America’s top hostage negotiator Roger Carstens has revealed how he uses “magicians” and the Bible to free people from the hellish prison of the “House of Dreams.”
Carstens, 59, is the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs responsible for recovering Americans who have been wrongfully detained or held captive by foreign governments and terrorist groups.
He is known as “Captain America” by the hostages’ families and works tirelessly to secure their release. telling Vanity Fair: ‘If this job became what it should be, we’d be in a full-time negotiation, drinking Red Bull and taking Adderall until the job was done.
So it’s no surprise that he finds the bureaucracy frustrating, saying, “Every day I have a Starbucks coffee at my desk and I’m wearing a suit and tie, and I think, This is total nonsense.”
In the last two years, he has secured the release of 19 Americans from Venezuelan prisons alone. But there are still about 40 more people detained in six countries around the world.
Roger Carstens, 59, is the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs responsible for recovering Americans who have been wrongfully detained or held hostage by foreign governments and terrorist groups.
Carstens grew up in a Christian family and is driven by a strong desire to help those less fortunate.
He joined the US military believing it was “the most successful human rights organization in history when it comes to freeing vulnerable people.”
After initially finding it difficult to fall into line (he served 158 punishment tours) for misconduct violations, Carstens quickly progressed through the ranks of the special forces, traveling to war zones on four different continents.
He then began his government work as deputy assistant secretary at the State Department.
He is now the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs with a 25-person team responsible for recovering Americans who have been wrongfully detained or held hostage by foreign governments and terrorist groups.
He told Vanity Fair: “The bottom line for my office and for this president and secretary of state is that if you have a blue passport and you are unjustly detained or taken hostage, your country will come looking for you.”
There are nearly 40 Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained in six different countries around the world.
Some of the most famous cases include Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges, and the five Americans believed to be alive in Gaza.
In December 2022, WNBA star Brittney Griner was released from Russia after being sentenced to nine years in a penal colony for possession of cannabis oil.
Carstens works with everyone from heads of state to clergy to aid workers to negotiate the release of American citizens.
He uses a variety of tactics, both direct and indirect, in his efforts to get them home.
He told Vanity Fair: ‘I pray a lot for the people who are detained. I also pray for the people who hold them.
‘In a second I will hold a dictator before God and say, “Lord, whatever this man is going through, please give him what he needs to free our citizens.”‘
In December 2022, WNBA star Brittney Griner was released from Russia after being sentenced to nine years in a penal colony for possession of cannabis oil; Carstens helped negotiate her release.
Carstens works closely with the victims’ families, flying to meet them and giving them his personal phone number to call at any time.
A quarter of the prisoners and hostages he works with are held in Venezuela in a prison known as the ‘House of Dreams’.
One man who was held there in 2022, Los Angeles Public Defender Eyvin Hernandez, described the prison as a place that “is meant to break you psychologically and spiritually.”
He added at the time: ‘The uncertainty, the isolation, the daily violations of human rights are taking their toll and are having the desired effect on us. Two people have already attempted suicide and one is on the verge of suicide.’
Another man, Osman Khan, whose release Carstens secured, told Vanity Fair of his time in prison: “One of the guys starts poking me with something. I was screaming and then I started feeling needles going through my body.
“They started electrocuting me. I fell to the ground and started vomiting. And the boys started making fun of me and made me eat my own vomit.
When Carstens secured the release of seven American citizens from prison, including Khan, in October 2022, Biden personally delivered the news to their families, saying: “They’ve been through a lot and we’ve been working like hell to make sure this happens.” .’
But Hernández had stayed behind and was still in the House of Dreams.
Carstens works closely with the victims’ families, flying to meet them and giving them his personal phone number to call at any time.
He works with everyone from heads of state to clergy to aid workers to negotiate the release of American citizens.
Carstens continued to work tirelessly for his release, employing every tactic he could think of.
He met with a “wizard,” a term he uses to describe an innovative, well-connected thinker who can find solutions to difficult questions.
He told Vanity Fair: “In the world of kings, magicians are the people beneath them who can come together, bridge the gaps between different positions, and start closing deals in a way that kings can’t.”
He turned to the Bible, telling Vanity Fair that when he goes to negotiate with “an adversary about trying to free an American, I will simply read, meditate, and pray to God.”
One of his favorite verses is Matthew 10:16, which he summarized like this: ‘Help me to be wise as a serpent, innocent as a dove, and please give me the words you want me to offer you at that moment.’
In December 2023, after months of negotiations, Carstens secured the release of Hernández.
In total, over the past two years, his team has recovered 19 Americans from the House of Dreams and other Venezuelan prisons.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken described Carstens in Vanity Fair as “unstoppable,” saying, “I have rarely, if ever, worked with someone who is so absolutely determined every morning to bring another American home.”
