President Donald Trump stated that the U.S. would proceed to seek for Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012.
Tice, who beforehand served as a captain within the Marine Corps and was a scholar at Georgetown College Regulation Middle, began working as an impartial journalist for McClatchy, The Washington Publish and different shops in Syria in Might 2012 earlier than jihadist militants seized him close to Damascus.
Trump stated that though there was “just about no signal” of Tice, his administration would proceed to attempt to safe Tice’s launch.
“Till we discover out one thing definitive, someway, we’ll by no means cease wanting,” Trump advised reporters Monday. “However we’ve been, and the response – it is simply a whole lot of useless ends. It has been performed for a very long time. The issue is, there’s by no means been a sighting.”
AUSTIN TICE: FBI RENEWS PUSH TO FIND KIDNAPPED AMERICAN JOURNALIST IN SYRIA
Freelance journalist Austin Tice went lacking in Syria in 2012 and has not been heard from since. (Fort Price Star-Telegram/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Pictures)
Trump’s feedback come after Tice’s mom, Debra, advised reporters on the Nationwide Press Membership in December that they’d acquired info suggesting that her son was nonetheless alive.
“Now we have from a big supply that has been vetted throughout our authorities: Austin Tice is alive,” his mom Debra Tice stated Dec. 6. She later met with former President Joe Biden’s Nationwide Safety Advisor, Jake Sullivan, on the White Home to debate her son’s wrongful detainment.
In the meantime, rebels additionally overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in December, prompting the FBI to subject a press release reiterating its push from April 2018 for extra info that would result in Tice’s launch.
“Given latest occasions in Syria, the FBI is renewing our name for info that would result in the protected location, restoration, and return of Austin Bennett Tice, who was detained in Damascus in August 2012,” the FBI stated in a press release in December.
AUSTIN TICE: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT AMERICAN JOURNALIST MISSING IN SYRIA
Debra Tice, mom of Austin Tice, speaks throughout a information convention updating the media about her eldest son’s situation because the household continues to push for his launch, on Dec. 6, 2024, on the Nationwide Press Membership in Washington. (AP Picture/Jacquelyn Martin)
“The FBI and our authorities companions stay dedicated to bringing Austin dwelling to his household, and we’re nonetheless providing a reward of as much as $1 million for info that results in Austin’s protected return,” the FBI stated.
Each Trump’s first administration and Biden’s administration have launched efforts to advance the discharge of Tice. Biden urged the Syrian authorities to launch Tice in 2020, and stated the U.S. knew “with certainty” that the Syrian regime was holding him hostage. Syria has publicly denied it has detained Tice.
There have been 46 American nationals identified to be held captive in 16 completely different international locations in 2024, in accordance with the nonprofit Foley Basis, which advocates for U.S. hostages and was named after James Foley, a U.S. journalist kidnapped whereas reporting in Syria in 2012 and killed by ISIS in 2014. That quantity is now probably nearer to the low 30s after the latest releases of hostages in January and February via efforts by the Trump administration.
Fox Information’ Michael Dorgan and Stephany Value contributed to this report.
