U.S. citizen Michael White that Iran has detained since 2018 was released on Thursday on medical furlough, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. The U.S. navy veteran was currently under the custody of the Swiss government. As it looks now, Iran frees US citizen but Assad still detains Austin Tice because the U.S. is not applying the same pressure.
Why are we not taking advantage of Assad weakness to pressure him release Austin?
Why is the Trump Administration not slapping crippling sanctions on the Assad regime to release Tice? It is also fair to ask why is Pompeo not applying the same level of pressure on Assad and Putin as he is doing on Iran? What has Putin done for you lately, Mr. Pompeo?
Something is really amiss here. For the naked eye, it looks as if the United States places Assad interests above those of its citizens. Assad is weak. Why are we not taking advantage of his weakness to pressure him to release Austin? Where are all those brainy NSC staff to devise the sanctions that hurt Assad the most?
THE FORGOTTEN AMERICAN
Austin Tice is an American freelance journalist who, naively, strayed into Syria thinking he can publish the next Pulitzer Prize story. Instead, Assad kidnapped him on August 14, 2012. Like Barack Obama before him, Trump is ignoring Assad when it comes to Austin Tice. The United States could easily levy some crippling sanctions on the Assad regime for Tice’s safety and return to his family.
We are talking about sanctions to eviscerate the Syrian Central Bank
Why is Trump not acting against Assad as he has against Iran? Why is not Congressman Eliott Engel (D-NY) championing any cause to pressure Assad not writing a thousand letters to President Trump asking him for an explanation?
Why is not Congress, as a whole, not passing the new Syria Austin Tice Act in which we sanction the Assad regime as equally and as painfully as we have sanctioned Iran? We are talking about eviscerating the Syrian Central Bank here. The United States can easily take advantage of Assad’s vulnerability in the middle of a devastating war to force his hand. WHY ARE WE NOT? The Tice family has the right to know.
TICE COULD DIE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS
Assad refusal to admit or even submit any case data on the spread of the coronavirus in Syria should be of grave concerns to Mr. Trump and Mr. Pompeo. Assad refusal to attend to this matter clearly shows that he could care less about his own people. But why, we ask, does it also look like the United States could care less about the fate of Tice?
Austin Tice is the forgotten American still languishing in Assad jails when we do the impossible to free Americans locked up in Iranian jails
Austin could die from the coronavirus as we forget to do the impossible to save him. Should this happen, Trump is as guilty as Assad in compromising the life of Austin. There is no Tweet Trump could send out to wash his hands from his own guilt should he continue to ignore Austin Tice? None whatsoever.
Austin Tice is the forgotten American still languishing in Assad jails when we do the impossible to free Americans locked up in Iranian jails. He is a reminder of our own shame. He is a reminder that U.S. policies, sometimes, make no sense and there is no one to provide a plausible explanation for its course.
Unless, of course, the United States thinks it needs Assad, which is why it lets him off the hook. Need him for what is another puzzle no one can explain coherently. It must be Assad blue eyes, then.
Look, we realize there is a lot that we don’t know. But what we know about U.S. lack of resolve to free Austin is really disturbing.
Cripple the Assad regime today to free Austin Tice.
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