The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion Austin Tice is turning 40. Can this president finally bring him home?

A banner at the Newseum raises awareness about Austin Tice, a journalist who is being held hostage. (Kery Murakami/Kery Murakami/ Express)

Fred Ryan is publisher of The Post.

Aug. 11, 2012, seems like ages ago. President Barack Obama was in his first term, campaigning for reelection against Mitt Romney. Donald Trump was hosting “The Celebrity Apprentice,” and 15-year-old Simone Biles was a year away from making her international gymnastics debut. TikTok didn’t exist. Jorge Bergoglio was a cardinal in Buenos Aires, and few had ever heard the word “coronavirus.”

It was the last birthday Austin Tice celebrated as a free man.

Three days later, on Aug. 14, 2012, Tice — a young freelance journalist who had traveled to Syria to document that country’s ongoing conflict, including for The Post — was abducted at a roadside checkpoint on his way to Damascus. Video and information released since suggests that he is alive and being held captive by an armed group allied with the Syrian government.

In the 3,283 days since his capture, the world has clearly changed dramatically. But one thing has not: the United States’ obligation to bring Austin Tice safely home.

The United States should never stand by when dictatorships take our citizens hostage. But the offense is especially outrageous when the victims are journalists, who provide the information and perspective our democracy needs to function, often at great personal risk.

The offense is especially heartbreaking when the victim is a person like Austin, who has always embraced the ethos of service to others that distinguishes our finest citizens. He was an Eagle Scout who, during his decade as an infantryman in the Marine Corps, deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan, rising to the rank of captain before leaving for the reserves. He went on to study at Georgetown Law; during his final summer there, a time when many students pursue lucrative law-firm positions, Tice followed a different path. He wanted to use his unique skills and experiences to tell the world the devastating stories of a country riven by civil war. His courageous, groundbreaking journalism from Syria was honored with the prestigious George Polk Award.

Those who know and love Austin have done everything possible to secure his release. The past nine years have been especially agonizing for Austin’s parents, Marc and Debra Tice. They surely imagined in 2012 that, by Austin’s 40th birthday, he would have begun his law practice, married, started a family and continued serving the country he loves. The idea that he would have spent this entire time languishing at the hands of brutal captors in Syria would have filled them with horror — as it should all of us.

Our country should not — cannot — leave Austin Tice behind. Unfortunately, his plight has now extended into a third presidential administration. Obama was not able to free him. Trump was reportedly determined to bring Austin and other hostages home but was thwarted by obstacles that included his own bureaucracy.

Today, President Biden has an opening to succeed where his predecessors failed. From Syria’s point of view, a new negotiating partner can offer a fresh start. A new administration still in search of a Syria policy has a chance to place Tice’s return front and center.

The only route to a safe homecoming is if Biden makes himself the champion of Austin’s cause. It will not be light work: Anyone who has been involved in hostage negotiations can attest to the fact that they are extremely difficult and complicated. Success requires patience and sustained action. It requires creativity, openness to going beyond conventional diplomacy, and the willingness to enlist unusual partners and intermediaries. It requires engaging with counterparts who are often unscrupulous, at best.

In this particular case, it also involves weighing everything the United States wants out of Syria — an end to the devastating conflict, heinous human rights abuses, war crimes and oppression — alongside the prolonged suffering of Tice and his family. Each day that Tice remains detained, he and his family are joined in their suffering by the American people, who expect that our citizens captured abroad will not be abandoned to their fate and that our leaders will stand up for democratic values and a free press.

As the father of another young man who served his country with distinction, Biden can surely understand that whatever diplomatic challenges he faces pale against the unspeakable pain Tice’s parents have endured day after day, hoping against hope that our government can bring their beloved son home.

Turning 40 is a milestone in anyone’s life. In Austin Tice’s case, as he enters his 10th year of imprisonment, it means he has spent nearly a quarter of his life held hostage. It is now up to Biden to ensure that, before Austin’s next birthday, his family’s hopes of his safe return are fulfilled.

Help bring attention to the case of detained American journalist Austin Tice by wearing a #FreeAustinTice bracelet from The Washington Post Press Freedom Partnership, available for free in The Post store.

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