Find and free Austin Tice
If President Barack Obama wants to secure his legacy, he surely doesn’t want to leave any missing Americans behind in the Middle East.
Austin Tice disappeared in Syria in August 2012 while working as a freelance journalist for McClatchy and The Washington Post. Besides a brief video clip posted about six weeks later showing him with unknown gunmen, there have been no confirmed sightings.
Tice, now 34, is the only American reporter known to be held hostage anywhere in the world, according to Reporters Without Borders, which has a #FreeAustinTice campaign.
Journalism is an increasingly dangerous pursuit. The Committee to Protect Jounalists reports that 15 have been killed this year, mainly in war zones. Two were Syrian, three were Yemenis and two from India; two reported for National Public Radio.
At his final White House Correspondents Dinner in April, the president honored journalist Jason Rezaian, freed in January after 18 months in an Iranian prison. He also made a pledge “to fight for the release of American journalists held against their will.”
“We will not stop until they see the same freedom as Jason,” he declared.
He must keep that promise – yes, for the sake of Tice’s loved ones, but also for all of us. The free flow of information, especially from war zones, is a core American principle; terrorists and dictators would dearly love to destroy that flow.
Obama should listen closely to the parents of two American journalists and two aid workers who were taken hostage and killed by terrorists. They are living with what no parent should have to endure – the death of a child – and theirs were tortured and killed simply to gain worldwide media attention. They have raised their voices to help Tice and his parents.
“Our hearts are broken and our hope is that our government will do all it is able to bring Austin and all hostages home safely,” the parents of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller wrote in a lump-in-your-throat plea posted Wednesday on modbee.com and published today in The Modesto Bee and on other McClatchy websites. “No additional U.S. citizens should have to endure the silence of our country, with that silence filled only by the terrorists holding them.”
After families of hostages and others complained, Obama rightly ordered a new policy a year ago. While the U.S. doesn’t pay ransoms or swap prisoners – and shouldn’t – it no longer bans communications with those holding Americans and will no longer prosecute families who offer to pay ransoms.
This is a more humane policy, but as Reporters Without Borders says, administration officials “must show they are equal to the hopes they have raised.”
In their joint letter, the families say they are not asking the White House to put anyone in harm’s way or to compromise national security to rescue Tice. So it’s going to take the difficult and sensitive work of diplomacy.
While other American hostages were held by the Islamic State, it’s believed Tice is in the custody of loyalists of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. The Guardian reported last year the State Department said it was working with the Syrian regime and through Czech intermediaries. If Obama hasn’t done so already, his administration needs to talk directly to Assad about Tice.
Such diplomacy is always done quietly, so the president might not be able to say much publicly. But some assurances should be offered Tice’s parents that every effort is being made.
The U.S. Marine Corps prides itself on never leaving behind a fellow Marine. Austin Tice, who served in that corps, went willingly into harm’s way to help bring out the truth. We should not leave him behind.
This story was originally published June 22, 2016 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Find and free Austin Tice."