American journalist and Marine veteran Austin Tice has been missing in Syria since August 2012. Recent CNN investigation reveals former Syrian official Bassam al-Hassan claims Assad ordered Tice execution in 2013, but he failed FBI polygraph test. Tice family reviewed declassified documents showing US had daily information about his detention.

#AustinTice #MissingJournalist #SyriaHostage #AustinTiceCase

American journalist and Marine veteran Austin Tice has been missing in Syria since August 2012. Recent CNN investigation reveals former Syrian official Bassam al-Hassan claims Assad ordered Tice execution in 2013, but he failed FBI polygraph test. Tice family reviewed declassified documents showing US had daily information about his detention.

#AustinTice #MissingJournalist #SyriaHostage #AustinTiceCase

Photo-shoot today at National Press Club: The Austin Tice hostage case, 13 years later. New developments in the Austin Tice case for the past year, from government, media, and intelligence sources.

More photos: https://technewslitphoto.smugmug.com/National-Press-Club-events/Austin-Tice-held-13-years

#Photography #NewsPhotography #AustinTice

Today marks 13 years since Houston freelance journalist and former U.S. Marine Austin Tice was abducted in Syria. His mother told the National Press Club, "My son is not dead. ... He is alive, and we will find him."

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/international/2025/08/14/528692/on-anniversary-of-austin-tices-abduction-debra-tice-cites-intelligence-he-was-alive-as-of-last-december/

#Houston #International #Local #News #AustinTice #DebraTice #PresidentBasharAlAssad #SyrianCivilWar #TrumpAdministration

On 13th anniversary of Austin Tice’s abduction in Syria, his mother says he’s alive and ‘we will find him’

Tice, a Houston journalist and former U.S. Marine, was abducted from a checkpoint near Damascus on Aug. 14, 2012, while covering the Syrian Civil War.

Houston Public Media
The effort failed: Fellow journalists covering #Syria immediately found the YouTube video suspicious, a clumsy attempt to pin #AustinTice’s abduction on Islamist militants or rebel forces. The #US agreed. An intelligence analysis indicated that it was shot near a regime facility.
Before long he began writing stories, too. #AustinTice's first dispatch published by The Post, from the town of Khan Sheikhoun, appeared on June 19. It provided a vivid account of the guerrilla warfare tactics deployed by rebels against #Assad’s forces. #Syria
The #Assad regime remained opaque and implacable until the end. As recently as 2023, a #Syria|n official received a message from Assad ahead of a meeting with #US officials, according to a person with knowledge of the event. The directive was simple: Do not talk about #AustinTice
Days later, #AustinTice made a desperate bid for freedom. He squeezed his body through the window of his cell and threw the towel over an exterior wall topped with shards of glass. A reporter known for his courage in covering #Syria’s brutal civil war and a Marine veteran.

A doctor close to #BassamHassan has also acknowledged treating #AustinTice.

Early in #Syria’s civil war, Hassan worked w/ #Iran to help establish a paramilitary force known as the National Defense Forces [#NDF], which received funding & training from Tehran. The NDF…was modeled after Iran’s #Basij, a plainclothes #militia under the umbrella of the Revolutionary Guards [#IRGC].

The BBC reported that Tice had been held by the NDF at one point.

#journalism #WarCorrespondence #Assad #WarCrimes

It was the best piece of evidence…that #Syria had…been holding #AustinTice, despite never acknowledging…[it] & failing to respond to diplomatic efforts to free him.

This month, BBC News reported it had obtained a trove of #intelligence files that showed he had been held in prison in Damascus. In interviews, a fmr Syrian general, Safwan Bahloul, said he had interrogated Tice, the first time any Syrian ofcl had disclosed having had contact w/ him.

#Assad #WarCrimes
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn84z5e8jjzo

Austin Tice: Secret files show missing US journalist was imprisoned by Syria

The BBC has uncovered top secret files that confirm Austin Tice was imprisoned by Syria's Assad regime.