Hostage Working Group was organized by the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...

at the US Embassy in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

in the summer of 2004 to monitor hostages in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. Reported as meeting "weekly to bring together officials from the ''FBI'', the Defense Department, the State Department and the Iraqi government. Officials do not publicly discuss the actions they can take against kidnappers
1
In an interview in the magazine, Talk Through, of the UK's Ministry of Defence Police, April/May 2005, PC Peter Anderson, who was working with the Hostage Working Group (HWG) describes himself as: "the only non-American in this 30-strong group." Erik Rye was identified as the director of the Hostage Working Group at the US Embassy in Baghdad in an editoria
3
in the International Herald Tribune on May 17, 2006. A statement issued September 7, 2006 by the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 ...

br>4
identified another group working out of the US Embassy in

, the Office of Hostage Affairs. It is unknown if this is a new group or an alternative name for the Hostage Working Group.

External links

Hostages of War

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be sai ...

, May 17, 2006
Fast Chat: 'She Came Home Alive'

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

, April 10, 2006
Job Description for the Coordinator of the Hostage Working Group
USAJobs.org, June 22, 2005
Talk Through (PDF)
The Magazine of the UK's Ministry of Defence Police, Living the Baghdad experience, May/April, 2005
U.S. Hostages Kept Low Profile In Ritzy Baghdad Neighborhood
Larry Kaplow,

Cox News Service CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company prim ...

, September 9, 2004
Victim's Tale...

, May 7, 2006
State Department Briefing
March 7, 2006

Australian Broadcasting Corporation March 5, 2005
The Missing

, March 13, 2006 Iraq War Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011) * Hostage taking {{Iraq-War-stub