WASHINGTON – Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth is asking the State Department to continue to try to negotiate the return of a Lombard, Illinois man who was believed to have been taken by Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan in January. The Senator wrote Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after what could be his last meetings with Taliban and Afghan officials who have been discussing a peace deal. The State Department principal deputy spokesperson Cale Brown said that “The United States will continue to do everything in our power to bring American hostages home.” Senator Duckworth said she was deeply concerned for 58-year-old Mark Frerichs health and that he may get left behind.
“We’ve been in negotiations with the Taliban, and part of those negotiations is for return of our hostages and to get Mark home to his family” the Senator said, “and now we are walking away from the table.”