Hostage Daughter’s Hopes Rise in Thousand Oaks for Alann Steen’s Release

Somewhere in the Middle East today, American hostage Alann Steen turns 51.

His daughter has tried to learn not to hope for too much in the 39 months since he was abducted by Islamic extremists, not to hope that they really will release him this time.

“Every time something comes up, I just get my hopes up,” said Jackie Steen Scardino, 29, of Thousand Oaks. “I just get really, really high on hope that something will come of it and then it just comes crashing down.”

Steen’s captors have made promises before, only to follow with silence.

This time, despite herself, Jackie Scardino felt the hope rise again.

The Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine announced Wednesday that one of three hostages, including Steen, would be released within 48 hours. The faction also demanded that Assistant Secretary of State John Kelly go to Damascus to discuss details.

But the United States refused to send Kelly and the 48 hours elapsed. As the weekend began, Steen’s release remained a possibility. But Jackie Scardino said she felt cheated and called the captors’ request that Kelly travel to Damascus harmless.

“I feel really frustrated with Bush. I don’t think he’s doing all he could be,” she said. “Maybe you can imagine what it’s like to be a captive for the first week, but imagine what it’s like for three years. That’s the message we’d like to send to President Bush, is to imagine what it’s like.”

Of the government’s refusal to negotiate with terrorists, Scardino’s husband, Chris Scardino, said cynically, “We never sell arms to them, either.” Sending Kelly wouldn’t be “giving into a demand, when so much was at stake,” he said.

Steen’s family has heard reports that he has been kept in a small room with three other hostages, with “no books and nothing to do mentally. I suppose he’d be going stir-crazy,” Jackie Scardino said.

She remembers the day her father was reported kidnaped: “I was very optimistic he’d be in there for a couple weeks and that our government would get him out because he was an American. And they haven’t done anything,” she said.

“People should think about it every day, and not just when we get news from the Middle East,” Chris Scardino said. “People should be more aware of it.”

As negotiations over Steen’s release stalled Friday, Jackie Scardino watched her 14-month-old son scamper after a fuzzy orange ball in Thousand Oaks.

Jordan Alann Scardino bears the name of the grandfather he has never met.

Jackie Scardino last saw her father’s face in a grainy video released by his captors two years ago. On Friday, she leafed through a book of snapshots with some friends.

“He doesn’t know I’m married, he doesn’t know my sister’s married, he doesn’t know he has a grandson,” Jackie Scardino said. “It’s very hard. I think about him every day, but I can’t let it get to me. There are times when it does. It’s just a feeling of helplessness.”