WASHINGTON — Final yr, administration officers briefed President Trump on a hostage whose case he has taken an curiosity in: Austin Tice, a former
WASHINGTON — Final yr, administration officers briefed President Trump on a hostage whose case he has taken an curiosity in: Austin Tice, a former Marine lacking in Syria. The C.I.A. pledged to ramp up efforts to be taught the place he’s being held and why Syria refuses to barter his launch.
The C.I.A.’s renewed deal with Mr. Tice, who was working as a journalist when he was captured in 2012, displays a broader push by the Trump administration to focus extra intently on Individuals being held hostage overseas.
The administration has helped free Individuals held in Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan and is making an attempt to win Mr. Tice’s freedom in addition to working to search out Mark R. Frerichs, a former Navy diver kidnapped final month in Afghanistan. The White Home desires him freed earlier than American troops go away the nation in a peace deal with the Taliban, an pressing deadline for the Pentagon and intelligence companies to find Mr. Frerichs.
Returning American hostages is Mr. Trump’s “high precedence,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated this week in an announcement marking the 13th anniversary of the disappearance inside Iran of Robert A. Levinson, a former F.B.I. agent and C.I.A. contractor.
For the American army, the C.I.A. and different intelligence companies, focusing extra on hostages is a approach to present an usually mercurial commander in chief that the federal government is responding to the priorities he has set. The appointment of the previous high envoy for hostage negotiations, Robert C. O’Brien, as nationwide safety adviser has additionally elevated the difficulty, and the Nationwide Counterterrorism Heart is main a assessment of hostage restoration efforts.
Mr. Trump’s curiosity in seeing American hostages introduced house is a mirrored image of his us-versus-them worldview that usually places overseas coverage points in stark phrases, a senior administration official stated, including that the president takes it personally when adversaries illegally detain Individuals.
Mr. Trump invited to the State of the Union the mother and father of Kayla Mueller, who was taken captive in August 2013 earlier than being killed by the Islamic State in early 2015. The army mission final yr to kill the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was named after Ms. Mueller’s birthday.
“America’s warriors by no means forgot Kayla — and neither will we,” Mr. Trump said during the address last month.
Earlier than the speech, Ms. Mueller’s mother and father got a tour of the White Home and met briefly with Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Additionally they spoke with each Mr. O’Brien and Kashyap Patel, then a senior counterterrorism official who was dealing with hostage points.
Whereas he was the hostage czar, Mr. O’Brien pushed onerous to determine a approach to free Mr. Tice. He cited the case to Ms. Mueller’s mother and father after they visited the White Home as one among a number of the administration was making an attempt to resolve.
Based mostly on a mosaic of intelligence, officers consider Mr. Tice, now 38, stays alive and is being held by the Syrian authorities, based on former and present officers. Questions stay about why the Syrian authorities has neither admitted to holding him within the almost eight years since he was kidnapped nor negotiated his launch, and why it has launched different Individuals who had been captured after him.
The Trump administration has pushed unsuccessfully to win Mr. Tice’s launch. Early in his 15-month tenure as C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo tried to set up back-channel talks with Ali Mamlouk, Syria’s highly effective intelligence chief who’s shut with President Bashar al-Assad. The trouble fizzled but in addition prompted considerations amongst some administration officers that the C.I.A.’s outreach might need left the mistaken impression with the Syrians that Mr. Tice was a spy.
In August 2018, the C.I.A. dispatched one other high senior company official with experience within the Center East to satisfy with Mr. Mamlouk in Damascus, former American officers stated. Through the assembly, the C.I.A. official introduced up Mr. Tice, the previous officers stated. What got here of the assembly will not be clear.
The administration has additionally tried with out success to have interaction each the United Arab Emirates and the Vatican to help with the Tice case. The Emiratis, who performed a key role in 2019 in liberating Danny Burch, an American oil employee who had been held hostage in Yemen, reopened its embassy in Damascus in 2018.
Because the hostage czar, Mr. O’Brien embraced the thought of touring to Damascus to barter with the Syrian authorities. Mr. Pompeo, now the secretary of state, nixed the proposal for safety causes, although some administration officers had been skeptical that Mr. O’Brien’s life would have been at risk. Different administration officers seen such a visit as a mistake as a result of a go to by a high-ranking American official may bolster the Assad authorities whereas most likely doing little to immediate it to launch Mr. Tice.
Mr. Tice’s household has sought to maintain public consideration on his case to stress the federal government to proceed working for his launch. Debra Tice, Mr….