Debra Tice, the mom of journalist Austin Tice, who has been lacking since he was detained in Syria in 2012, advised NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday that seeing one other lacking American, Travis Timmerman, present in Damascus was “nearly like having a rehearsal … of what it’s going to essentially really feel like when it’s Austin strolling free.”
Despite preliminary studies on Wednesday that the American present in Damascus is perhaps Austin Tice, Debra Tice mentioned she knew immediately it wasn’t her son.
“My oldest daughter got here into my room at 4:25, and mentioned, ‘Mom, you realize, we have now this video. You want to have a look at it. We do not suppose it is Austin, however lots of people suppose it is Austin, so we would like you to look and see if it is Austin,'” Debra Tice recalled.
She added, “I took a look and I mentioned, ‘No, that isn’t Austin.'”
She described the quantity of people that reached out to the Tice household that day with congratulatory messages, believing that Timmerman was Austin Tice.
“It’s nearly like having a rehearsal, you realize? Just an inkling of what it may actually really feel like when it’s Austin strolling free,” Debra Tice advised moderator Kristen Welker.
Austin Tice first disappeared in 2012, when he was in Syria reporting on the nation’s civil battle.
Shortly after his disappearance, the U.S. State Department concluded that he was being held by the hostile Syrian authorities, one thing that former Syrian chief Bashar al-Assad denied for years.
In the times because the Assad regime toppled, hundreds of prisoners held captive beneath the previous chief have been freed by members of the family, however it’s nonetheless unclear the place Austin Tice was being held and whether or not he is been launched.
In the previous couple of weeks, one former prisoner advised NBC News that he was held captive in a cell throughout the corridor from Austin Tice and noticed him alive as lately as July of 2022.
NBC News can not independently confirm this account, however Debra Tice on Sunday mentioned that, “We had been in a position to confirm that he was” there in 2022.
The new management of Syria’s insurgent authorities blamed Assad for the ache inflicted on Austin Tice’s household earlier this month. A spokesperson for the federal government claimed that they had been making an attempt to find Tice however have up to now had no luck.
“We tried as a lot as potential to search out details about Austin and return him to his mom, however we have now not reached any outcome,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Even although her son hasn’t been positioned but, Debra Tice mentioned she remained hopeful he can be discovered and mentioned her household shares “pleasure” with the Timmerman household.
“The approach that I’ve been feeling in regards to the folks that I see popping out and even Travis — you realize that feeling, the place as people, we share pleasure, proper? We share struggling too, however we share pleasure. And so simply seeing these households reunited — take into consideration Travis’ household being reunited with him — you realize, what unbelievable pleasure, and we will share that,” Debra Tice advised Welker.
Last weekend, after he addressed reporters on the White House, President Joe Biden mentioned he believed Austin Tice was nonetheless alive.
“We consider he’s alive. We suppose we will get him again, however we have now no direct proof of that but. And Assad must be held accountable,” Biden mentioned, including, “We wish to get him out. We must establish the place he’s.”