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President Biden on Wednesday called on Syria to release American journalist and veteran Austin Tice, saying the US government knows “for sure” he is being held by the Syrian regime.
Tice, a United States Marine Corps veteran and originally from Houston, Texas, traveled to Syria in May 2012 as a freelance journalist before his senior year at Georgetown Law School. He was kidnapped at a checkpoint west of the Syrian capital Damascus in August 2012.
“We know for certain that he has been held by the Syrian regime,” Biden said Wednesday. “We have repeatedly asked the Syrian government to work with us so that we can bring Austin home. On the 10th anniversary of his kidnapping, I ask Syria to end this situation and help us bring him home.”
In this image from an undated video posted on YouTube, American freelance journalist Austin Tice, who had worked for American news outlets in Syria until his disappearance in August 2012, prays in Arabic and English while blindfolded in the presence of men. armed.
(Photo AP, File)
A 43-second video surfaced online about five weeks after Tice’s capture showing him surrounded by what his family described as an “unusual group of apparent jihadists.”
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Tice, who was blindfolded, muttered several times in the video “Oh Jesus”. She hasn’t heard from him since.
“The Tice family deserves answers and, more importantly, they deserve to be reunited quickly with Austin,” Biden said Wednesday. “We stay with the many loved ones in Austin and we will not rest until we bring Austin home.”
Debra Tice, mother of US journalist Austin Tice, reacts after a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon.
(REUTERS / Mohamed Azakir)
Tice’s parents pushed the Biden administration to engage diplomatically with the Syrian government to ensure their son’s release.
“He’s just an extraordinary man,” his mother, Debra Tice, told Fox & Friends First in May. “Eagle Scout, veteran, captain of the United States Marine Corps, graduate of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, and his favorite thing around the world is to be the oldest of our seven children.”
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Syria denied holding him, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Syria on Wednesday to “acknowledge the detention of Austin and any other US citizen held in Syria.”
“Presidential Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens will continue to engage with the Syrian government in close coordination with the White House, the fusion cell for hostage recovery and our team here at the State Department,” he said. Blinken.
