Special envoy searches for American journalist held in Syria

With Syria in the throes of the Assad regime collapse, the Biden administration is working to locate Austin Tice, an American freelance journalist abducted in Syria a dozen years ago.

Though they have no concrete evidence that Tice is still alive, special envoy for hostages Roger Carstens has traveled to Beirut to coordinate efforts to find Tice, senior U.S. officials said.

“Roger’s approach ... [is] to leave no stone unturned, to gather information from wherever he can, and press anyone who is willing to take action to get American citizens home,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday. “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 and get him home as soon as possible.”

“We are all in,” said one senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. “There’s a hope that this will be one shining thing in the heart of so much disaster.”

Biden, speaking from the White House on Sunday, expressed hope. “We believe he’s alive,” he said, then quickly acknowledged “but we have no direct evidence for that yet.” Nonetheless, he said, “we think we can get him back.”

Carstens, who was appointed in 2020 by President Donald Trump, arrived Monday in Beirut.

The Tice family on Friday held a news conference in Washington to appeal to the Biden administration to do more to find Austin. Debra Tice, Austin’s mother, said “a significant source” had relayed intelligence that “Austin Tice is alive” and being “treated well.”

U.S. officials said they have no confirmed intelligence that Tice is alive.

The Tice family met with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken along with other administration officials last week. U.S. officials say that they have tried as hard as they can to locate the missing journalist and that they have not given up.

“They may have thought of a lot of things,” Austin’s father, Marc Tice, said at the news conference. “But very little has actually been done.”

There is no U.S. military component in the search for Tice, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.

The more “permissive” environment following the Assad regime’s fall have led to the renewed effort to find Tice, several senior U.S. officials told The Washington Post.

There have been a number of unverified reports over the years - including as recent as several months ago - that Tice is alive, perhaps being held in Iranian-controlled facilities. But the information was never confirmed.

“It appears to me that at least a couple of reports are circular,” said the senior administration official.