The mom of Austin Tice, an American journalist lacking in Syria for greater than a decade, mentioned Friday that she was assured her son was alive, citing info she mentioned had come from a “vital supply” that she didn’t establish however mentioned had been vetted by the U.S. authorities and handled as credible.
“He is being cared for and he’s effectively — we do know that,” Debra Tice mentioned.
Tice’s mom and different relations spoke at an occasion Friday following a White House assembly with nationwide safety officers that unfolded amid ongoing turmoil in Syria, as rebel fighters who’ve already captured the northern metropolis of Aleppo, the nation’s largest, are urgent their march in opposition to President Bashar Assad’s forces.
“The information we’re listening to from the Middle East is the form of factor that may unsettle a mother,” Debra Tice mentioned, later including, “When I take into consideration battle, I by no means have a cheerful second.”
Austin Tice’s sister, Naomi, mentioned she requested officers whether or not there was a approach to leverage the unrest to assist safe Austin’s freedom. “We have been principally simply instructed that we have to wait and see the way it pans out” — a response she mentioned could have been “comprehensible” however was “past irritating.”
Tice’s father, Marc, echoed that sentiment, noting that conferences this week with White House and State Department officers had devolved into finger-pointing and frustration.
“We have seen what actual dedication appears like. We’ve seen it in Russia. We’ve seen it in China, we have seen in Venezuela, we see it in Gaza,” he mentioned, referring to locations the place hostages have been launched in current months. “And we have but to see it for us.”
He, too, declined to discuss the knowledge pointing to his son being alive however mentioned, “We are assured that this info is recent. It indicated as late as earlier this yr that Austin is alive and being cared for. And we do hope to make as a lot of this public as we are able to.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Friday that the Tice household had met with Biden administration nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan, however mentioned she did not know specifics of what was mentioned.
“Austin Tice’s household, I can not even think about what they are going by way of,” she mentioned.
Tice, who’s from Houston and whose work had been printed by The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and different shops, disappeared in August 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested space west of Damascus.
A video launched weeks later confirmed him blindfolded and held by armed males and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. Syria has publicly denied that it was holding him.
In the ultimate months of the Trump administration, two U.S. officers — the federal government’s prime hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens, and Kash Patel, now Trump’s decide to steer the FBI — made a secret go to to Damascus to hunt info on Tice and different Americans who’ve disappeared in Syria.
It was the highest-level discuss in years between the U.S. and Assad’s authorities, although Syrian officers supplied no significant info on Tice.