Parents of missing journalist call for reform in US handling of hostages

The parents of an American freelance journalist who is missing in Syria kicked up their campaign calling for his release and criticized the Obama administration’s current hostage policy.

Marc and Debra Tice of Houston said Thursday that they are taking part in meetings for a White House policy review on how to handle hostage cases. Their son, Austin Tice, has been missing since 2012 — 906 days, by his mother's count.

"After almost two and a half years ... we feel like we need to let everybody know that our son is missing — and will you please help us get him home?" Debra Tice said during a news conference at the National Press Club.

The family is advocating for a new U.S. policy that would provide a single point of accountability, responsible to the president, to pursue the safe return of hostages. They also are pushing the government to improve information sharing among government agencies and with families and to create protections for the hostages' interests and assets at home, such as online profiles, bank accounts and housing.

"It's appalling to us that no such entity currently exists in the United States government. There is no agency, no person solely committed to the singular objective of the safe return of the hostage. That has to change," said Debra Tice.

Their efforts come after Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and a failed secret mission by the U.S. military to rescue a number of Americans held hostage in Syria. ISIL has also beheaded a Japanese journalist, Kenji Goto.

Delphine Halgand, the U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders, said no one is asking for the U.S. to change its policy against paying ransoms for hostages. In fact, no ransom has been requested in the Austin Tice case, his family said.

Marc Tice said they were optimistic and hopeful when President Barack Obama ordered a review of the current U.S. hostage policy.

Austin Tice disappeared in August 2012 while covering the civil war in Syria. A former Marine who reported for The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers, The Associated Press, CBS and other outlets, he was one of the few journalists reporting from Damascus when he vanished. In 2012 he and the staff of McClatchy won the prestigious George W. Polk Award for war reporting.

The circumstances surrounding his disappearance are still a mystery. It's not clear what entity is holding him, but it is not believed to be ISIL or the Syrian government, the family said. His parents said they have been told by "credible sources" that Tice is alive and is being reasonably well treated and that they need to be patient.

"There's a general confidence that he will come home safely," Marc Tice said. "That's about as much detail as we have."

Debra Tice urged the State Department and the U.S. government to sit down and talk to the Syrian regime. She and Marc Tice have traveled to Beirut to meet with Syrian government officials.

"You know, and I know, and history tells us this conflict that we're in right now in Syria is going to end at a table, with pens, with people talking to each other," she said. "So, can we just not have one more dead body? Can we just cut to that today, now? Why not? Let's go there. Let's talk."

Wire services