After prisoner swap with Russia, U.S. should press to free Austin Tice in Syria | Opinion
Austin Tice, a 31-year-old Marine veteran and freelance journalist working for McClatchy and other media outlets, was telling the world about the horrific Syrian civil war when he was taken prisoner at a checkpoint near Damascus 12 years ago today.
Since then, almost no information has surfaced about Tice’s fate, but President Joe Biden said on the 10th anniversary of the capture that the U.S. knows “with certainty” that the Syrian government is holding the missing journalist.
Now the president should move with certainty to bring Tice home.
The Biden administration has a strong record of working for the return of American hostages. On Aug. 1, the White House celebrated a prisoner swap that led to the return of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, among others. In 2022, another prisoner swap led to the release of basketball star Brittney Griner from Russian detention.
Clayton Weimers, director of the U.S. Bureau of Reporters Without Borders, praised Biden for the release of Gershkovich and Kurmasheva and said the administration should intensify its efforts to free Tice.
“Direct engagement with the Russian government worked for Evan and Alsu, and a similar approach could work for Austin, too,” Weimers said. “His continued unacknowledged detention sends a terrible message to journalists everywhere and emboldens press freedom’s adversaries with the knowledge that the U.S. has failed for 12 long years to free an American journalist from captivity.”
In his final year in office, Biden could add to his record of compassion by winning Tice’s release and celebrating his return with Tice’s parents, Debra and Marc Tice, who have sought to keep their son’s name before the public and keep obtaining his release as a U.S. priority.
Biden has met with Tice’s parents and praised their son in a statement as “an investigative journalist who put the truth above himself and traveled to Syria to show the world the real cost of war.”
In 2022, Biden directed members of his national security council to meet directly with Syrian government officials to negotiate for information about Tice and whatever terms would lead to his release. The U.S. government also has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Tice’s location, recovery and return.
On Wednesday, Biden said in a statement to McClatchy, “We stand in solidarity with Austin, his family, and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad. I will continue to do everything possible to advocate for and pursue his release and support his loved ones until he is safely returned home.”
Under President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian government is a brutal force in the Middle East that has tortured, gassed and killed its own people. But the Assad regime is as calculating as it is malicious. The U.S. can negotiate with it, offer incentives and use its international leverage. If the U.S. can strike a deal with the ruthless Russian President Vladimir Putin, it can do so with Assad.
It’s true that there is a danger in negotiating with terrorists. It can encourage more terror. But Tice’s case involves a foreign government. There is an opportunity for traditional diplomatic negotiations.
The last image of Tice was in a video that surfaced six weeks after his capture. It shows him blindfolded. Those who abducted him did not want him, or through him, the world to see what was happening in Syria.
Now the U.S. must stay focused on gaining his return. It has been 12 years. Find Austin Tice and bring him home.
