As rebel forces captured power in Syria, the United States government started an all-out search for one American: Austin Tice, an American journalist and Marine Corps veteran who was abducted just outside Damascus 12 years ago.
“They have personnel in the region using every source they can to try to get as much information,” Sen. Ben Cardin, the retiring chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “Particularly from the people who may have had contact with him.”
The State Department announced a $10 million reward this week for information leading to his recovery and possible relocation. The Syrian government has denied that they captured Tice for years.
Senators on both the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees were briefed on Tice’s situation Tuesday in a classified setting.
“I think I can reinforce the widely shared urgency about trying to find him,” Sen. Chris Coons told NOTUS, without divulging any specific information about the search for Tice.
“If a new leadership there wants to show a sign of good faith, that’s a great first,” Sen. Marco Rubio, who Donald Trump has nominated to be his secretary of state, told NOTUS.
Though some senators said they are still operating largely in the dark.
“I wouldn’t say hopeful, because we don’t have any information,” Cardin said. “But we think that there’s opportunities now to find out.”
The State Department said Monday that the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Roger Carstens, is in the region to try and facilitate Tice coming home.
“He is in Beirut to talk with people in the region, to talk with parties in the region, to collect information and to try to find out where Austin Tice is,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. “And get him home as soon as possible.”
On Monday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a CBS interview that the U.S. continues “to track who’s coming out of these prisons” on the ground in Syria, leveraging relationships in the region to get as much information as they can.
President Joe Biden said that the United States believes Tice is alive, though he acknowledged that there isn’t any “direct evidence” of Tice’s location or status. Multiple administrations have tried to track Tice’s whereabouts and keep his family updated on his condition.
“We think we can get him back,” Biden said.
Tice disappeared just outside Damascus at a checkpoint west of the city in 2012. He was in Syria as a freelance journalist. Since then, professional associations for journalists have highlighted Tice’s case. Tice’s name was among many honored at a recent awards ceremony by the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the USA.
His image, along with a host of other incarcerated journalists around the world, played on a loop out in the lobby of the National Press Club. Speaking at the club last Friday, Tice’s family said they still have hope for his safe recovery.
“Austin Tice is alive, Austin Tice is treated well, and there is no doubt about that,” Tice’s mother said, though she wouldn’t reveal the source of her information to reporters.
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.