Ten years after American journalist Austin Tice went missing in Syria, his family is still waiting for the US government to take action.
Tice, a freelance journalist for CBS News, The Washington Post, and McClatchy, was abducted near Damascus on Aug. 14, 2012, while reporting on the Syrian civil war, becoming one of the longest held American captives.
A brief video posted on YouTube and the Facebook page of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad supporters shows a terrified Tice blindfolded with his alleged kidnappers. He has not been seen since.
Tice’s mother, Debra, has never believed that her son is still alive, despite the fact that no one has ever claimed responsibility for his abduction.
“I’ve never changed my mind. I’m not going back now, “In an interview with CBS News earlier this week, she said. “There’s no reason not to assume he’s hoping, dreaming, and preparing to go free.”
Austin Tice, a freelance writer, went missing in Syria in 2012 and has not been seen or heard from since.
She has consistently asked the US government to do more to bring her son, a Marine veteran with “a tremendous laugh” and a “large personality,” home, as she has done for the previous decade.
“The US administration has pushed very hard to persuade me that they are working on it,” she said. “Don’t tell me, is my reaction. Please demonstrate.”
Debra and Marc Tice, Tice’s parents, met with President Biden at the White House in May after protracted petitioning for a presidential visit. In that discussion, Mr. Biden entrusted his national security advisor Jake Sullivan and the National Security Council with “figuring out what they want,” according to Debra Tice.
“Get a meeting, listen, find out what they want, and work with them, stated the president of the United States. He drew it up, “In an interview with CBS News this week, Debra Tice said.
Two Trump administration officials came to Syria two years ago to attempt to negotiate Tice’s release, but they were unsuccessful, and the Syrian government has never officially acknowledged taking him hostage or knowing where he is. Syrian authorities informed CBS News at the time that the Syrian government claimed no conversation regarding captives could take place while US forces were in their country.
“I mean, when you walk into a car dealership, do you ever pay the sticker price?” Debra Tice said that she does not understand why the United States has not negotiated. “It irritates me greatly. It irritated me when they departed after the first meeting and never returned.” “I know that the United States administration has not sought out directly to the Syrian government to seek a meeting,” Debra Tice said.
However, the Biden administration claims that this is not the case. According to a senior administration source, the US “has engaged extensively in attempting to bring Austin home, both directly with Syrian authorities and via third parties.”
“Unlike in previous cases when Americans are arrested overseas, the Syrian government has refused to convene senior-level meetings to examine Austin’s issue for many months, and it has never acknowledged detaining him,” the person added. “We will continue to explore all possible avenues to secure Austin’s release.”
The source did not disclose whether the US had attempted to engage the Syrian government regarding Tice since his parents met with Mr. Biden, although the president publicly called on Syria to come to the table in a statement released Wednesday.
“We know for a fact that he is being imprisoned by the Syrian government,” Mr. Biden said in a statement on Wednesday. “We have frequently urged the Syrian government to collaborate with us in order to bring Austin home. On the tenth anniversary of his kidnapping, I am urging Syria to put a stop to this and assist us in bringing him home.”
Marc and Debra Tice, parents of American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria, hold dated photos of their son at a news conference in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 20, 2017.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens “will continue to communicate with the Syrian administration.”
The FBI has restarted its search for Tice’s location and has announced a $1 million reward.
Debra Tice says she tries not to think about what her son’s life has been like.
“The most important thing for us as a family is to remember that we will never see him imprisoned. We shall always remember him as a free man “She said. “I don’t believe trying to envision what I can’t conceive is useful.”
She’s had a lot of time to think about the constraints of US bureaucracy that have left her family feeling useless, as well as her sorrow that she didn’t travel to Damascus right away after Austin went missing.
“I’ve had ten years to reflect on my mistakes,” she remarked, “and it’s incredibly difficult.”