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President Donald Trump said the US will continue to search for Austin Teis, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012.
Previously captain of the Marine Corps and a student at Georgetown University Law Center, TICE began working as an independent journalist for McClatchy, Washington Post and other outlets before jihadist militants seized him near Damascus in May 2012.
Trump said there were “virtually no indications” for TICE, but he said his administration will continue to try to secure a TICE release.
“We’re never going to stop looking until we find something defining in some way,” Trump told reporters Monday. “But we are, and the reaction is – it’s a lot of dead ends. It’s been going on for a long time. The problem is, we haven’t seen it.”
Austin Teis: FBI updates push to find tempted American journalists in Syria
Freelance journalist Austin Teis went missing in Syria in 2012 and has not been heard since. (Fort Worth Star Telegram/Tribune News Service by Getty Images)
Trump’s comments were when Tice’s mother Debra told National Press Club reporters in December that she received information suggesting her son was still alive.
“We come from important sources vetted by the entire government. Austin Teis is alive,” his mother, Debra Teis, said on December 6th.
Meanwhile, the rebels overturned Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in December, urging the FBI to repeatedly push from April 2018, and to issue statements that could lead to the release of Tice.
“Given the recent events in Syria, the FBI is updating its call for information that could lead to a safe place, recovery and return of Austin Bennettice, who was detained in Damascus in August 2012,” the FBI said in a statement in December.
Austin Teis: What do you know about American journalists who went missing in Syria
Austin Teis’ mother, Debra Teiss, will speak in a media update about her eldest son’s condition as the family continues to seek release at the National Press Club in Washington on December 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jaclyn Martin)
“The FBI and our government partners continue to be committed to bringing Austin home to their families, offering up to $1 million in compensation for information that leads to Austin’s safe return,” the FBI said.
Both Trump’s first administration and the Biden administration have begun efforts to advance TICE’s release. Biden urged the Syrian government to release TICE in 2020, saying the US knew “certainly” that the Syrian regime was holding him hostage. Syria publicly denies it is being held.
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There were 46 Americans known to be taken prisoner in 16 different countries in 2024, named after US journalist James Foley, who was killed by ISIS in 2014 while defending US hostages and reporting in Syria in 2012.
Michael Dorgan and Stephany Price of Fox News contributed to this report.
Diana Stancy is a political reporter for Fox News Digital, covering the White House.
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