Washington D.C. – NY Times, December 18, 2024
The White House has given the rebel group that toppled the Syrian government a list of former officials who might have knowledge about Austin Tice, an American journalist who was abducted in Damascus in 2012.
The list of names provided to the group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is short, officials said, because U.S. investigators believe that only a small group in the Assad government knows the details of the case.
The outreach to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization in 2014, reflects the Biden administration’s intense efforts to find out what happened to Mr. Tice and take advantage of the group’s willingness to help in the search.
Among the former Syrian officials on the list are Ali Mamlouk, a former head of Syria’s National Security Bureau intelligence service; Bassam al-Hassan, a close adviser to Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s ousted leader; and Hussam Luqa, a general who ran the General Intelligence Directorate, U.S. officials said.
