Austin Tice's family still awaits answers 10 years after disappearance

Ten years after American journalist Austin Tice went missing in Syria, his family is still Awaiting action from the US government. 

On 14 August 2012, Thais, a freelance journalist for several media outlets, including CBS News, The Washington Post and McClatchy, was kidnapped near Damascus while reporting on the Syrian civil war. , he is one of the longest held American hostages. 

A few weeks later he released a short video on YouTube and Facebook of supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad blindfolded by those who supposedly captured him. It showed Tais in anguish. That was the last time he was seen. 

No one has ever claimed responsibility for Tice's disappearance, but Tice's mother, Debra, said her son was still alive. I didn't doubt that. 

"I've never wavered, and I still haven't," she told CBS News in an interview earlier this week. There is no reason not to believe that you have plans to hold, dream, and walk free.”

She once again asked the U.S. government to do more to bring home her son, a Marine Corps veteran she described as having a "big laugh" and a "big personality." 113}

"The U.S. government has worked hard to convince me that they are working on this issue," she said. "My answer is this. Don't tell me. Show me." I met with the President. Debra Ticesaidthat at that meeting Biden told national security adviser Jake Sullivan and the National Security Council to meet with the Syrian government to "understand what they want." 

"The President of the United States said he would attend the meeting, listen, find out what they wanted, and work with them. I explained," Debra Tice told CBS News in an interview this week. 

Two Trump administration officials visited Syria two years ago and attempted to negotiate Thaïs' release, but officials The Syrian government has never taken him into custody or publicly admitted to knowing his whereabouts. A Syrian official told CBS News at the time that the Syrian government said it could not discuss hostages as long as US troops were in the country. Have you ever gone to buy a car and paid the sticker price?" Debra Tice explained, not understanding why the US didn't negotiate. , I was irritated when it never came back." Debra Tice also said, "I know that the US government has not contacted the Syrian government directly and requested a meeting."

But the Biden administration says otherwise.  A senior government official told his CBS News that the United States is "extensively engaged, either directly with Syrian officials or through third parties, to try to bring Austin home." 

"Unlike other situations in which Americans are being held abroad, for months the Syrian government has agreed to hold high-level meetings to discuss the Austin case. and has never admitted to having him in custody," the official said. "We will continue to pursue all avenues to secure Austin's release." The president openly called on Syria to come to the table in December 2018, although he did not disclose whether he had attempted to engage with the Syrian government. Wednesday statement.  

"We know for sure that he is being held by the Syrian regime," Biden said in a statement Wednesday. “We have repeatedly asked the Syrian government to work with us to bring Austin home. Now, on the 10th anniversary of his abduction, I am asking Syria to end this and bring him home. 

Secretary of State Antony Brinken said in a statement Wednesday that Presidential Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens said, "The Syrian government and

The FBI updated a call to seeking information on Tice's whereabouts and offered a $1 million reward.  {158

Debra Tice tries not to think about what her son's life was like. 

"We will always know he is a free man," she said. The wall of U.S. bureaucracy that left her family feeling helpless and her regret for not going to Damascus soon after Austin disappeared. 

"It really hurts."