{"id":219970,"date":"2025-01-20T18:46:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T18:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/20\/mother-of-missing-u-s-journalist-asks-syrias-new-leaders-for-help\/"},"modified":"2025-01-20T18:46:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T18:46:04","slug":"mother-of-missing-u-s-journalist-asks-syrias-new-leaders-for-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/20\/mother-of-missing-u-s-journalist-asks-syrias-new-leaders-for-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother of Missing U.S. Journalist Asks Syria\u2019s New Leaders for Help"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/20\/multimedia\/20syria-tice-01-lvkz\/20syria-tice-01-lvkz-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Mother of Missing U.S. Journalist Asks Syria\u2019s New Leaders for Help\" title=\"Mother of Missing U.S. Journalist Asks Syria\u2019s New Leaders for Help\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The mother of Austin Tice, an American journalist abducted in Syria, said on Monday that she had met with Syria\u2019s new leader in Damascus and expressed hope that \u201ca page will be turned\u201d in the more than decade-long search for her son.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Debra Tice gave a news conference in Damascus on Monday after the meeting with Ahmed al-Shara, whose rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led the sudden offensive last month that toppled President Bashar al-Assad, ending more than 50 years of Assad family rule in Syria. Syria\u2019s state news agency also reported on the meeting, posting pictures of her in conversation with Mr. al-Shara at the presidential palace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Although she had no new information on her son\u2019s whereabouts, Ms. Tice, who arrived in Damascus on Saturday, said she felt optimistic that Syria\u2019s new rebel leaders would help her and Syrian families searching for loved ones still missing after being held in the old regime\u2019s notorious prisons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was so wonderful to learn that they are dedicated and determined to bring home my son and your sons,\u201d Ms. Tice said, addressing Syrians searching for missing<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>loved ones as well. \u201cThey know what we are going through.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Tice said that as far as she knew, her son was still being held captive, but the turmoil since Mr. al-Assad\u2019s ouster made it much more difficult to ascertain his whereabouts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s like starting all over again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Tice was kidnapped at a checkpoint in a suburb of Damascus in 2012. He appeared not long after in a video, blindfolded and held by masked men with assault rifles. Former U.S. officials said they believed that the video was a ploy by the government to blame rebels for his disappearance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Former and current U.S. officials have said they believe Mr. Tice managed to escape several weeks after his capture through a window of a prison cell, but was caught by Syrian intelligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Joe Biden said in December, after Mr. al-Assad\u2019s ouster, that U.S. officials believed Mr. Tice was still being held captive and hoped to bring him home, while adding that they had \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/dec\/09\/austin-tice-missing-us-journalist-syria-biden-hope-return\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">no direct evidence<\/a>\u201d about his status.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Officials in his administration spent years looking for Mr. Tice, including a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/assistant-secretary-leaf-special-presidential-envoy-carstens-and-senior-advisor-rubinsteins-travel-to-syria\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">visit to Damascus<\/a> in December by his special envoy on hostages. The White House also <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/18\/us\/politics\/austin-tice-missing-syria.html\" title=\"\">gave the rebel group a list<\/a> of former Syrian officials who might have knowledge about Mr. Tice, a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.austinticefamily.com\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">freelance journalist from Houston<\/a> who wrote for The Washington Post and other outlets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Ms. Tice has recently been critical of the Biden administration, saying it did not negotiate hard enough for her son\u2019s release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Tice said she felt hopeful about the incoming administration of Donald Trump. \u201cThings are going to change,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to that. His people have already reached out to me.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was Ms. Tice\u2019s first visit to Syria since 2015, when she met with officials of the Assad government, who never confirmed whether they held her son and later stopped issuing her visas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During her meeting with Mr. al-Shara, Ms. Tice said, he spoke to her of his own time in prison. In 2003, Mr. al-Shara joined Al Qaeda to fight the U.S. occupation of Iraq, where Mr. Tice once served as a Marine. Mr. al-Shara spent years in a U.S. prison in Iraq, according to Arab media accounts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After leading Al Qaeda\u2019s Syrian branch in the early days of the 13-year rebellion against Mr. al-Assad, Mr. al-Sharaa reformulated the group as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in 2017 and has sought to distance it from its Al Qaeda past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Former and current U.S. officials have said they believe Mr. Tice was held in several security-service detention facilities, including Branch 248 and Branch 215, both believed to be military intelligence sites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During her visit to Syria she visited both places, Ms. Tice said, describing them as an \u201cawful, terrible nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/20\/world\/middleeast\/syria-austin-tice-mother.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The mother of Austin Tice, an American journalist abducted in Syria, said on Monday that she had met with Syria\u2019s new leader in Damascus and expressed hope that \u201ca page will be turned\u201d in the more than decade-long search for her son. Debra Tice gave a news conference in Damascus on Monday after the meeting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/20\/multimedia\/20syria-tice-01-lvkz\/20syria-tice-01-lvkz-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[163200,163199,4047,7409,163198,3096,2901,6118,2694,69967,1004,19366,85109,20167,221,128437],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219972,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219970\/revisions\/219972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}