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August 16, 2025 – Syria/USA –
At the National Press Club in Washington, the family of Austin Tice marked the thirteenth anniversary of his disappearance with new revelations from recently declassified intelligence. Tice, a freelance journalist and former Marine, vanished in Syria in 2012 while covering the conflict. His parents, Debra and Marc Tice, were granted access to raw intelligence files earlier this year by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The files, though heavily redacted and unverified, suggest that U.S. agencies received information almost daily about Tice’s captivity, including reports of his medical treatment for dental and stomach issues. This sharply contradicts years of official statements that little or no information was available about his fate.
Debra Tice declared that the government knew “almost every single day of Austin Tice’s detention,” urging continued efforts to secure his return. Despite speculation over the years, including claims from a former Syrian official that Tice was executed in 2013 on the orders of Bashar al-Assad, his family rejects these accounts. At the anniversary event, experts dismissed those claims, with Hostage Aid Worldwide’s Nizar Zakka stating that Assad would never order the killing of an American citizen.
According to the Marine Corps Times, the Tices spent two full days reviewing eight binders of accumulated intelligence. Kieran Ramsey, former director of the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, said bureaucracy within the U.S. government has been the greatest obstacle to bringing Tice home. He added that while proof of life has a very high evidentiary threshold, neither definitive evidence of life nor proof of death exists in Tice’s case.
Arab News reported that the family believes these documents prove U.S. agencies had close knowledge of Austin’s condition for years. Debra also repeated her long-standing claim that Syrian officials attempted to initiate his release by contacting then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012, a claim U.S. officials dispute since Damascus denied holding him. Following the fall of Assad’s regime in December 2024, the CIA issued a low-confidence assessment that Tice is likely dead, but his family insists otherwise. They remain steadfast that he is alive and that the government must prioritize bringing him home.
Reference –
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/14/austin-tice-13-anniversary-event/
