Collapse of Syria’s Assad regime renews US push to find Austin Tice

The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria over the weekend has brought a renewed effort by the Biden administration to find American journalist and Marine veteran Austin Tice and bring him home. 

An immense push to return Tice, who was abducted in Syria 12 years ago, has been initiated as hostage-affairs envoy Roger Carstens has begun outreach in Beirut, and efforts to engage with sources in Syria to gain information on Tice's whereabouts have begun, according to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

"There are intensive efforts underway by the United States to find Austin Tice and bring him home to his family," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday evening. "We encourage anyone who has information about Austin’s whereabouts to contact the FBI immediately." 

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Miller pointed to the FBI's reward program offering up to $1 million for anyone with credible information pertaining to Tice and his safe return.

The State Department's Rewards for Justice program is also offering up to $10 million for information about Tice's whereabouts. 

"As Secretary [of State] Blinken has said directly to Austin’s family – including in the past few days – we will not rest until he is returned home safely to his loved ones," the spokesman confirmed.

Similarly, Sullivan told ABC’s "Good Morning America" on Monday that the U.S. was also working with partners in Turkey to communicate with people in Syria who may have information to help locate the prison where he may be being held.

"This is a top priority for us," Sullivan said. 

Tice was 31 years old when he was detained in Damascus in August 2012 while reporting on the uprising against the Assad regime, which marked the early stages of the Syrian civil war, and ultimately ended with Assad’s ousting on Sunday after rebels seized the capital city.

The Tice family has said they believe he is still alive, and reports have suggested the U.S. has received intermittent information pertaining to his whereabouts, though one official told Reuters the credibility of this information has been difficult to verify.

The U.S. reportedly received information over the summer from a Lebanese source who claimed they saw Tice alive and said he was believed to be held captive by a group connected with Hezbollah, a former U.S. official familiar with the intelligence told Reuters. 

In 2020, President Biden issued a statement that said he knew "with certainty" that the Assad regime was responsible for Tice’s imprisonment and demanded they release him. 

The regime responded by claiming it neither abducted nor held the American journalist. 

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The U.S. has reportedly engaged in back-channel talks with Syria with the help of Lebanese intermediaries for years, including under the Biden administration, though to no avail.

Syrian officials apparently refused to engage in talks regarding the release of Tice and offered only proof-of-life information if the U.S. would meet its demands, like the withdrawal of its forces from the country. 

The last communication the Biden administration reportedly had with Syria regarding Tice was one month prior to the fall of Aleppo, which fell to rebel forces in late November.

Since the demise of Hezbollah following Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, along with Russia and Iran’s inability to once again back the Assad regime, and the subsequent rebel takeover of the country, tens of thousands of captives held in Syria’s notoriously brutal prisons have been released. 

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The infamous Saydnaya military prison, dubbed the "human slaughterhouse" where torture, disease, starvation and secret executions were common, was liberated on Sunday by the rebels who smashed open cells where they found men, women and children held, reported The Associated Press.

Prisoners in cities including Aleppo, Homs, Hama as well as Damascus have been freed, giving new hope to relatives who have not seen family members held in these prisons for years.

In a Saturday address, Biden expressed some hope regarding Tice and said, "We believe he’s alive. We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence to that yet."

"We have to identify where he is," the president added.