SECRET recordsdata have revealed that evil dictator Bashar al-Assad straight ordered the kidnapping of US journalist Austin Tice, a brand new podcast claims.
The reporter’s disappearance 14 years in the past in Syria nonetheless stays a thriller and his mum instructed The Solar simply final month that she has nonetheless not given up hope of his secure return.
Now a brand new podcast sequence has revealed the terrifying occasions main as much as his seize – and the chilling betrayal that noticed him seized.
One insider instructed BBC reporters that it was somebody very near Austin who offered him out to Assad’s twisted regime.
The Washington Submit freelancer vanished three days after his birthday, on August 13, 2012.
After seven weeks of silence, a sickening video emerged exhibiting Austin blindfolded and sure by the hands whereas being led by his armed captors.
LIVING HELL
My son vanished and haunting vid emerged… why I’ve little doubt he is nonetheless alive
LOST IN DESERT
ISIS video & ‘escape’ to Iran…14-year thriller of veteran’s kidnap in Syria
It was the final time Austin was seen.
Conflicting accounts have claimed that the longest captive American journalist in historical past is alive in a jail cell – whereas others say he was executed a few years in the past.
Now the BBC has uncovered proof that he was kidnapped in a calculated operation that was weeks within the planning – and below the direct orders of bloodthirsty ruler Assad.
A year-long investigation has revealed that Austin’s trusted driver had hyperlinks to the very high of the Syrian regime – and had been feeding them intel on the journalist for weeks.
Lots of of secret recordsdata and insider accounts from a person who helped abduct the American have delivered the “first definitive proof” that the reporter was captured by the Syrian regime.
The revelations come in a brand new BBC podcast entitled: The place is Austin Tice? Sequence 3 of I’m Not A Monster Presents.
An intelligence supply gave reporters co-ordinates resulting in a number of places the place US authorities thought Austin might have been held.
However no hint of the American was discovered.
He had been simply days away from leaving Syria when he vanished whereas passing by a checkpoint close to Darayya.
The BBC spoke to a former member of Assad’s Nationwide Defence Forces (NDF), Abu Ali, who mentioned Austin’s driver instructed the regime he can be passing by rebel-held areas.
His driver reportedly handed details about the journalist’s actions to a nephew of Bassam al-Hassan, head of the NDF and one in every of Assad’s most trusted safety figures.
Ali mentioned Assad then gave the chilling order: “Convey him to us.”
The motive force continued to report the American’s actions.
He even went by Austin’s bag at one level, Ali instructed the BBC.
Ali claimed when the driving force pulled a gun on the American, Austin laughed.
He trusted the person a lot he thought he was joking.
When he realised the driving force was critical, Austin apparently pulled out his chequebook and pleaded with the driving force to call his worth.
However he was grabbed by NDF forces and kidnapped – one militia member instructed the BBC he would always remember the look on Austin’s face as he realised his trusted driver had betrayed him.
The investigation revealed that Hamid Abu Obeid had been the person who drove Austin into the fingers of his abductors.
He himself has since vanished.
His household mentioned he had been promised life-changing rewards to tell on Austin – a passport, Syrian citizenship, a home and a weapon.
However all he was given was a pistol and he disappeared after Assad’s regime fell.
Greater than a decade later, devastated family members hope for the return of the driving force – and his alleged sufferer, Austin.
Austin’s mum Debra has campaigned tirelessly to convey her son residence, telling The Solar: “We’ve got no motive to imagine that he’s not alive now.
“I’m very shut with God, and I do know different moms whose family members haven’t come residence, they usually knew virtually instantly. I’ve by no means, ever had that second.
“I’ve all the time believed that we’ll see him.”
Debra believes the perfect likelihood the US authorities had at bringing her beloved son residence was within the preliminary months after he was kidnapped.
She mentioned: “The factor that has made it tougher is studying a lot extra about [how] bringing Austin residence was simpler earlier – and it was simply ignored.
“And to utterly know that as the reality, that does make it worse.
“He might have been residence earlier than Christmas in 2012.”
Successive administrations in America haven’t been in a position to negotiate Austin’s launch – however Debra stands agency in saying the federal government knew his whereabouts, up till Assad’s fall from energy.
She mentioned: “The US authorities has identified the place Austin was each single day and your complete time of his detention.
“However then, as of December 2024, we do not know.
“We do not know the place he’s. Is he in Iran? Is he in Lebanon? Is he in Syria? The place is he in Syria?
“It’s one other ache to our household, one other hit to us.
“He put his life on the road for our nation. That ought to imply one thing.”
