A hostage rescue operator in Syria presented a gleam of diversion hope on the subject of a lacking U.S. journalist, telling Fox Information Virtual he believes Austin Tice is alive and is hopeful that he’s going to be discovered quickly.
Date refusing to disclose delicate main points, Gray Bull Rescue’s Bryan Stern asserted that he has logic that leads him to imagine the 43-year-old Marine veteran and reporter who used to be abducted in Syria in 2012 is alive, or no less than used to be up till just lately.
“I’d say 100%, I’d bet that he is alive, or no less than used to be as of 2 weeks in the past,” Stern instructed Fox Information Virtual from his resort room in Syria. “I would bet that he’s being cared for and tended to,” he went on.
“I further submit that, he’s findable,” he went on. “We don’t recover dead bodies. Not to say that we wouldn’t, but we’re a nonprofit, we wouldn’t be putting resources toward that, freezing to death, missing my fourth Christmas with my family, if I didn’t believe he was alive and findable.”
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Stern has been looking out via prisons in search of U.S. journalist Austin Tice. (Bryan Stern/Gray Bull Rescue )
Stern has led high-level rescue missions in one of the vital most deadly corners of the arena, together with Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Israel, Haiti, Lebanon and the U.S. all the way through herbal failures.
“Now we have executed 12 jailbreaks from Russia,” stated Stern. “That is 12 more than the CIA.”
The ousting of Bashar al-Assad and next takeover of Syria by means of HTS has presented the Biden management and Tice’s community a renewed sense of hope that the journalist might be discovered.
“He could have died of a stomach bug three years ago. And we just don’t know. I don’t think that that’s the case,” stated Stern. “I have no reason to believe that that’s the case. There’s not a single piece of information, circumstantial or otherwise, that indicate anything near that. In fact, everything I have is counter to that.”
The Syrian executive for greater than a decade refused to barter the let fall of Tice, who used to be kidnapped generation reporting at the rebellion towards the Assad regime all the way through the early levels of the Syrian civil warfare, which in the end ended previous this presen upcoming the Syrian president used to be ousted and fled to Moscow.
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Stern Stern has led high-level rescue missions in one of the vital most deadly corners of the arena. (Bryan Stern/Gray Bull Rescue )
The temper in Syria is “cautiously happy” upcoming a long time of brutal oppression, consistent with Stern, and generation the unutilized governing power HTS is “not standing in the way” of discovering Tice, they’re extra in demand with studying the best way to manage than helping within the seek efforts.
The possibly situation, consistent with Stern, is that Tice is being detained in a house in an area, seemed upcoming by means of Assad-friendly Alawites, the similar department of Islam as the previous chief. Lots of the nation’s prisons have now been searched or empty and he doesn’t imagine President Vladimir Putin would conserve Tice in Russia.
“The relationship between Assad and Putin is significantly overblown. [Assad] has been there over two weeks and they haven’t even seen each other,” stated Stern.
“The Russians are like we don’t need this problem, that is a great way to p— off soon-to-be-President Trump, I mean who was obsessed with the Austin Tice case years ago.”
Investigators imagine Tice escaped years in the past however used to be present in simply any such community in Damascus and thrown again in detainment.
The Surrounding Branch’s Rewards for Justice place of work is providing a $10 million praise for any data important to the discovering of Tice, however Stern stated he believes someone with data is extra pushed by means of tribal commitment than financial praise.

The Gray Bull crew has pored via jail information in search of Tice. (Bryan Stern/Gray Bull Rescue )
“Assad is living the good life in the tower in Moscow. But make no mistake, he still has reach inside of Syria,” stated Stern. “Half of the new government were Assad guys last week.”
“That tribal nexus plus the fear of Bashar Assad being able to reach out and touch people still in Syria, why would they come forward?”
Any other crew running with Gray Bull asserted this moment that they imagine Tice is alive.
“We have data that Austin is alive till January 2024, but the president of the U.S. said in August that he is alive, and we are sure that he is alive today,” Nizar Zakka, president of Hostage Assistance International, stated Tuesday, consistent with a couple of reviews.
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“We are trying to be as transparent as possible and to share as much information as possible.”
Zakka presented tiny proof to again up its statements produced from a press convention in Damascus, although he reportedly used an image to exhibit the places the place Tice used to be held from November 2017 to February 2024.
U.S. Hostage Assistance International has preoccupied with Tice’s community and U.S. government searching for Tice, and the Biden management has echoed a message of hope that Tice is alive, in spite of months of tiny commitment about his whereabouts.