Texas congressmen to speak on behalf of Austin Tice, July 1
Reps. Al Green, D-Texas, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, will call on the Biden administration to bring home detained journalist Austin Tice at a National Press Club Headliners event Thursday, July 1, at 11 a.m.
Green and McCaul have been steadfast advocates for Tice, speaking out for him on the floor of the House on several occasions and circulating Dear Colleague letters in the House. They will give remarks on the current situation, call on the administration to bring Tice home and take questions from the press.
National Press Club Headliner events are open to credentialed journalists, members of the National Press Club and their guests. Those wishing to attend this in-person event should register online. Attendees will be expected to have a vaccination card on their phones or recent negative COVID tests to be able to enter the Club. A livestream of the event also will be available on the registration page.
Green represents the Houston district, where the family of award-wining journalist and Marine veteran Tice lives. McCaul is the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Tice has been held in Syria for nearly nine years. He was working as a freelance journalist for McClatchy and The Washington Post at the time he was abducted. No U.S. journalist has been held overseas longer than Tice.
The Syrian government has consistently declined to publicly confirm they are holding Tice.
Last fall, Trump administration and Syrian officials met in Damascus, despite the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Syrians, according to news reports, raised broad issues: reducing or withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria; access to Syrian oil fields currently being held by the U.S.; lifting of some sanctions against Syria; and reestablishment of a U.S. Embassy in Syria.
US Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, a Donald Trump appointee who took the fall trip to Syria, has been held over by the Biden administration.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been outspoken in his calls for Tice’s safe return, including most recently on World Press Freedom Day, May 3.
One of the first steps in obtaining freedom for journalists being held hostage in the past has been for the president to speak the name of the hostage and call publicly for their release. President Joe Biden has yet to mention Tice’s name since he became president. Trump first said Tice’s name publicly in March 2020, at an event in the White House Briefing Room.
The Club has led several campaigns to call attention to the case of Austin Tice. In 2015 the Club named Tice one of its honorees for the John Aubuchon Award For Press Freedom. In 2018 the Club held a news conference with then-Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Robert O’Brien, in which the U.S. government said publicly for the first time of Tice, “we have every reason to believe he is alive.”
In 2019 the Club led an ambitious project -- Night Out For Austin Tice -- where 80 restaurants in 16 states used the same evening to host discussions of Tice’s case and raise money to supplement the $1 million reward offered by the FBI for information leading to Tice’s safe return. In 2020, the Club created a Freedom Clock to display the time Tice is being held in a dynamic countdown. The Clock is in the lobby of the Club. Recently, Club President Lisa Nicole Matthews interviewed Tice’s 11-year-old niece about her passion for her uncle’s freedom.