Washington — The household of Austin Tice, the freelance journalist who was kidnapped in Syria greater than 12 years in the past, mentioned they’ve been instructed that he’s alive and nicely, and so they’re pissed off with the U.S. authorities’s incapability to deliver him house.
“We now have from a major supply that has already been vetted throughout our authorities, Austin Tice is alive, Austin Tice is handled nicely. And there’s no doubt about that,” Debra Tice, his mom, mentioned at a information convention on Friday on the Nationwide Press Membership.
She mentioned her son “is being cared for and he’s nicely.”
Tice, a Marine veteran and journalist who labored with a number of information organizations together with CBS Information, the Washington Publish and McClatchy, disappeared on Aug. 14, 2012, whereas he was reporting on the Syrian civil conflict. A brief video that appeared weeks afterward YouTube and Fb confirmed a distressed Tice blindfolded along with his obvious captors. It was the final time he was seen.
Nobody has ever claimed accountability for his disappearance, however President Biden has mentioned the U.S. is aware of “with certainty that he has been held by the Syrian regime.”
Fort Price Star-Telegram/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photographs
The household mentioned the U.S. authorities is stopping the discharge of details about the supply of Austin Tice’s well-being. However requested whether or not her son is being held by the Syrian authorities, Debra Tice mentioned, “We have all the time recognized that.”
Marc Tice, his father, mentioned the brand new data “may be very totally different” from previous leads.
“We’re assured that this data is contemporary. It signifies as late as earlier this 12 months that Austin is alive and being cared for,” he mentioned.
Debra Tice added that the data is credible as a result of “virtually each entity in the US authorities relating to safety has verified it.”
The lacking journalist’s dad and mom and siblings traveled to Washington for conferences with authorities officers this week as a Syrian insurgent offensive challenges Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The household mentioned the assembly has been within the works since July and was not prompted by the scenario in Syria.
They met with the Nationwide Safety Council, together with Mr. Biden’s nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan, on Friday earlier than their information convention. They met with the State Division on Thursday.
The household mentioned they requested whether or not the offensive in Syria could possibly be leveraged within the journalist’s favor and implored Sullivan for a dedication that Mr. Biden would attain out on to Assad. However the household didn’t obtain any assurances, they mentioned.
“There simply appears to be an enormous disconnect between what President Biden has dictated for Austin by way of doing every part that we are able to to deliver him house, after which the actions and the habits of the folks that sit just under him,” his brother Simon Tice mentioned.
Debra Tice expressed optimism in regards to the affect President-elect Donald Trump might have on the case when he takes workplace in January. She mentioned Trump, throughout his first time period, “had an obsession” along with her son and getting him house, however members of his administration put up roadblocks.
“Mike Pompeo and John Bolton did all they might to maintain that from taking place,” she mentioned of Trump’s CIA director-turned-secretary of state and nationwide safety adviser.
