Washington D.C. – SpyTalk, August 02, 2024
While the Biden administration trumpeted the release Thursday of four Americans, a dozen Germans and one Russian-British dissident in one of the most complex prisoner swaps with Russia since the Cold War, U.S. officials were conspicuously silent about the fate of Austin Tice, the freelance journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012 while covering the civil war there.
Both National Security Council officials and the office of Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, did not respond to queries asking whether Tice’s release was included in the negotiations for the U.S.-Russia prisoner swap, which involved five different countries and were in the works for more than a year. Spokespersons for the congressional intelligence and foreign affairs committees also declined to comment on Tice’s situation.
Russia is a close ally of Syria, wielding considerable influence with its leader, President Bashar al-Assad, since the military assistance it provided him during the country’s civil war is widely credited with saving his regime, and arguably, his life.
But press freedom advocates took note of Tice’s absence from the list of Americans released by Russia , which included journalists Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal; Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British scribe whose work for The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year for commentary.
“We’re very grateful that there are journalists among those who are coming home, but we’re disappointed that Austin Tice was not among them,” said Bill McCarren, who recently stepped down after serving for 15 years as the executive director of the National Press Club and now works as a consultant on press freedom issues.
“Although we understand this was primarily a U.S.-Russia arrangement, there were many other nations involved,” he added in a phone interview. “We would also note that President Assad of Syria was in Russia just last week when this [prisoner swap] was all being planned. We hope that may mean there’s something in the future. We continue to press for Austin’s release.”
Mrs. Tice has argued the efforts of U.S. officials to gain her son’s release had “lost their strength,” adding the administration could negotiate without changing its policy toward Damascus. She noted the Biden administration had successfully conducted a prisoner swap with Russia for the release of American basketball player Brittany Griner without softening its policy toward Moscow.
But she also sounded a note of optimism, noting that during a brief audience with Biden at the White House at the end of April, she urged him to arrange another meeting with Syrian officials to pursue Austin’s release.
“He said, ‘I think that’s a good idea,’ so we’ll see where that goes,” she said.
