Worthy Christian News > World News > Mother of Kidnapped US Journalist Doubts Biden’s Assurances

Mother of Kidnapped US Journalist Doubts Biden’s Assurances

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – The mother of detained American freelance journalist Austin Tice says assurances about efforts to bring him home from Syria have “lost their strength.”

Debra Tice spoke after U.S. President Joe Biden pledged over the weekend to do everything to bring home her son, a former marine.

“Deborah is here tonight,” Biden said during the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner for which she had been invited.

“She knows from our several conversations, the conversations with me and my senior staff, we are not giving up,” Biden added. “As I told you at this dinner last year, as I told you in the Oval Office, you raised an incredible son.”

Biden recalled that when “he was a kid, he was an Eagle Scout, a big brother, a born protector.”Soon after, he became “a U.S. Marine” with “three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

However, Austin was also “a fearless journalist and a future lawyer. As a consequence of Austin showing the world the cost of war, he’s been detained in Syria for nearly 11 years.”

LOSING STRENGTH

Biden stressed that “It’s simply wrong, it’s outrageous, and we are not ceasing our effort to get him, find him, bring him home.”

Yet speaking to reporters, Debra Tice said that “until we are at that point, assurances have sort off lost their strength with me.”

Speaking to CBS News television, she noticed that her son “served in conflict zones in Iraq and Afghanistan” and saw “the horrible things that war brings.”

Asked what ordinary people could do to help her, she said that “I don’t think we need marches in the street. But I do think sending letters or getting on the internet and just sending an email to your Congressmen, your Senators, certainly the White House [could help]. And express how much you want to see Austin come home, how important that is. And urgently bring him home. It has been 10 years and nine months for him.”

His mother noted that his detention has continued during three U.S. presidencies and that “he is really, I am sure, quite ready to walk free.”

Austin Tice, a former Marine Corps officer, freelanced for publisher McClatchy and The Washington Post newspaper when kidnapped in August 2012.

SHORT MESSAGE

The last the world saw from Tice was a 46-second video posted on the YouTube video-sharing platform in September 2012. The journalist appeared in torn clothing, blindfolded, and led by masked men with guns. The men were chanting, “God is greatest.”

Tice was recorded reciting a common Islamic phrase in Arabic, his head bowed in distress. He cried out, “Oh Jesus, oh Jesus,” just before the video clip ended.

Debra Tice regrets not flying immediately to Damascus, the capital, to help locate her son. She later lived for almost three months in Syria to meet as many people as possible to try to bring him back.

Syria has denied holding the missing journalist, but President Biden made clear late Saturday that his administration is confident the now 41-year-old Tice has been detained in the country.

Biden also demanded the immediate release of other Americans, including 31-year-old Evan Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal newspaper journalist detained in Russia on controversial charges of “espionage.”

Gershkovich, the first U.S. correspondent to be arrested on spying accusations since the Cold War, has been held since March and could face up to 20 years imprisonment if convicted.

“Tonight, our message is this: Journalism is not a crime. Evan and Austin should be released immediately along with every other American held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” Biden said.

MORE DETENTIONS

Biden stressed, however there “are other Americans being unjustly held in Iran, Venezuela, China, and elsewhere. Their stories may not make headlines or hashtags [on social media]. But every day, their family looks at that empty chair at the kitchen table, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays without them.”

He said that the “pain of living in limbo, in a sense, it’s almost worse than the pain of having lost a child and looking at an empty chair—the stress of not knowing, the sorrow of uncertainty. But I want them and their families to know, [First Lady] Jill [Biden] and I understand. We see them; they’re not forgotten. And I promise you; I am working like hell to get them home.”

Saying that as “a nation, we’ll never give up on hope,” Biden noticed the successful prisoner exchange with Russia that saw the return late last year of American professional basketball player Brittney Griner.

She had been detained for nearly 10 months on drug charges after cartridges containing less than a gram of medically prescribed hash oil were found in her luggage.

“Things can get better; things can turn, things can change. Tonight, unlike last year, Brittney Griner is here with her wife, Cheryl,” Biden said during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Debra Tice said too hasn’t lost faith that eventually her son will return home safely and added that she hears “whispers in the wind that things are happening.”

Asked if she wants another meeting with Biden, she said: “I don’t need to talk to anybody else on this side of the pond. I just want my arms around my son.”