Tice, a freelance reporter for various news organizations including CBS News, The Washington Post and McClatchy, was kidnapped near Damascus on August 14, 2012, while reporting on the Syrian civil war, making him one of the longest-held American hostages. A short video released weeks later on YouTube and the Facebook page of supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad showed a distressed Tice blindfolded by his apparent captors. That was the last time he was seen. Although no one ever claimed responsibility for his disappearance, Tice’s mother, Debra, never doubted that her son was still alive. “I never wavered. I’m not wavering now,” she told CBS News in an interview earlier this week. “There is no reason not to believe that he is waiting and hoping and dreaming and planning to walk free.” Freelance journalist Austin Tice disappeared in Syria in 2012 and has not been heard from since. Star-Telegram/Tribune Fort Worth News Service via Getty Images As she has done repeatedly over the past decade, she again called on the US government to do more to bring home her son – a Marine veteran whom she described as having “a great laugh” and a “great personality”. “The United States government has worked very hard to convince me that they are working on this,” he said. “My answer is: Don’t tell me. Show me”. Tice’s parents, Debra and Marc, met with President Biden at the White House in May after hours of calling for a presidential meeting. Debra Tice said at that meeting Mr. Biden directed his national security adviser Jake Sullivan and the National Security Council to meet with the Syrian government to “figure out what they want.” “The president of the United States said let’s meet, listen, find out what they want, work with them. He laid it out,” Debra Tice told CBS News in an interview this week. Two Trump administration officials traveled to Syria two years ago to try to negotiate Tice’s release, but the officials were unable to secure his freedom, and the Syrian government has never publicly acknowledged holding him captive or knowing his whereabouts. At the time, Syrian officials told CBS News that the Syrian government said there could be no discussion of hostages as long as US troops were in their country. “So you go buy a car, do you ever pay the sticker price?” said Debra Tice, explaining that she doesn’t understand why the US hasn’t negotiated. “It’s so disappointing to me. It was disappointing to me when they left after the first meeting and never came back.” Debra Tice also said, “I am aware that the United States government has not contacted the Syrian government directly to request a meeting.” But the Biden administration says that’s not the case. A senior administration official told CBS News that the US is “extensively engaged to try to bring Austin home, including directly with Syrian officials and through third parties.” “Unlike other situations where Americans are detained abroad, for many months, the Syrian government has not agreed to high-level meetings to discuss Austin’s case, nor has it ever acknowledged holding him,” the official said. “We will continue to pursue every avenue to secure Austin’s release.” The official did not say whether the US had tried to work with the Syrian government on Tice since his parents met with Mr Biden, but the president publicly invited Syria to come to the table in a statement on Wednesday.
“We know for certain that he was being held by the Syrian regime,” Mr. Biden said in a statement on Wednesday. “We have repeatedly asked the Syrian government to work with us so we can bring Austin home. On the tenth anniversary of his abduction, I am calling on Syria to stop this and help us bring him home.” Marc and Debra Tice, parents of US journalist Austin Tice who was kidnapped in Syria, hold respectively dated portraits of him during a press conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut on July 20, 2017. JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also said in a statement Wednesday that the President’s Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens “will continue to work with the Syrian government.” The FBI has renewed its appeal for information on Tice’s whereabouts and has offered a $1 million reward. Debra Tice says she tries not to think about what life was like for her son.
“The most important thing for us as a family is to keep the fact that we will never know him incarcerated. We will always know him as free,” she said. “I don’t think it’s productive to try to imagine something I can’t imagine.” She had a lot of time to think about the hurdles of the US bureaucracy that made her family feel helpless, as well as the regret that she didn’t go to Damascus immediately when Austin disappeared. “I’ve had 10 years to think about mistakes,” he said, “and it’s really painful.”

Caitlin Yellek

Caitlin Yilek is a digital producer for CBS News. Contact her at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter: