Marc and Debra Tice talk to Roxana Saberi

Roxana Saberi: Tell me about your son Austin. He's the oldest of your seven children. What kind of guy is he?

Marc Tice: He's a fabulous guy. He's got a huge outgoing personality. We hear regularly from friends of his, people that we haven't met. He was 31 when he went to Syria.

I could tell from some of his writing, when he was reporting in Syria in 2012, and also some of the pictures he took, that he has this sense of empathy for other people. Some of the pictures include, for example, children who were being affected by the war. How concerned were you when he went there at that time?

Debra Tice: Of course we were concerned. He did everything he could to ease our minds, by staying in touch. Every day we would see either a tweet or a Facebook. Or he would email us directly. And so he was very careful about keeping us from being more concerned than needed, I would say.

Marc Tice: Well — and we also know because he told us — he prepared as well as he could. He started getting in touch with other journalists that had worked in conflict zones. He had good training and background in emergency first aid and that sort of thing. So he tried to put our minds at rest, I think, with the preparation that he did. But there wasn't really any chance of us changing his mind.

Debra Tice: No, that was never an option. 

Debra, you mentioned you would follow his tweets. And his last tweet was on Aug. 11, 2012.

Debra Tice: Right, his birthday.

It says: "Spent the day at an FSA [Free Syrian Army] pool party with music by @taylorswift13. They even brought me whiskey. Hands down, best birthday ever." What's the last contact that you had with Austin? 

Debra Tice: Well, for me, my last contact with him was on his birthday. I was getting ready to go canoeing in the Boundary Waters [on the Minnesota-Ontario border, which is absolutely no electricity, no phones or anything. And he and I had made that same trip 17 years prior. So, we were just emailing back and forth, you know, our amazing shared memories of that experience that we had together.

Marc Tice: My last communication with him was on the 13th, which is the last day that anyone heard directly from him. And a number of people did, a number of his friends did. That was kind of his routine. I guess he'd set aside a block of time, when he could, and contact friends and family. So we just [had a] really mundane Gchat exchange. "Hey, how are things going?" He had told us that he was planning on leaving the suburb of Damascus, where he was at that time. I think there was some communication about, "I may be out of touch for a little bit of time, as I'm traveling." He was planning on leaving and going to Lebanon. So that was the last that I communicated with him.

So that was Aug. 13 of 2012. And about a month and a half later, after he disappeared, a video surfaced online, showing him blindfolded. He was being shoved around by what appeared to be fighters, who knows from where? And he's saying, "Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus." What was your reaction when you saw that video?

Marc Tice: It was hard to watch. It was hard to watch, just because of the content and the scene. And honestly, it was hard for me. Someone alerted me to the fact that it was there. And this was late at night, so I watched it. And it was very hard for me to share that with Debbie because I knew it would be upsetting to her as well.

Debra Tice: You hadn't actually made that decision yet. And you know how you're the mom and just wake up when something's not as it should be? So I got out of bed and looked around. And Marc was in the living room looking very distraught. "What is it?" And he can't even speak to me. He doesn't even respond to me. He's just looking at me like he just doesn't even want to tell me. And then he finally does, and that's pretty much all I remember from that day — is just that moment that he told me about it. 

Marc Tice: It wasn't long before we took what we think is the real message of that video, which is the title of the video, "Austin Tice Is Alive."

Debra Tice: That's the only message of the video.

Marc Tice: Everything else about the video prompts more questions than gives answers. And so there's no point in speculating about who it was. They didn't identify themselves.

Debra Tice: And still haven't.

Marc Tice: And still haven't. Didn't give us any follow up. Didn't give us any means to contact anyone, anything like that. So rather than speculate about what does it mean, we take the meaning that is stated, Austin Tice is alive.

Some observers say that the video may have been staged. That it seemed like the production was very amateurish. The camera movements were shaky. Even those fighters seemed like they were acting. What is your thought about that?

Marc Tice: Well, like I say, I mean, you can read anything into it that you want to, I guess, based on your perspective or your knowledge of these things. That's a rabbit hole for us.

Debra Tice: The most important thing, it's absolutely Austin in the video. And he is alive. And we are working and praying and urging our government to do everything to get him home. Find him and get him home.

Marc Tice: We've been in touch directly and indirectly with Syrian government officials. We've asked them to do everything they can to find Austin, to return him to us safely. They've said they would do that. So we hold them to that commitment.

The video was released about two and a half years ago. Is that the last sign or the last images you've seen of him?

Debra Tice: Yes. 

What leads you to believe that Austin is still alive?

Debra Tice: We get messages from credible sources that we can never trace back to their origin. That Austin is alive. That he's safe. That we need to be patient. You know, he is coming home. It's just a matter of what is that process going to look like? So what we want now is for whoever is holding Austin to let us know what is the process that we need to engage to get him home.

So nobody has said, "We want a ransom" or "We want a prisoner swap" or "we want X or Y."

Marc Tice: No one has approached us in any way, frankly. So there's been no claim or responsibility and no request for any kind of negotiation or any process like that. But in addition to what the United States government has and is doing, in terms of diplomatically and trying to find out where he is and who holds him, we've been in contact with a number of people, and pretty much without exception, everyone that talks to us and that we've talked to tells us they believe he's alive. And they believe that he'll ultimately come home. We just want to start the process. We just want that to be tomorrow.

Debra Tice: Yesterday. Certainly not in the situation that Austin's in, but metaphorically, you know, our whole family is captive. And our lives are suspended. 

Marc Tice: I mean, that's true. But it brings up another point, that we've traveled to the region a couple of times. We've developed a lot of friendships and contacts. And we've also gotten a sense of exactly what it's like there because of this conflict. And it's humbling to us to see the millions of refugees. Yes, our whole family is also being held hostage. But there are untold families that are and have experienced things far, far worse. And so we're cognizant of that. We want all captives released. We want all the suffering to stop.

Debra, I want to go back to something you just said a little bit ago. That you're getting information from credible sources that Austin is alive. Can you tell me a little bit more about the sources? Are they in the Syrian government or out of the Syrian government?

Debre Tice: No.

You're not able to say?

Debra Tice: We're really not able.

Marc Tice: No, all I would say is that it's a number of different kinds of sources. People that we've been able to connect with or reached out to us. People that have no reason to lie to us, as far as we can tell. And again, they believe Austin is alive.

So you have no idea who is holding him or where he may be?

Debra Tice: No. I mean, I do believe that he's still in Syria. I do believe he's being held in Syria. But who is holding him? 

Marc Tice: No. I mean, there's no indication that he's being held by ISIS [an acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant] or any other extremist group. That being said, we can't say definitively anything. Because we just simply don't know. We haven't been contacted.

The State Department said in 2013 that it believed that the Syrian government had him in custody. What do you think is the likelihood of that?

Debra Tice: Well, if they have that information, they have our email and our phone number. And my name is Mom. We strongly encourage them to share that with us. If they believe that and there's a basis for that — even without clearance, we believe that we were vetted by God, as Austin's parents, to be entitled to that information, so we'd love to see it.

Marc Tice: Like Debbie said, we haven't seen any evidence to show that. And since then, that hasn't been something that's been repeated.

Debra Tice: No. And we have had direct communication from the Syrian government saying that he is not in any of their official detention facilities.

Do you believe them?

Debra Tice: I have no reason not to believe them.

This is maybe a difficult question to ask but how prepared are you for the possibility that Austin might not come back?

Debra Tice: We don't speculate.

Marc Tice: No reason to prepare for that. We're preparing for him to come home.

Debra Tice: We have everything to the extent that we can think of it, everything in order for him to come home. And we're just working and waiting.

Marc Tice: Looking forward to that challenge, whatever that is. To get him back to his life. And up and running again.

You might know a little bit about my background. I was imprisoned in Iran for 100 days in 2009, when I was living and working there as a journalist. I was talking to my parents the other day, and I asked them, "What was the hardest part?" And they told me the hardest part was when they didn't know where I was or if I was alive for about two weeks. And then they got a phone call. What's the hardest part for you?

Debra Tice: Waking up and realizing it's not a nightmare. The hardest part of every day. And feeling so disconnected from my own life is really hard. I really am just a mom. I do groceries and laundry and children. And so every single thing that has defined my life for the last two and a half years has been something completely unfamiliar to me. It's just extremely challenging. And I don't feel available to my other six children.

It might be hard to imagine what Austin is thinking right now. But I think it's pretty much universal that no child wants their parents to suffer because of them. And I was really moved by what Kayla Mueller, the American aid worker who died in early February in Syria while being held by ISIL, wrote in this letter to her family. She said, "If you could say I have suffered at all throughout this whole experience, it's only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through." Do you think Austin is feeling the same way?

Marc Tice: I was going to ask you about that — how you felt in your 100 days. Because we've spoken with a number of former hostages, some recent, some long ago. And pretty much without exception they've said that the thing that was worse for them was thinking about how their captivity was affecting their family and their friends. I expect that Austin is feeling the same thing. He's probably thinking, "Mom's going to kill me when I get home. She's going to be so mad at me for doing this."

It's hard to think — you talk about what's hard. It's hard to even think about what he might be thinking or what his days are like.

Kayla Mueller, she is one of at least four Americans who have died in Syria over the past several months. We've also had journalist James Foley, Steven Sotloff, another American aid worker, Peter Kassig. And Debra, I saw that you tweeted about Kayla Mueller after she died, "May Kayla rest in peace. Our hearts are breaking for the Mueller family." How hard has it been every time you hear news of another American dying in Syria?

Debra Tice: It pushes the edge of bearable. It's just such an overwhelming. You think about the kids and the suffering that they endured for such a long time. And then to have such a tragic end. And then, of course, you have the parents. And we all have joined our hearts. Hoping and working toward an entirely different outcome.

Have you been in touch with the other families?

Debra Tice: Yes. The family that we've really established a relationship with is the Foley family. But we've had contact with the other families as well. And we're all in this accidental journey together.

You just launched a campaign, the Free Austin Tice campaign, with Reporters Without Borders. And I have the blindfolds that you have been handing out. What does this signify?

Debra Tice: When journalists are targeted, when journalists are captive, we are all blindfolded. That's the message. Journalists have a special dispensation, by international treaty, by Geneva Convention. Journalists are set apart, and their safety should not be threatened, and their access and their ability to report should be in no way compromised. This is an international agreement recognizing the need to protect journalists. And when they're not protected we are blindfolded. We don't see our world clearly.

You're asking people to take pictures with themselves blindfolded.

Marc Tice: Right. Blindfold. Take a selfie.

Debra Tice: Take a selfie. Sign the petition asking our president to do all he can to bring Austin home.

What more would you like the president to do?

Debra Tice: We want him to engage diplomatically in dialogue with the Syrian government. Because our government has said they will do all they can to find Austin and bring him safely home. The Syrian government has told us the same thing. So what do we need? We need the line of communication between the two of them. We do not want a kinetic action or a rescue attempt or anyone's life put in danger. We want dialogue. That is what we want.

You recently wrote an op-ed saying that as the White House does its review of its hostage policy, it should involve the families of hostages and former hostages more than it is now. What are some of those suggestions that you have?

Marc Tice: The No. 1 suggestion is that someone needs to have responsibility, accountability and authority solely towards bringing hostages safely home. Right now, that really doesn't exist.

Debra Tice: Not that we're suggesting a new level of bureaucracy or anything like that. All of the resources are dedicated. So what needs to happen is just one entity that's already part of the process, that's already funded in the process, that's just not functioning efficiently and effectively — that a person be designated to have a singular objective toward the hostage. And then every decision is filtered through that singular objective. So the FBI doesn't get lost in a criminal investigation. So that State Department doesn't get lost in international policy. That this person continues to direct toward, yes, but how does that get them home soonest and safest. And just filters everything through that highest priority. 

I know a lot of people feel sympathy for Austin and others in his situation. But there are also some who say, "Well, why should the U.S. government be responsible for somebody who knowingly puts themselves at risk and goes to a dangerous place like Syria?" What do you say to them?

Marc Tice: A couple of things. One, I would ask them, "How do you know Syria's a dangerous place?" You know that because journalists have gone there and they've reported that. We've all seen that governments don't necessarily tell us all the bad stuff. It takes journalists, sometimes, to witness it and to share it so that we know what's going on. So if you don't think people should go in harm's way, then you're going to be blindfolded. The other thing is that, as Debbie mentioned, there is an established paradigm, internationally, among all nations that should be that journalists are free and are encouraged to go to dangerous places and share information. You know, foreign conflicts and that kind of thing. We have to be informed. And then secondly, it is an established function of government to protect its citizens regardless of circumstances.

If you could say anything now to the people who are holding Austin, what would it be?

Marc Tice: Well, it would be as long as you're holding him, take care of him and keep him safe and keep him healthy. I don't understand how anyone's benefiting from Austin being held. I would hope his captors would come to see that same thing and simply send him home to us.

If you could say anything to Austin right now, what would it be?

Debra Tice: Oh, my goodness. Well, of course, we always have to remind him how much we love him and how much we miss him and that he needs to stay strong. We are doing everything we can to bring him home as soon as possible. You don't give up, boy.

Marc Tice: Yes, don't give up. We love you, Austin. We know how strong you are. You should never forget how strong you are. And we'll see you soon, we hope.

This interview has been edited and condensed.