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President Donald Trump said that the United States will continue to search for Austin Tess, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012.
TICE, who was previously working as a leader in the Marine Corps and was a student at the Georgetown University Center for Law, began working as an independent journalist for Maklashi, Washington Post and other ports in Syria in May 2012 before the jihadist militants took him near Damascus.
Trump said that although there is no “sign” on TICE, his administration will continue to try to secure TICE.
“Until we discover something permanently, in one way or another, we will never stop searching,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “But we were, and the response – it’s just a lot of clogged parties. It has been done for a long time. The problem is that there was no vision.”
Austin Tess: The FBI renews the payment to find the kidnapped American journalist in Syria
Independent journalist Austin Tess lost in Syria in 2012 and has not been heard since then. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune via Getty Images)
Trump’s comments come after Tess’s mother, Dibra, told the National Press Club in December that they had received information indicating that her son was still alive.
“She was examined throughout our government:” Austin Tess is alive. “.
Meanwhile, the rebels also overthrew the regime of Syrian President Bashar al -Assad in December, prompting the FBI to issue a statement repeated from April 2018 for more information that might lead to the launch of TICE.
“Looking at the recent events in Syria, the FBI renews our invitation to obtain information that could lead to the safe site, recovery and the return of Austin Bennett Tess, who was arrested in Damascus in August 2012,” the FBI said in a statement in December.
Austin Tess: What do you know about the missing American journalist in Syria?
Dibera Tays, the mother of Austin Tess, is talking during a press conference, as she updated the media about the case of her older son as the family continues to release him, on December 6, 2024, at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquilyn Martin)
The FBI said: “The FBI and our government partners are still committed to bringing Austin to his family, and we are still providing a bonus of one million dollars to obtain information that leads to Austin’s safe return,” the FBI said.
Both Trump’s first administration and Biden have made efforts to enhance the TICE version. Biden urged the Syrian government to release Tess in 2020, and said that the United States knew “certainty” that the Syrian regime was holding a hostage. Syria has publicly denied that it had been detained.
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There were 46 American citizens known to have been resigned in 16 different countries in 2024, according to the non -profit Foley Foundation, which calls for hostages in the United States and was named after James Foley, an American journalist who was kidnapped during reporting in Syria in 2012 and was killed by ISIS in 2014.
Michael Durgan and Stephanie Price contributed to this report.