. Thiessen provides names, organizations and lobby groups in full opposition of black sites and Guantanamo. One needs to understand all the moving parts before they offer criticism of decisions by the Bush administration.

So as Barack Obama entered the White House, his first move was to close Gitmo while almost 7 years later there are 140 detainees still there. The question is why? The team known to be the go-to operation to close Gitmo has also proven some success in getting terrorists released from the ‘other’ Gitmo, the prison(s) in Colorado that actually has more detainees than Gitmo.

These wars across the globe against terror networks involves hundreds of thousands of fighters, hence in begs the question, who no capture and interrogate? Is killing the via drone since all ground hostilities have been terminated effective? Terror cells have grown exponentially including al Nusra, Daesh, AQAP, Boko Harem and more. Their operating territory has expanded in the last 6 years as well.

Here are some facts that cannot be disputed.

If you knew who was behind “Close-Gitmo” push, you’d be shocked

On Saturday, January 11, a coalition of “Close-Gitmo” forces is expected to march on Washington to commemorate the 12th anniversary of detention and interrogation operations.

Though the march from the White House to the National Museum of American History is purportedly about advancing “human rights” and “stopping torture,” a closer look at the key participants reveals a more troubling, some might say hidden, agenda.

If more Americans knew who is behind this campaign, there would be nationwide outrage.

While everyone is for “human rights” and “stopping torture,” Americans should not be fooled by these false flags meant to damage U.S. power and prestige.

Dig a little deeper into who has been driving the anti-Gitmo disinformation campaign these past 12 years, and you will discover an international, fervently anti-American, far-left coalition attacking the nation through a savvy propaganda effort.

Just dig a little deeper into who has been driving the anti-Gitmo disinformation campaign these past 12 years, and we discover an international, fervently anti-American, far-left coalition attacking the nation through a savvy propaganda effort.

This includes those linked to Al Qaeda financiers, communist groups, anarchist movements – backed by sympathetic press and politicians.

Regrettably, it’s a coalition President Barack Obama has sided with in his priority to release as many Al Qaeda, Taliban and “affiliates” as humanly possible.

Let’s take a look at the key players:

Amnesty International. Along with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International was revealed as partner organization to Al Karama, a human rights non-profit run by Qatar’s Abdul Rahman Omeir Al-Naimi.

Al-Naimi was recently exposed by the U.S. Treasury Department in December 2013 as a long-term major financier of Al Qaeda.  According to an expose by Eli Lake in the Daily Beast, “Terrorists for Human Rights,” the Treasury Department’s designation said he, “oversaw the transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Al Qaeda and its affiliates in Iraq, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen over the last 11 years.”

Center for Constitutional Rights. CCR was founded by far-left civil rights lawyer William Kunstler in the 1960s, a man who told the press his goal was to “destroy society from within.”

Kunstler represented the “Chicago 7,” a group that was charged with conspiracy to start a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and later he defended domestic militant/terror groups like the Black Panthers, Weather Underground, and Attica Prison Rioters.

CCR is currently funded by groups like the “1848 Foundation,” named after the year Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto was published and revolutions swept through Europe.

Kunstler would be proud of CCR’s signature work over the past decade in coordinating the “Gitmo Bar Association” of 500 lawyers representing detainees.

Reprieve. A British organization led by blogger Andy Worthington, it pressures release of British citizens and residents.  Ethiopia’s Binyam Mohammed, a British resident, allegedly plotted to blow up high rise apartment buildings in the U.S. with a dirty bomb; Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, and Shafiq Rasul, a.k.a., the Tipton Three, ethnic Pakistanis went to fight for jihad in Afghanistan but were caught by the Northern Alliance in Nov. 2001; and Shaker Aamer, a Saudi citizen with British residence, alleged to have led a unit of Al Qaeda fighters in Tora Bora, and reportedly a former close associate of Usama Bin Laden, shoe-bomber Richard Reid and 20th hijacker, Zacharias Moussaoui.

World Can’t Wait. This organization is believed to have been founded by members and supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party & Anarchists. It organized at least 24,000 supporters during Iraq War, including actor Sean Penn and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

Jason Leopold. Leopold is a former Los Angeles Times investigative journalist with a checkered past.  According to Fox News media critic Howard Kurtz, writing in a 2005 Washington Post feature, “Leopold says he engaged in ‘lying, cheating and backstabbing,’ is a former cocaine addict, served time for grand larceny, repeatedly tried to kill himself and has battled mental illness his whole life.”

So these are the folks Mr. Obama and Democrats in Congress are trying to appease by releasing more Gitmo detainees?

Nearly half the current population of 155 may be freed under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014.

It would be comical if the stakes weren’t so high.

We’ve already seen Al Qaeda re-take Fallujah, site of the Iraq War’s bloodiest battles, just two years after Mr. Obama’s ordered withdrawal.  And Al Qaeda and/or “affiliates” killed our Ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi.

Speaking of which, a Fox News report this week by Catherine Herridge reveals that the State Dept. will finally designate ex-Gitmo detainee, Libya’s Sufian Bin Qumu, and his group, Ansar Al-Sharia as “foreign terrorist entities” for their roles in the Benghazi Consulate attack.

Does Mr. Obama really think it’s in America’s security interests to free more terrorists from Gitmo, nearly one-third of whom have already returned to terrorism?

The silent majority must take this opportunity to speak up. Preventing the next Al Qaeda attack may depend on it.

J.D. Gordon is a retired Navy Commander who served as a Pentagon spokesman in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2005-09. He serves as senior adviser to several Washington-based think tanks.

***

Military tribunals have proved excruciatingly slow and imprisonment at Guantánamo hugely costly — $800,000 per inmate a year, compared with $25,000 in federal prison.

The criminal justice system, meanwhile, has absorbed the surge of terrorism cases since 2001 without calamity, and without the international criticism that Guantánamo has attracted for holding prisoners without trial. A decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, an examination of how the prisons have handled the challenge of extremist violence reveals some striking facts:

Lengthy sentences. Terrorists who plotted to massacre Americans are likely to die in prison. Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in 2010, is serving a sentence of life without parole at the Supermax, as are Zacarias Moussaoui, a Qaeda operative arrested in 2001, and Mr. Reid, the shoe bomber, among others. But many inmates whose conduct fell far short of outright terrorism are serving sentences of a decade or more, the result of a calculated prevention strategy to sideline radicals well before they could initiate deadly plots.

¶ Special units. Since 2006, the Bureau of Prisons has moved many of those convicted in terrorism cases to two special units that severely restrict visits and phone calls. But in creating what are Muslim-dominated units, prison officials have inadvertently fostered a sense of solidarity and defiance, and set off a long-running legal dispute over limits on group prayer. Officials have warned in court filings about the danger of radicalization, but the Bureau of Prisons has nothing comparable to the deradicalization programs instituted in many countries.

¶ Quiet releases. More than 300 prisoners have completed their sentences and been freed since 2001. Their convictions involved not outright violence but “material support” for a terrorist group; financial or document fraud; weapons violations; and a range of other crimes. About half are foreign citizens and were deported; the Americans have blended into communities around the country, refusing news media interviews and avoiding attention.

About 40 percent of terrorism cases since the Sept. 11 attacks have relied on informants, by the count of the Center on Law and Security at New York University, which Ms. Greenberg headed until earlier this year. In such cases, the F.B.I. has trolled for radicals and then tested whether they were willing to plot mayhem — again, a pre-emptive strategy intended to ferret out potential terrorists. But in some cases prosecutors have been accused of overreaching.

Do we really want to close Gitmo? Do we really want to keep these terrorists in prisons around the homeland? They are quietly being released by the Justice Department while being radicalized still during their prison terms. Do you know where they are now?

FBI, Shameful Treatment

INTERIM REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S HANDLING OF KNOWN OR SUSPECTED TERRORISTS ADMITTED INTO THE FEDERAL WITNESS SECURITY PROGRAM

So why is that important? The Justice Department is protecting terrorists while they have lost others around the country. But when it comes to our own citizens that are part of the free press, doing their jobs in foreign countries and they get taken hostage then escape, the Justice Department offers no protections.

Below is a shameful display of a government agency known as the FBI. The FBI is worse than al Qaeda? You be the judge.

Former al-Qaida hostage recounts nightmare of dealing with FBI after his return

By Nancy A. Youssef

WASHINGTON — The only thing as bad as being tortured for months as a captive of jihadists in Syria was dealing with the U.S. government afterward, according to one former American hostage.

Matt Schrier, 36, a freelance photographer held by extremists for seven months in 2013 until he escaped, has told McClatchy that the bureaucracy he endured upon his return home was a second kind of nightmare following the months of abuse he suffered while he was a hostage.

“I never thought it would get this bad,” Schrier said.

The FBI never told his father that he had been kidnapped. It waited six months into his capture to produce a wanted poster, and only after his mother prodded. It allowed jihadist forces to empty his bank account — $17,000 — with purchases on eBay, even as the government warned hostage families not to pay ransom so as not to run afoul of anti-terrorism laws.

After his escape, the government made him reimburse the State Department $1,605 for his ticket home just weeks after he arrived in the United States. The psychiatrist assigned to help him readjust canceled five appointments in the first two months. And when he had no means to rent an apartment, FBI victims services recommended New York City homeless shelters.

The FBI declined to comment on the specifics of Schrier’s complaints but said in a statement that “When an American is detained illegally overseas, the FBI’s top priority is ensuring the safe return of that individual.”

“To that end,” the statement said, “the FBI provides support services to victims and their families, to include help in meeting short-term exigent needs, and shares information about their loved ones that is timely and appropriate.”

There is no way to independently confirm Schrier’s version of events, and emails he shared with McClatchy make it clear that his relationship with his FBI handlers was, at best, acrimonious. But his telling of his experience is consistent with the anger relatives of other hostages have expressed in interviews with McClatchy when speaking of their interactions with U.S. government officials.

“The next time the FBI calls me will be the first time,” said Schrier’s father, Jeffrey, 67, who lives in Coconut Creek, outside Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “I thank God my son was able to escape, because if he was waiting for the government to spring him he would still be waiting in that hellhole.”

Spurred by the recent beheadings of three Americans who had been held hostage in Syria by the Islamic State, the Obama administration earlier this month said it is reviewing the way government agencies handle hostages and their families.

But none of the families of those who have been killed or are still missing have been asked to be a part of the review, which White House spokesman Josh Earnest said last week had begun in August. Schrier and another American who was released told McClatchy that they too have not been contacted. Some families said the administration has yet to reply to a weeklong request to give their input to the review.

“How can you change a policy where there is not one?” Jeffrey Schrier asked. “If there had been a policy, on what planet would you not notify the kidnapped person’s father?”

National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey said the White House would have no comment.

Schrier’s complaints are a symptom of a bigger problem, the families say — a government approach to retrieving hostages that gets lost among several government agencies, none of which is tasked with doing everything possible to bring an American home.

The FBI generally is a family’s main point of contact because it is charged with investigating overseas crimes against Americans, but the State Department, intelligence community and the National Security Council all have roles. Often, the agencies don’t share what they learn with one another — or the families.

How aggressively a family pushes for a loved one often shapes the U.S. government’s approach, several families have told McClatchy. Many alleged that the government’s approach appeared to be to do the minimum possible to secure an American’s return and that a hostage’s release appeared to depend primarily on the goodwill of whoever is holding him.

Often families said they feared that their loved ones’ cases were seen more as a way for the U.S. to gather intelligence on the groups holding American citizens than on actually finding and freeing the hostages.

Schrier is among those making the accusation. “They use us,” he said. “They use journalists as chum to bring sharks to the surface.”

Such handling not only hurts the chances of getting hostages home but the subsequent investigation into the effects of the kidnapping, Schrier said.

In his case, his kidnappers used his debit card to buy things overseas. They also paid off his Discover card, he said, leading the FBI to suspect he had joined the extremists. Then they created a clone of the card, which someone used as recently as this summer in Garden City, N.Y. Schrier fears that portends an extremist sleeper cell in the United States, funded in part by a card in his name.

But he’s never received a call from the FBI, though he has called them repeatedly to report the misuse. “I am the victim and I have been shut out of the investigation,” Schrier said.

Schrier was entering Syria for the second time in December 2012 seeking to become a news photographer when he went missing. At the time, there was little indication in news accounts that al Qaida-affiliated rebels were a significant presence in northern Syria, making it appear relatively safe for Westerners to cover the war there, and so Schrier went. Instead, a group of kidnappers surrounded his taxi and snatched him. He eventually would fall under the control of the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria.

Back home, his mother called the authorities and reported her son missing. When the FBI arrived, she told them not to call his father as she was estranged from him and Schrier had not talked to him for years. They followed her wishes during the entire time he was a hostage, Schrier said.

Schrier’s mother did not realize at first that he was just one of several Americans being held hostage in Syria. When she realized there were other victims, she noticed that the FBI had created missing-person posters for the others, but not for her son. When she asked why, the FBI hurriedly posted one online, six months after her son’s disappearance, he said.

His mother also deferred to the FBI on how to get her son home. Every time she sought answers, however, the FBI gave her vague responses, Schrier said. They said, for example, that the government could not get into his email, but when she called AOL and explained the situation AOL gave her a temporary password. FBI agents made no mention of jihadists’ spending her son’s money.

She received poorly worded emails from her son’s account during his capture telling her he was all right. The agents told her they could not say whether he was writing the emails or still being held, Schrier said.

During his captivity, Schrier’s captors tortured him, whipping his feet repeatedly until he could not walk, giving him electric shocks and holding him in a dark room for extended periods, making it difficult for him to know how many days had passed.

He escaped through a window on July 29, 2013. Hours later, he met with American officials across the border in Turkey in what he thought would be a warm welcome home. Instead, the next day officials had him sign a document vowing to reimburse the State Department for his airfare back to the United States. He complied, as he said they told him it was only a formality. Less than a month later, officials said they would not help him get a new passport unless he paid.

The FBI’s Office of Victim Assistance is supposed to help American hostages who return home, but Schrier said that in his case it ignored his requests for help and valued him only as an intelligence source on jihadists in Syria. He briefed the office for weeks.

“I am the one who told the government that the (rebel) groups are fighting each other,” Schrier said. “I regret doing anything for them.”

With an al Qaida-affiliated group using his identity to make purchases, Schrier needed to get a new ID and Social Security number. It took five months for him to get a new identification card — and that was only after he cursed the agent who was supposed to help. He so far has not received a new Social Security number.

The FBI put him up in a hotel when he returned to the United States. But one month into his return, with his lack of valid identification contributing to his difficulty finding an apartment, the FBI suggested he move to a homeless shelter.

“I hear they are not that bad,” he said the victims assistance agent told him.

Schrier said his experience is a case study in how not to treat a hostage who’s returning to the United States.

“It is like a scam. I don’t understand what they do, victims services,” Schrier said. “The FBI has made it impossible for me to recover.”