Syria rescue-mission operator believes Austin Tice is alive and will likely be discovered quickly

A hostage rescue operator in Syria provided a glimmer of vacation hope within the case of a lacking U.S. journalist, telling Fox Information Digital he believes Austin Tice is alive and is hopeful that he will likely be discovered quickly. 

Whereas refusing to reveal delicate particulars, Gray Bull Rescue’s Bryan Stern asserted that he has intelligence that leads him to imagine the 43-year-old Marine veteran and reporter who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 is alive, or at the very least was up till not too long ago. 

“I might say 100%, I might wager that he’s alive, or at the very least was as of two weeks in the past,” Stern advised Fox Information Digital from his resort room in Syria. “I might wager that he is being cared for and tended to,” he went on. 

“I additional submit that, he is findable,” he went on. “We don’t get well lifeless our bodies. To not say that we wouldn’t, however we’re a nonprofit, we wouldn’t be placing assets towards that, freezing to loss of life, lacking my fourth Christmas with my household, if I didn’t imagine he was alive and findable.” 

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Stern has been looking by means of prisons on the lookout for U.S. journalist Austin Tice. (Bryan Stern/Gray Bull Rescue )

Stern has led high-level rescue missions in a few of the most harmful corners of the world, together with Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Israel, Haiti, Lebanon and the U.S. throughout pure disasters. 

“Now we have finished 12 jailbreaks from Russia,” stated Stern. “That’s 12 greater than the CIA.”

The ousting of Bashar al-Assad and subsequent takeover of Syria by HTS has provided the Biden administration and Tice’s household a renewed sense of hope that the journalist might be discovered. 

“He may have died of a abdomen bug three years in the past. And we simply do not know. I do not assume that that is the case,” stated Stern. “I’ve no cause to imagine that that is the case. There’s not a single piece of knowledge, circumstantial or in any other case, that point out something close to that. The truth is, every part I’ve is counter to that.”

The Syrian authorities for greater than a decade refused to barter the discharge of Tice, who was kidnapped whereas reporting on the rebellion in opposition to the Assad regime throughout the early levels of the Syrian civil battle, which finally ended earlier this month after the Syrian president was ousted and fled to Moscow. 

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Stern Stern has led high-level rescue missions in a few of the most harmful corners of the world. (Bryan Stern/Gray Bull Rescue )

The temper in Syria is “cautiously completely satisfied” after a long time of brutal oppression, in line with Stern, and whereas the brand new governing power HTS is “not standing in the best way” of discovering Tice, they’re extra preoccupied with studying methods to govern than helping within the search efforts. 

The most certainly situation, in line with Stern, is that Tice is being detained in a house in a neighborhood, sorted by Assad-friendly Alawites, the identical department of Islam as the previous chief. Most of the nation’s prisons have now been searched or emptied and he would not imagine President Vladimir Putin would maintain Tice in Russia.

“The connection between Assad and Putin is considerably overblown. [Assad] has been there over two weeks they usually have not even seen one another,” stated Stern. 

“The Russians are like we do not want this downside, that’s an effective way to p— off soon-to-be-President Trump, I imply who was obsessive about the Austin Tice case years in the past.” 

Investigators imagine Tice escaped years in the past however was present in simply such a neighborhood in Damascus and thrown again in detainment. 

The State Division’s Rewards for Justice workplace is providing a $10 million reward for any data resulting in the discovering of Tice, however Stern stated he believes anybody with data is extra pushed by tribal loyalty than financial reward. 

The Gray Bull staff has pored by means of jail data on the lookout for Tice. (Bryan Stern/Gray Bull Rescue )

“Assad is residing the nice life within the tower in Moscow. However make no mistake, he nonetheless has attain within Syria,” stated Stern. “Half of the brand new authorities had been Assad guys final week.” 

“That tribal nexus plus the concern of Bashar Assad having the ability to attain out and contact folks nonetheless in Syria, why would they arrive ahead?” 

One other group working with Gray Bull asserted this week that they imagine Tice is alive. 

“Now we have knowledge that Austin is alive until January 2024, however the president of the U.S. stated in August that he’s alive, and we’re certain that he’s alive right this moment,” Nizar Zakka, president of Hostage Help Worldwide, stated Tuesday, in line with a number of stories.

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“We are attempting to be as clear as attainable and to share as a lot data as attainable.”

Zakka provided little proof to again up its statements produced from a press convention in Damascus, although he reportedly used a picture to show the places the place Tice was held from November 2017 to February 2024.

U.S. Hostage Help Worldwide has engaged with Tice’s household and U.S. authorities within the hunt for Tice, and the Biden administration has echoed a message of hope that Tice is alive, regardless of months of little phrase about his whereabouts.