Embedded

Josh uncovers a hidden world of secret negotiations, backchannels, and high-level talks. And, after years of failed promises, Austin’s mother Debra decides to go to Syria herself - alone. She believes the U.S. government could have done more to get her son home. Josh finds the men who took part in covert talks between Washington and Damascus. Could Austin’s release have been possible? And what was Syria offered in return?

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A video appears online titled: “Austin Tice Still Alive”. It shows Austin bound, blindfolded and terrified, surrounded by armed men. But as Josh and Sara dig deeper, the story begins to change. They uncover a trail that leads to the door of the most powerful man in Syria. Austin’s case is like no other. 

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Josh and Sara piece together Austin’s final route into Damascus. They find the farm, where he celebrated his 31st birthday — the last place his mother spoke to him. 

Then comes an unprecedented discovery.

For years, the story was that Austin was taken at a checkpoint. But what Josh and Sara uncover suggests something far more deliberate. And at the center of Austin’s disappearance is one man.

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The Austin Tice files begin to give up their secrets. Josh and Sara uncover names, locations and new leads about what happened to Austin Tice. But to understand them, they have to go back to the start - to Austin’s own journey through Syria, the rebels he befriended, and the road he took before he vanished. That road leads to a town outside Damascus - and a shocking discovery.

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In the chaos after the Syrian regime’s downfall, the hunt for Austin Tice is on. Josh Baker and his fellow investigative journalist Sara Obeidat are in Damascus as bombs fall and gunfights break out. Armed with a list of locations where Austin may have been held, they race across the Syrian capital searching for any sign of him. They find horrifying evidence of detention and torture on an industrial scale. Then, after climbing across a five-storey drop to reach a hidden room, they get a breakthrough — a trove of material about Austin that was never meant to be found.

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