Abducted journalist confirmed ‘alive’
State Dept. statement is most declarative yet on Houston native’s six-year captivity in Syria
WASHINGTON — A top U.S. State Department official said Tuesday that Houston native Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who was abducted more than six years ago while covering the war in Syria, is still alive.
In the government’s most declarative statement on the case to date, Robert O’Brien, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, said investigators “have every reason to believe” Tice remains alive and captive in Syria.
“I want to make it very clear that the United States government believes Austin Tice is alive,” O’Brien told a gathering of journalists, academics, government officials and family gathered at the National Press Club to discuss Tice’s 2012 disappearance.
O’Brien declined to detail what proof the government has, or say who might be holding the 37-yearold journalist, a former Marine and student at the University of Houston who was working on a law degree at Georgetown University.
O’Brien speculated, however, that Tice’s relative youth and physical fitness as a Marine could help him survive the rigors of captivity.
“I’m sure that’s sustaining him,” O'Brien said.
Tice’s father, Marc Tice, noted that as of Tuesday his son had been in captivity for 2,282 days, a period during which the family has been outspoken in publicizing his plight internationally and exerting pressure on government officials to investigate his whereabouts and win his release.
Marc Tice and his wife Debra Tice are planning at least their seventh trip to the Middle East in search of a breakthrough tip or contact that could end the mystery of his disappearance, which has been variously attributed to either pro- or anti-government groups in the ongoing Syrian civil war.
“Every time we go, our desire is to bring Austin home. We continue our relentless effort to find the key that will open the door for Austin’s freedom,” his father said. “We know Austin longs to walk free. Austin urgently needs to be free. Maybe soon.”
Over the six years of Tice’s abduction, an estimated 192 journalists and aid workers have been killed in Syria, according to Margaux Ewen, North American director of Reporters Without Borders.
“Reporters are victims of violence by all parties,” she said, including the Syrian military and opposition groups such as the Islamic State.
Although O’Brien declined to say what regime or terrorist group is believed to be holding Tice, he twice mentioned the influence of Iran in Syria, which is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
“Pariah states like Iran, terrorist organizations around the world continue to take Americans hostage or unjustly detain them,” he said. “They do it because they believe they can extract some sort of concession from the United States, or that they can obtain political leverage over the United States. And I can tell you, that is not going to happen.”
O’Brien, who works with the families of American hostages around the world, emphasized that the Trump administration will not negotiate for any hostage’s release.
“The idea that we will somehow bargain for innocent Americans like they’re some sort of trinkets in a bazaar, is not going to happen,” he said.
At the same time, he said Tice’s case has involved the participation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and outgoing United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
“I can tell you that Ambassador Haley is engaged with her colleagues at the United Nations, with other governments that we believe may be able to bring influence to bear to help Austin,” he said. Bolton and Pompeo have both met with Tice’s parents and receive regular reports.
O’Brien also recognized the influence of Russia, which Obamaera Secretary of State John Kerry sought to employ to aid in Tice’s release.
“The Russians have tremendous influence in Syria,” that’s very clear, O’Brien said. “There are plenty of areas of disagreement between the United States and Russia at this time. One of the things that both Russia and the United States should agree on is that innocent Americans and innocent Russians, for that matter, should not be held hostage and not be held against their will. We continue to call on the Russians to exert whatever influence they can in Syria to bring Austin home ... It’s something the United States would be grateful for.”
O’Brien, a State Department official under former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice, said President Donald Trump remains dedicated to Tice’s release, though he has not been as vocal about it as in the cases of recently released prisoners in Turkey and North Korea.
“Each one of these cases is different, and we’ll bring different tools to bear at different times that we think will be most useful to bring the hostages home,” O’Brien said. “I can tell you that the president is aware and is briefed regularly on Austin’s case, and he wants Austin Tice back with his friends and family as soon as possible. At the appropriate time, if we felt it was helpful, the president would take whatever necessary measures he needs to to help facilitate that.”
Meanwhile, several major news organizations Tice worked with, including The McClatchy Company and The Washington Post, are collaborating with Reporters Without Borders to develop tips and champion Tice’s case.
Last April the FBI offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Tice’s release, an amount that the National Press Club and other news organizations are trying to double through a new promotional effort called “Night Out for Austin Tice.”
The plan is to encourage restaurants in the Washington area, where Tice studied before leaving for Syria, to take part in a revenue sharing deal on May 2.
“By talking about Austin, we are hoping to remind the public what a journalist is and what dangers a journalist can face when he’s trying to bring a story home,” said National Press Club President Andrea Edney.