Since September 16, I have been publishing weekly updates every Wednesday, detailing my deep-dive research into the disappearance of American journalist Austin Tice. This series provides the crucial context and written breakdowns following my September 8 appearance on the Dutch VPRO/NPO Radio 1 program Bureau Buitenland, which carried the initial scoop on this investigation. Moving forward, I am numbering these posts so readers can easily follow the trail. You can catch up on the first six installments in the archives.

Investigating the fate of disappeared American journalist Austin Tice in Syria requires not just an understanding of local culture and language, but also a healthy, large dose of caution. The deeper you dig into the file, the clearer it becomes how easily false leads can circulate. I have come to conclude that some of these narratives are driven by opportunists looking for money, while others come from political actors, including former Assad regime officers, aiming to misdirect foreign journalists and researchers. It often feels as though these sources assume outside journalists won’t know the intricate local context well enough to see through a fabricated story.

In my recent publications, I want to share a look behind the scenes of my fieldwork, and analyze a few highly unlikely leads specifically regarding the search for Austin Tice, and explain how I reached those assessments. Since looking deeply into his fate on and off since December 2024, and reviewing concrete information from early 2023 indicating he was alive—information I cannot unsee—my focus has been entirely on separating solid details from unlikely stories.

A clear example of this occurred in May, when a tip about the missing American journalist led us directly down a road of claims centered on the southern province of Suwayda.

The Journey to Damascus: May 2026

“I talked to my source in Deir Ezzor,” Abu Firas told me in northern Syria, a few days after I arrived in early May. “He’s in Damascus right now and staying for a few days. Deir Ezzor isn’t safe enough yet; it’s much better to meet him there.”

“That works for me,” I replied.

Damascus was a four- to five-hour drive south. As we planned our logistics, arranging a hotel and coordinating arrivals, Abu Firas added that we would first detour through Aleppo to pick up another crucial source: Abu Ahmad. He was traveling down from Raqqa, saving us a trip there, as Raqqa was still not entirely safe. “Twee belangrijke vliegen in één klap,” I thought to myself—the Dutch expression for killing two important birds with one stone.

It wasn’t until later that I truly understood the profound weight of who those two men—Abu Firas and Abu Ahmad—really were as they sat in that car from Aleppo onward. They knew each other from Sednaya Prison, the regime’s notorious military slaughterhouse where tens of thousands entered and simply vanished into mass graves. It was a dark machinery of industrial-scale torture. Surviving five years there, as Abu Firas had, was a miracle. Surviving much longer, as one of our companions in Damascus had, utterly defied human comprehension.

Abu Ahmad had by May only recently returned to Raqqa following its liberation from the SDF (as most locals view it) in January 2026. While he managed to reclaim an administrative role at a local school, providing for his six children on a meager salary made survival a daily battle. I had kept him on my investigative tracking list for more than a year while he was still living in Şanlıurfa, Turkey. Now, by a stroke of fortune, our paths were finally crossing inside Syria.

Our journey south took us along the M5 highway from Aleppo, a route lined with ghost towns whose names had dominated international news cycles for a decade: Saraqib, Maarat al-Nu’man, and Khan Sheikhoun. As we crossed out of Northern Aleppo and Idlib, the Turkish cellular networks that had reliably powered our communication in the north abruptly died. Once in Aleppo, Syriatel and MTN take over, requiring entirely different SIM cards and credits.

Entering the Hama Governorate, the massive silhouette of Mount Zain al-Abidin loomed five kilometers north of Hama city. Heavily fortified as a regime stronghold, it became the site of a brutal showdown between government forces and advancing opposition fighters during the December 2024 offensive. A local journalist used to say that whoever controls Zain al-Abidin holds 90% of the air and fire control over Hama.

Beyond Hama lay Rastan and Talbiseh. I knew Talbiseh well from interviews with Syrian refugees in November 2024 who had fled Israeli bombardments in Lebanon. Talbiseh had transformed into a notorious human smuggling hub controlled by Maher al-Assad’s Iranian-aligned Fourth Division. Here, people who had fled Israeli bombardments in Lebanon were forced to pay tremendous amounts of money to smugglers just to be taken north toward opposition-held areas.

As we approached Homs, the vital crossroads connecting Syria’s eastern desert to the Mediterranean ports of Tartous, the highway filled with dozens of oil tankers arriving from Iraq’s Anbar province and other locations, judging by the signs written on them. We paused for a brief, traditional meal of boiled eggs, labneh, and fresh olives at a roadside rest stop, only for our car’s engine to die completely when we tried to leave.

Faced with a lengthy, futile repair, we split up after an hour. Abu Ahmad and I boarded a local Pollman, the generic brand name Syrians use for any large long-distance bus, and rode the final leg to Damascus, using the time to interview Abu Ahmad. Abu Firas stayed with his car, hoping it would be repaired soon.

By nightfall, we reached Damascus, where Abu Siraj, who had also spent years in Sednaya, was waiting to pick us up. We headed to a Yemeni restaurant to meet our contacts: a fellow former Sednaya prisoner from Deir Ezzor and our primary source, also from Deir Ezzor. This was followed by a visit to a prominent Sheikh from the powerful Aniza tribe, from Raqqa. The atmosphere everywhere was thick with caution. Abu Firas had still not arrived, and the sources simply didn’t trust me—a total stranger—enough to speak openly without him in the room. Fieldwork in Syria dictates its own rhythm: a volatile mix of sudden breakthroughs and agonizing roadblocks.

The meeting was deferred to the following morning, waiting for Abu Firas to arrive, to allow all parties to safely gather. We spent the night at a hotel bustling with travelers from Syria’s eastern provinces, their distinct regional attire highlighting the deep cultural and tribal landscapes that fragment the country.

The next morning, our circle gathered around a breakfast table, Abu Firas had safely arrived with his car: five men and myself. Most of them had shared years of captivity in Sednaya, yet some, like the men from Raqqa and Damascus, were meeting face-to-face for the very first time.

Then, the primary source from Deir Ezzor, who was not part of this Sednaya network, began to speak to us all. He laid out a stunning claim: a former regime operative was currently hiding in Damascus with actionable information on Austin Tice, the American journalist captured in 2012.

“The source claims Tice was killed seven years ago by a notorious commander from the southern region, Issam Zahredine,” the man whispered. “And that he is buried in Suwayda. The source will give the exact coordinates, but he wants a significant amount of money.”

I pushed back immediately. “To be completely honest, we have conflicting information. We have seen information, verified by the Americans, indicating that Tice was alive as recently as 2023.”

Abu Firas backed me up, demanding to know what concrete proof this hidden source could actually provide.

As the conversation spun, a skeptical realization settled over us. This had all the hallmarks of a false narrative, likely designed to exploit a high-profile tragedy for cash or political leverage. The mention of Suwayda was particularly loaded. Under the leadership of Druze spiritual elder Hikmat al-Hijri, Suwayda had aggressively pushed for complete independence from Damascus, fracturing the region into highly unstable factional alliances. Injecting a missing American journalist into that specific geographic tinderbox felt calculated.

Suddenly, one of the men slipped a handwritten note across the table to me:

There is an ‘Amni’ (security agent) behind you.

I looked around casually. Sitting nearby was a sharp, blue-eyed security officer tracking our table. Realizing we were compromised, I shifted my tone into a theatrical pivot:

“You know what, there are just too many conflicting stories here. This file is far too complicated, and I simply don’t have the time to track down all these narratives. I’m dropping this story entirely.”

It seemed to work. A moment later, the blue-eyed man stood up and walked out of the café.

Once we returned to our base in the north, we reviewed the meeting notes. We unanimously agreed to shelve the Suwayda burial lead. It completely contradicted the firsthand evidence I have laid out previously, verified by the Americans, showing Tice survived long past that timeline, despite being severely ill. This Damascus detour was simply another dead end intentionally put in our path.

What I didn’t know then was that, despite our mutual skepticism, Abu Firas and Abu Ahmad had already gone a step further in Damascus. Telling me they were just going to buy some things, they had quietly set off for the source instead. Had I joined them, the trip would have only complicated an already sensitive situation. They were determined to get to the bottom of this.

Deep Dive: Analyzing the Claims with Abu Firas

To better analyse this specific narrative, I sat down with Abu Firas for a final analysis of the claims. We dug into this version of the Suwayda narrative: the rumor that Tice was killed years ago by the notorious Republican Guard Brigadier General Issam Zahreddine, and that he lies buried somewhere in the southern province.

What is your assessment of the Suwayda burial claim?

Abu Firas: I believe the narrative that he is in Suwayda is incredibly weak. It centers on Issam Zahreddine, who was less of a conventional general and more of a brutal militia leader, a well-known saffah (butcher) and war criminal. While he commanded forces in the east, his roots and power base were heavily tied to the southern sector, specifically his home province of Suwayda.

Where does the story of the grave actually come from?

Abu Firas laid out the details: The narrative originated from a young man from Deir Ezzor whom we will call Abu Adnan, claimed to know a close associate of the late Syrian General Issam Zahreddine. This associate was allegedly involved in the illicit smuggling and looting of antiquities, operating deep within an active archaeological site.

But as I said, this narrative falls apart under scrutiny. It places the location in Suwayda, yet no one can pinpoint where. When we tried to follow up on the lead, the primary source who claimed he could guide us to the exact site suddenly demanded thousands of dollars, then vanished into hiding before our face-to-face appointment in Damascus.

You actually went to meet this source in Damascus, without me?

Abu Firas: Yes, we wanted to verify the truth. We had an appointment arranged through intermediaries to meet him face-to-face, similar to how we handled the military doctor lead in Aleppo. But he got cold feet and fled. We then attempted to reach a second individual who had worked closely with Zahreddine. He actually sent us a photograph of his ID card and confirmed he was hiding out at a specific address in Damascus, terrified for his safety. But tracking him down requires an official investigative body with state authority. I am not the police; I don’t have the paperwork or the jurisdiction to conduct a forced interrogation.

Beyond the sketchy informants, what is the largest issue with the Suwayda narrative regarding the operational geography of the Syrian war?

Abu Firas: There is a massive structural contradiction here. How would an American journalist captured in the Damascus suburbs end up in the custody of a localized Druze militia leader in the deep south? The credible intelligence we have indicates that Tice has consistently been held by Iranian-backed militias, not by localized domestic units like Zahreddine’s. Zahreddine ran his own fiefdom; his forces did not integrate or cooperate directly with the Iranians.

Furthermore, the geopolitical reality of southern Syria makes an Iranian-controlled prison or burial site there highly unlikely. The historical agreement brokered between Putin and Netanyahu allowed the southern front to collapse back into regime control on the strict condition that Iranian forces and proxy militias were kept far away from the Israeli border. If you trace the actual timeline of where Tice was moved, Yabroud, Damascus, Daraya, further north (early 2023) and the coastal area (December 2024), a southern detour simply does not fit.

And you are confident about the intelligence placing him further north, in that specific location, in early 2023?

Abu Firas: Yes. The information I reviewed included images of him while under the custody of Iranian-backed militias. They operate heavily in the coastal and central regions, not in the restricted southern border zones. Ultimately, the Suwayda story feels like a deliberate smokescreen. Someone wants to misdirect the search parties, exhausting the journalists’ time, energy, and resources on wild goose chases in the south so that the true location remains a closely guarded secret.

When asked about these claims, a Syrian researcher in Damascus with an extensive network in Suwayda stated bluntly: “The narrative regarding Suwayda is not merely weak; it is categorically and definitively incorrect and false. If Austin Tice were in Suwayda, my sources would have informed me immediately. I asked about it, and they just laughed—the premise is extremely weak and unreliable, and the narrative is a failure.”

The Recent Echo: Last Month in the Countryside

Despite shelving the lead in May/June, this “Suwayda” narrative in different forms and shapes has kept coming up in recent months, though it has not appeared in the media, as far as I know at least.

The most recent echo to me occurred just last month. While I was in the Damascus countryside, a local security source told me simply: “Tice is in Suwayda.”

The details of this newer encounter contradicted the Suwayda narrative of May. While the previous informants claimed Tice had been killed seven years ago and buried in the south, this security source insisted Tice was still alive and being held there. He alleged that when the regime collapsed, fleeing Assad officers left Damascus for Suwayda and took Tice with them as a bargaining chip.

I meanwhile strongly suspect these recurring Suwayda stories remain politically motivated, an attempt by different actors to point investigators toward their local rivals in a fractured province. It is also entirely possible that this security source himself was simply passing on pieces of misinformation he genuinely believed to be true.

However, my companion during that recent visit, Abu Siraj, had not researched the Tice case as deeply at the time and thought the story sounded plausible. He on a later occasion told me he had pressed the security source, telling him that if he brought Tice to Damascus in person, he would receive a substantial payout. Abu Siraj demanded Tice be delivered in person, emphasizing he would not accept vague proof-of-life videos.

Naturally, my initial curiosity when meeting the security source, actually for a total different reason, was to see what further details they would provide.

I was entirely upfront, openly sharing some of my own recently published findings that directly contradicted everything the security man claimed.

Weeks went by, and the security man delivered nothing. Abu Siraj eventually reached the same conclusion I had from the very beginning: the lead was fake.

These recurring fabrications are not confined to breakfast café meetings in Damascus; they have left a distinct trail online as well. On April 25, 2025, two separate tweeps posted public claims asserting that Austin Tice was being held in Suwayda, throwing more fuel onto a fire that had already been quietly burning through backchannels. They are far from the only ones who have told me this. This digital echo chamber perfectly demonstrates how easily an unverified narrative can be weaponized or recycled across different platforms to manipulate public perception or misdirect investigators. When we cross-examine these public “scoops” against hard, verifiable intelligence—such as the 2023 evidence placing Tice much further north—the timeline and geography of the southern narrative completely disintegrate. It highlights a frustrating pattern in this investigation: the “Suwayda diversion” has become a convenient umbrella story used by various actors to exploit a high-profile tragedy, hiding the footprints of those truly responsible under a cloud of regional rumor.

Moving Forward

“Uncovering the definitive truth regarding Tice’s fate requires institutional leverage,” Abu Firas tells me. I couldn’t agree more. Independent journalists and informal investigators lack the authorization to demand answers or protect terrified witnesses. Until an official international entity or a dedicated diplomatic task force steps in to formally cross-examine these figures—currently hiding across Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere—uncovering the rest of the file will take much longer.

As I have detailed in my previous pieces, the concrete evidence points in a very different direction than Suwayda.

_________________________________________________________________________

In 2012, freelance journalist and veteran U.S. Marine Austin Tice vanished at a checkpoint near Damascus, Syria. For over a decade, his disappearance has remained one of the most complex, frustrating, and high-stakes international mysteries of our time. Governments have stalled, intelligence agencies have hit dead ends? And a family has refused to give up hope.

But this isn’t just a story about geopolitical stalemates. It’s a story about the people who get pulled into the orbit of a missing man. In this premier episode, I lay out the exact sequence of events that brought me into this search.

And that is how I first became involved in the search for Austin Tice. Or, perhaps more accurately how the search found me. Hope you find this interesting and helpful!

This is the most challenging investigation I have ever undertaken.

After Syrian Revolutionary networks put me on track in December 2024, I couldn’t let go. Uncovering the truth, spanning 2023, 2024 mostly, and beyond, has required constant vigilance and endless verification to cut through a barrage of false narratives.

My mission is simple: to make these findings fully accessible, and to shed as much light as possible on what happened to Austin Tice, especially for his family.

As an independent journalist, this is a massive undertaking. Although we have made significant progress thanks to Dutch crowdfunding and our own resources, we are not there yet.

If you value this journalism, please consider supporting our work. Sponsorships and contributions directly fund our ongoing fieldwork in Syria and neighboring countries, enabling us to conduct critical interviews and undertake necessary journeys safely.

While my primary focus is the search for Austin Tice, we are also using our extensive network to investigate other critical disappearances in Syria.

With the tremendous help of the Syrian Revolutionary Networks, we are actively looking into the cases of:

· Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim (Syriac-Orthodox) and Paul Yazigi (Greek Orthodox Metropolitan) of Aleppo were kidnapped in April 2013.

· Farouq Bakour a civilian young man from Azaz, who disappeared at a YPG checkpoint in August 2016 in Kafr Janna, and who was likely transferred to Baghdad in 2026

· Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, the Italian Jesuit priest abducted in Raqqa

We have already made significant progress in all these cases. However, uncovering the full truth requires continued efforts, cross-border research, and fieldwork. Your sponsorship directly enables the vital travel needed to push these investigations forward.

You can use this link: https://steunactie.nl/actie/de-zoektocht-naar-austin-tice-6/-64488 or support us via Substack.

Thank you for your consideration!

What does it take to track a missing American journalist into the dark?
In Episode 2 (2023: “No, He’s Not Dead”) and Episode 3 (2024: “The Villa”), we expose a shadow world of high-stakes civilian networks risking it all. We’re delivering an unprecedented, inside look at the raw courage and grueling research required to chase the truth when the stakes are life and death.

In 2012, freelance journalist and veteran U.S. Marine Austin Tice vanished at a checkpoint near Damascus, Syria. For over a decade, his disappearance has remained one of the most complex, frustrating, and high-stakes international mysteries of our time. Governments have stalled, intelligence agencies have hit dead ends? And a family has refused to give up hope.

But this isn’t just a story about geopolitical stalemates. It’s a story about the people who get pulled into the orbit of a missing man. In this premier episode, I lay out the exact sequence of events that brought me into this search.

And that is how I first became involved in the search for Austin Tice. Or, perhaps more accurately how the search found me. Hope you find this interesting and helpful!

The Investigation Behind the Episode

This premiere is just the beginning of a much larger journey. Months of intensive reporting, both inside and outside Syria, have culminated in The Search for Austin Tice: a video podcast by Rena Netjes and Sophie Fullerton, produced by Hayan Imadi.

This is the most challenging investigation I have ever undertaken.

After Syrian Revolutionary networks put me on track in December 2024, I couldn’t let go. Uncovering the truth, spanning 2023, 2024 mostly, and beyond, has required constant vigilance and endless verification to cut through a barrage of false narratives.

My mission is simple: to make these findings fully accessible, and to shed as much light as possible on what happened to Austin Tice, especially for his family.

As an independent journalist, this is a massive undertaking. Although we have made significant progress thanks to Dutch crowdfunding and our own resources, we are not there yet.

If you value this journalism, please consider supporting our work. Sponsorships and contributions directly fund our ongoing fieldwork in Syria and neighboring countries, enabling us to conduct critical interviews and undertake necessary journeys safely.

While my primary focus is the search for Austin Tice, we are also using our extensive network to investigate other critical disappearances in Syria.

With the tremendous help of the Syrian Revolutionary Networks, we are actively looking into the cases of:

· Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim (Syriac-Orthodox) and Paul Yazigi (Greek Orthodox Metropolitan) of Aleppo were kidnapped in April 2013.

· Farouq Bakour a civilian young man from Azaz, who disappeared at a YPG checkpoint in August 2016 in Kafr Janna, and who was likely transferred to Baghdad in 2026

· Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, the Italian Jesuit priest abducted in Raqqa

We have already made significant progress in all these cases. However, uncovering the full truth requires continued efforts, cross-border research, and fieldwork. Your sponsorship directly enables the vital travel needed to push these investigations forward.

You can use this link: https://steunactie.nl/actie/de-zoektocht-naar-austin-tice-6/-64488 or support us via Substack.

Thank you for your consideration!

#AustinTice #Syria #US #Iran #MissingJournalist

Former Dutch Ambassador to Syria Nikolaos van Dam, knowing about my ongoing investigation into the case of missing American journalist Austin Tice, recently forwarded me a revealing Arabic media interview from al-Hurra featuring Lebanon’s former intelligence chief, Major General Abbas Ibrahim.

This text translates the premiere of Khaznat Al-Asrar (Treasure Chest of Secrets) on al-Hurra, which aired September 2, 2026. In this interview with journalist Johnny Mounier, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, who was a vital backchannel mediator between Hezbollah, the US, Iran, and the Assad regime, opens up about his career. This first episode tackles sensitive files, including a 1980s operation, passport controversies, and negotiations over foreigners missing in Syria. Watch the full interview on YouTube.

To keep the focus on the search for Austin Tice, the initial administrative and local security matters have been condensed, while everything concerning Austin Tice and U.S. diplomacy has been preserved exactly as stated.

Local Controversies & Regional Mediations (Condensed)

The interview began by addressing allegations surrounding the Directorate General of General Security. When asked about recent rumors regarding forged or illegal Lebanese passports being issued to Iranians or outlaws during his tenure, Ibrahim firmly rejected the claims. He explained that Lebanese biometric passports are physically impossible to forge due to advanced security features. However, he acknowledged that data tampering did occur at the local level, where ordinary criminals or fugitives bribed local officials (Mukhtars) and a few complicit soldiers to manipulate names and information on application forms. Ibrahim stressed that these cases were entirely financial crimes handled by the judiciary, involving no more than 10 to 20 passports, and had absolutely no connection to political or Iranian operations.

Turning to political security, the interviewer questioned whether General Security had served as an official address or backdoor office for Hezbollah during Ibrahim’s tenure. Ibrahim rejected the premise, clarifying that his office dealt with Hezbollah strictly as it did with any other Lebanese political faction. He noted, however, that because Hezbollah held significant territorial and political influence at the time, their cooperation was practically required to resolve complex regional files, particularly those involving cross-border hostage negotiations with Syria or Iran.

Ibrahim then detailed the prominent operation in Arsal, where Lebanese soldiers were captured by the Al-Nusra Front and ISIS.

While negotiating through a local mediator, Ibrahim intercepted handwritten letters from five other captured individuals who happened to be Hezbollah fighters taken in Idlib during the war. This overlap brought Hezbollah into the negotiation loop alongside the Lebanese state and Qatari mediators. Ultimately, a ceasefire and safe exit convoy to Syria were negotiated in exchange for the release of both the Lebanese soldiers and the Hezbollah captives.

Interviewer: What were Hezbollah’s conditions at that time regarding this matter, if you recall? You conveyed Nusra’s demands, but did Hezbollah have demands in return?

Abbas Ibrahim: No, they had nothing. They just wanted the men released. Nusra at the time was militarily cornered and wanted to leave. They wanted a ceasefire between them and Hezbollah because the Lebanese Army was planning a second phase and had not intervened yet. Based on this, we negotiated a ceasefire between the two sides to secure a safe exit for Nusra elements toward Syria in exchange for retrieving the soldiers and the five young men.

Interviewer: Were you keeping the Lebanese state updated on this atmosphere?

Abbas Ibrahim: Yes, of course.

Interviewer: Under whose auspices was it back then?

Abbas Ibrahim: It was President Aoun correct, or perhaps President Sleiman before a vacancy, then President Tamam Salam was Prime Minister. We were in daily coordination with the Prime Minister. All the missions we undertook went through official political channels, meaning through the President or the Prime Minister.

Interviewer: During that stage, I believe you also had Arab assistance; perhaps Qatar helped you?

Abbas Ibrahim: Honestly, Qatar was the core element in resolving all these files. In every instance, the Qatari mediator was heavily present and was the major driving force behind solving these files.

Interviewer: Who was the Qatari envoy you dealt with?

Abbas Ibrahim: Abu Zaitoun, Abu Fahd.

The Austin Tice File and Secret U.S.–Syrian Diplomacy (Unabridged)

Interviewer: At that stage, it became clear you could make significant breakthroughs, unlike other security officials. You would sometimes make a decision on the spot, knowing what would work and what wouldn’t. From then on, did more American communication open up with you? It was through the embassy, which is normal.

Abbas Ibrahim: There was communication through the embassy, but the first major contact was with O’Brien during President Obama’s era. They informed me at the embassy that there was a personal envoy from President Obama.

Interviewer: Were you communicating through the ambassador or someone else?

Abbas Ibrahim: The ambassador. It was Maura Connelly at first. They told me a special envoy from President Obama, responsible for tracking missing Americans worldwide, wanted to visit.

Interviewer: Which year?

Abbas Ibrahim: 2016. He came to visit me around March 2016. He told me, “I am tasked by the President to follow up on missing Americans globally, and we have full confidence that you can achieve a result with us.” That was the first time anyone officially spoke to me about the Austin Tice file. Their primary concern was Austin Tice. From there, the relationship opened up. I later traveled to the United States and met him at the State Department upon their invitation. They were always official invitations from the State Department, from O’Brien. There are two O’Briens. It was Mike O’Brien. I went to see him at the State Department, and we started working on the Austin Tice matter between them and the Syrians, with the blessing of official Lebanese authorities.

Interviewer: So, the primary milestone in the relationship with the Americans was tied to Austin Tice in Syria rather than Hezbollah?

Abbas Ibrahim: Absolutely, in the beginning, it had nothing to do with Hezbollah. The focus was heavily on Syria, Austin Tice, and opening a channel of communication with the Syrians. This was because there was no contact, and the Syrian side was refusing communication.

Till 2018, a special envoy from President Trump during the first part of his term came to see me. It was Kash Patel, who is now the FBI Director. He was accompanied by Roger Carstens, who replaced O’Brien to handle missing Americans, and a third person. They visited me at my office regarding Syria and Austin Tice, which was a priority.

Interviewer: Was it exclusively Austin Tice or others too?

Abbas Ibrahim: There were many secondary topics, but the core focus was Austin Tice. Communication with Syria wasn’t happening, so we worked for a year to secure a meeting and a visit for this delegation to Syria to meet with Syrian security agencies.

Interviewer: Let’s discuss this in detail. The first time in 2016 when the Austin Tice file opened, you moved within Lebanon and tried to connect with the Syrians.

Abbas Ibrahim: This contact with Syria was by virtue of our position and because I was always tasked by the Lebanese government to communicate with Syria. During one of the visits after O’Brien’s visit, I raised the topic. At the time, General Ali Mamlouk promised me, saying, “He is not with us, but we will follow up on this matter and inform you of any available information.”

Interviewer: Did they welcome communication with the Americans?

Abbas Ibrahim: No, no, they did not welcome direct communication. They used to tell me, “As long as they are talking to you and you are talking to us, this level is sufficient.” The Americans were insisting on direct communication, so we worked on the matter and convinced the Syrians of the humanitarian aspect of the issue, that it had nothing to do with politics. We secured the first visit of official US figures to Syria to meet security agencies.

Interviewer: How did you secure their transport from Lebanon to Syria?

Abbas Ibrahim: I went with them in the cars under General Security escort and with political blessing. We considered that any breakthrough between Syria and America would positively reflect on Lebanon.

Interviewer: Whom did they see, Ali Mamlouk?

Abbas Ibrahim: General Ali Mamlouk gathered all the heads of security agencies. A discussion took place regarding Austin Tice.

Interviewer: Was the discussion focused solely on Austin Tice?

Abbas Ibrahim: It didn’t focus on him initially because the Syrians were sensitive that America only spoke to them regarding Austin Tice. Quite frankly, when I met the US delegation the night before, I told them how to approach the Syrian side: “Speak to them about politics, about withdrawal, about your future relationship with Syria, and just ten minutes before you leave, raise the issue of Austin Tice. Otherwise, you will polarize the meeting from the first moment.” And that’s what happened.

We also spoke with CIA Director William Burns at the time, and we discussed many topics. I met the political advisor to the US Secretary of State, Ambassador David Hale, who was also interested. All of America was interested in the topic until I received a phone call from Syria from General Mamlouk. He told me, “Stop everything because President Assad has backed out of the agreement.”

Interviewer: Were you there at the time?

Abbas Ibrahim: Yes, I was on my way to Paris for a meeting with Bernard Émié, and…

Interviewer: The head of French intelligence.

Abbas Ibrahim: ..French.. I asked him why, and he said, “We will talk when you arrive.” I informed the Americans, and they were shocked.

Interviewer: Do you think it was related to the election campaigns, meaning they didn’t want to give Trump a valuable asset and wanted him to lose?

Abbas Ibrahim: It was clear that there was a tendency from Syria, Iran, and that axis that they wanted Trump to lose and didn’t want him back for a second term. But let me tell you my assessment: even regarding a potential return, they had previously agreed. The Syrian President was eager in the last 60 days to conclude this deal with Trump. As I understood from General Mamlouk later, they believed that if President Biden won, it would be impossible to reach an understanding with him on this matter because Biden might not be willing to pay the price to close the file. That was the Syrian perspective then. The process stopped, and the file was postponed to Biden’s era.

Interviewer: Though it later appeared there was no trace of Austin Tice.

Abbas Ibrahim: No, there is no trace, to this day, there is no trace.

Interviewer: There was another offer made with Pompeo when you met him in Germany, correct?

Abbas Ibrahim: When we met in Germany, Secretary Mike Pompeo was still the CIA Director. He requested to see me. The Italian intelligence chief came to Beirut and took me in his private jet to Munich, where I met Pompeo. He asked about this issue, but his main focus was the land border demarcation, an issue where we had made significant progress at the time.

Interviewer: Demarcation?

Abbas Ibrahim: The land demarcation between Lebanon and Israel stopped at a point of disagreement because we linked the land border to the maritime border. He intervened to understand what was happening to help. He promised to convey my viewpoint to the US Secretary of State to facilitate a solution. Two or three months later, Pompeo became Secretary of State. He called me on my home phone here. He told me, “I have an offer regarding Austin.” I listened. He said, “Tell the Syrians that I will fly in my private jet and land at Damascus International Airport right now, on the condition that I return with Austin, whether alive or dead. In return, I am ready to meet any Syrian figure at the airport.” He told me to wait for him at the airport to coordinate between them. I presented the idea to General Mamlouk, but it was rejected.

Interviewer: Did he reject it immediately, or did he double-check?

Abbas Ibrahim: He came back with an answer. No one in Syria rejects things on the spot.

Interviewer: Why the rejection? What was the reason?

Abbas Ibrahim: They didn’t want to handle this file. Their constant answer was, “We know nothing about Austin Tice; he was kidnapped by militants.” If you recall, Johnny, a video clip was circulated showing him blindfolded with people shouting Allahu Akbar, implying militants killed him. The American side believed that video was a Syrian official intelligence production. I used to tell General Mamlouk that the video was unconvincing to the Americans, who viewed it as a Syrian manufacture.

The Release of Sam Goodwin

Interviewer: Prior to that stage, you contributed to the release of an American and a Canadian citizen, Sam Goodwin in 2019 and the Canadian later.

Abbas Ibrahim: Sam Goodwin was a traveler who decided to visit every country in the world. He reached a location where his family lost contact with him. The US agencies stated they had no contact with the Syrians to verify if he was in Syria, though his parents suspected it. His parents knew a former army colleague of mine who lives in the US named Joseph Abbas. They asked him, “Joseph, do you know anyone in Lebanon or the Middle East who can check if Sam is in Syria?” They had contacted the Vatican and the entire globe; his parents were somewhat influential in the US. Joseph called me after years and explained the situation. I told him I would try, though I had no prior information.

During my first visit to Damascus, I spoke with General Mamlouk. He checked with the agencies and confirmed, “Yes, he is with us.” I told him, “Confirming he is with us places a responsibility to complete his file.” He said he would answer the next day, and then told me to inform his parents he was there. We worked on the file for two or three months until it was finalized with President Assad around May or September 2019. I received a promise that on the 24th of the month, a patrol could pick up Sam Goodwin. I called Joseph and told him to ensure Sam’s mother and father were at my office on the 24th. They came, a General Security patrol brought Sam to the office, and he met his parents in the office.

Interviewer: Without any price in return?

Abbas Ibrahim: Without any price in return

Interviewer: Why did they release him without a price?

Abbas Ibrahim: Sam initially entered areas controlled by militants from the Turkish side, then crossed into areas under official Syrian authority where he was arrested for illegal entry. Some things with the Syrians remain unexplained. Following that, the Canadian ambassador contacted me saying, “General, we have a citizen detained in Syria for about a year. Can you help bring him back?” I told her I Some would try, but requested an official written letter from the Canadian embassy to present to Lebanese authorities. Within a week, a patrol brought Kristian Baxter from Damascus. The Canadian ambassador held a press conference at General Security, received him, and left.

Some thought they could get a political price for him, but Sam was a civilian. Austin Tice was different.

Interviewer: Why were these individuals released without a price while there was an attractive offer for Tice during the height of Syria’s blockade, yet they refused?

Abbas Ibrahim: First, they considered Austin Tice to be officially tasked by the US government for a mission. Austin Tice was previously a captain in the Marine Corps, and how he transitioned to journalism was questionable to them; they viewed him as a security asset. The difficulty of his file was its security nature. They used to tell me, “You say he is a Washington Post journalist, but our information says he is a Marine officer.” They believed returning him would carry a very high political price. Why they completely refused negotiations, I don’t know.

Interviewer: Before closing the Syria file, do you know anything about General Ali Mamlouk after his removal and the subsequent collapse of the regime?

Abbas Ibrahim: His son called me when they were coming to Lebanon. I had already retired. He was with the Russians in Damascus, and it later appeared he went to Moscow along with a large number of officers and President Assad.

Interviewer: And did you meet President Assad?

Abbas Ibrahim: I met President Assad two or three times, notably regarding the Maaloula nuns’ file, because the kidnappers demanded names mostly from Syrian prisons. We had to go to Syria and convince President Assad that we had 25 soldiers to retrieve in exchange for maybe 100 women held in Syrian prisons. I met him three times: once for the nuns, once for the soldiers, and once regarding the Austin Tice file to see what could be done.

Interviewer: What was his position?

Abbas Ibrahim: His position was always, “This man is not with us.”

Interviewer: How did you perceive his personality? Flexible or rigid?

Abbas Ibrahim: In official meetings, he was very formal and rigid. “He is not with us, he is not with us”, it wasn’t open for discussion.

Interviewer: Did you meet him alone, or was there someone with you?

Abbas Ibrahim: No, alone.

The 1983 Open-Sewer Rescue of Surrounded U.S. Marines

Interviewer: Someone told me an interesting story from 1983 where you rescued the first American hostages. You were in the Airborne Regiment, an American force was surrounded, and you went with a Lebanese Army unit. They told me you stayed without food.

Abbas Ibrahim: That was in 1983. I was a lieutenant.

Interviewer: The Israeli invasion had ended, and multinational forces arrived, including the US contingent.

Abbas Ibrahim: The regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Othman, received a call that a US unit was surrounded between Hayy al-Sallam and Choueifat, running out of ammunition. We needed to supply them with ammunition so they could provide cover for an airborne evacuation. The commander gathered us and asked who would volunteer for this highly dangerous mission. I raised my hand. I looked around and saw no one else. He told me to step aside and pick 12 soldiers from the 800-soldier regiment. I chose soldiers close to me in work. We checked the maps and saw a river leading to the point where the Americans and a small, surrounded Lebanese Army unit were besieged with them. I told the men we would carry the ammunition on our shoulders and wade through the river to reach them.

We reached the river and found it filled with waste from the Choueifat factories and sewage from Hayy al-Sallam. It was an open sewer, but we had no option. The river had reeds on both sides providing cover. We went in, the water reached our chests, and the youth carried the ammunition. It took us about 45 minutes to reach the Americans and the Lebanese unit. They had hidden a damaged armored vehicle in the water to shield it from RPGs. We met the American captain and the Lebanese officer.

On the first day, there was no water to wash or food to eat. We asked the American captain if we could eat MREs with them. MREs are food rations they heat up. He said, “No, these are individual rations, we cannot feed you.” We had risked our lives to bring them ammunition, yet everyone was on his own. There was a small abandoned farm nearby, and we searched, we wanted to eat, and we found left-behind goats. We used our helmets to milk the goats and drank it. We stayed for 10 days, and I lost 12 kilograms. We contracted scabies and lived entirely on milk and water. When Apache helicopters and jets finally evacuated them, we left and went to the military hospital for treatment.

Years later, US Ambassador Dorothy Shea visited me, and I was reprimanding her over something. She said, “But we are friends, we did this and that.” I told her, “What friends? You wouldn’t even give us food while we risked our lives to save your soldiers.” She felt ashamed and left. Two hours later, the guards informed me the US ambassador had sent two boxes. I opened them and found MRE food rations, the very food they should have given us back then. I called her and said, “Thank you, but you are a few decades late.”

That was our first mission involving the Americans. Initially, a US special unit had established and trained our regiment. They told us President Carter would attend our graduation, but he didn’t come due to security reasons. Since then, the Americans have assisted General Security. Initially, it wasn’t much, but later they helped with training, minimal equipment, and most importantly, counter-terrorism information-sharing.

Interviewer: We will stop here for the first episode, and we will dive deeper into more files and secrets in the second episode.

This extraordinary testimony from Abbas Ibrahim provides a rare, unvarnished look at the shadow diplomacy that defined the search for Austin Tice. It underscores a painful reality: while successive U.S. administrations, from Obama to Trump, showed a willingness to deploy high-level envoys, explore political concessions, and even offer direct high-stakes meetings on the tarmac of Damascus International Airport, they were met with absolute, calculated denial from the highest echelons of the Syrian regime.

By labeling a captive journalist as a “security asset” due to his military past, Bashar al-Assad effectively locked the door to standard humanitarian negotiations, viewing Austin not as a hostage to be freed, but as a geopolitical card to be withheld.

Even Ibrahim’s vivid recollection of his first encounter with U.S. forces in 1983 serves as a striking metaphor for this entire saga, a grueling, high-stakes effort carried out through the mud, defined by deep transactional friction, where breakthrough solutions are often arrived at “decades late.”

As the dust from the Assad regime and Iranian influence continues to settle across the region, and the actors who held its secrets shift, the quest for answers remains absolute.

If you appreciated this piece, please consider sharing it with others or subscribing to receive next week’s update directly in your inbox.

__________________________________________________________________________

In 2012, freelance journalist and veteran U.S. Marine Austin Tice vanished at a checkpoint near Damascus, Syria. For over a decade, his disappearance has remained one of the most complex, frustrating, and high-stakes international mysteries of our time. Governments have stalled, intelligence agencies have hit dead ends? And a family has refused to give up hope.

But this isn’t just a story about geopolitical stalemates. It’s a story about the people who get pulled into the orbit of a missing man. In this premier episode, I lay out the exact sequence of events that brought me into this search.

And that is how I first became involved in the search for Austin Tice. Or, perhaps more accurately how the search found me. Hope you find this interesting and helpful!

The Investigation Behind the Episode

This premiere is just the beginning of a much larger journey. Months of intensive reporting, both inside and outside Syria, have culminated in The Search for Austin Tice: a video podcast by Rena Netjes and Sophie Fullerton, produced by Hayan Imadi.

This is the most challenging investigation I have ever undertaken.

After Syrian Revolutionary networks put me on track in December 2024, I couldn’t let go. Uncovering the truth, spanning 2023, 2024 mostly, and beyond, has required constant vigilance and endless verification to cut through a barrage of false narratives.

My mission is simple: to make these findings fully accessible, and to shed as much light as possible on what happened to Austin Tice, especially for his family.

As an independent journalist, this is a massive undertaking. Although we have made significant progress thanks to Dutch crowdfunding and our own resources, we are not there yet.

If you value this journalism, please consider supporting our work. Sponsorships and contributions directly fund our ongoing fieldwork in Syria and neighboring countries, enabling us to conduct critical interviews and undertake necessary journeys safely.

While my primary focus is the search for Austin Tice, we are also using our extensive network to investigate other critical disappearances in Syria.

With the tremendous help of the Syrian Revolutionary Networks, we are actively looking into the cases of:

• Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim (Syriac-Orthodox) and Paul Yazigi (Greek Orthodox Metropolitan) of Aleppo were kidnapped in April 2013.

• Farouq Bakour a civilian young man from Azaz, who disappeared at a YPG checkpoint in August 2016 in Kafr Janna, and who was likely transferred to Baghdad in 2026

• Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, the Italian Jesuit priest abducted in Raqqa

We have already made significant progress in all these cases. However, uncovering the full truth requires continued efforts, cross-border research, and fieldwork. Your sponsorship directly enables the vital travel needed to push these investigations forward.

You can use this link:

https://steunactie.nl/actie/de-zoektocht-naar-austin-tice-6/-64488 or support us via Substack. Thank you for your consideration!

DAMASCUS — The news broke here with the kind of sudden, chaotic friction that defines modern Levantine politics (0:40). Mihraç Ural, the notorious pro-Assad militia leader also known as Ali Kayali, had finally been caught (1:07).

But as the headlines settled in the capital, a glaring contradiction emerged: Was he arrested at the Lebanese-Syrian border, o…

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Since September 16, I have been publishing weekly updates every Wednesday, detailing my deep-dive research into the disappearance of American journalist Austin Tice. This series provides the crucial context and written breakdowns following my Sep…

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“Rena, j’espère que vous êtes en sécurité et que vous allez bien. J’ai quelque chose de très urgent concernant un citoyen américain. Pourriez-vous m’appeler dès que possible?”

Ce message provenait d’un ancien ambassadeur des États-Unis en Syrie le 11 décembre 2024. Un collègue syrien et moi venions d’arriver à Damas, “le quatrième jour après Assad”, comm…

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The search for Austin Tice is paved with fragmented introductions, old prison bonds, and deep-rooted tribal and family networks. In the chaotic aftermath of the Assad regime’s collapse, desperate insiders used what they knew to negotiate their safety. Our ongoing investigation reveals how these separate networks managed to pinpoint the exact location wh…

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In this episode we pull back the curtain on a shadow world where civilian networks are taking huge risks. We deliver an unprecedented look at the raw courage and complex espionage required in the search for the missing American journalist.

In 2012, freelance journalist and veteran U.S. Marine Austin Tice vanished at a checkpoint near Damascus, Syria. For over a decade, his disappearance has remained one of the most complex, frustrating, and high-stakes international mysteries of our time. Governments have stalled, intelligence agencies have hit dead ends? And a family has refused to give up hope.

But this isn’t just a story about geopolitical stalemates. It’s a story about the people who get pulled into the orbit of a missing man. In this premier episode, I lay out the exact sequence of events that brought me into this search.

And that is how I first became involved in the search for Austin Tice. Or, perhaps more accurately how the search found me. Hope you find this interesting and helpful!

The Investigation Behind the Episode

This premiere is just the beginning of a much larger journey. Months of intensive reporting, both inside and outside Syria, have culminated in The Search for Austin Tice: a video podcast by Rena Netjes and Sophie Fullerton, produced by Hayan Imadi.

This is the most challenging investigation I have ever undertaken.

After Syrian Revolutionary networks put me on track in December 2024, I couldn’t let go. Uncovering the truth, spanning 2023, 2024 mostly, and beyond, has required constant vigilance and endless verification to cut through a barrage of false narratives.

My mission is simple: to make these findings fully accessible, and to shed as much light as possible on what happened to Austin Tice, especially for his family.

As an independent journalist, this is a massive undertaking. Although we have made significant progress thanks to Dutch crowdfunding and our own resources, we are not there yet.

If you value this journalism, please consider supporting our work. Sponsorships and contributions directly fund our ongoing fieldwork in Syria and neighboring countries, enabling us to conduct critical interviews and undertake necessary journeys safely.

While my primary focus is the search for Austin Tice, we are also using our extensive network to investigate other critical disappearances in Syria.

With the tremendous help of the Syrian Revolutionary Networks, we are actively looking into the cases of:

• Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim (Syriac-Orthodox) and Paul Yazigi (Greek Orthodox Metropolitan) of Aleppo were kidnapped in April 2013.

• Farouq Bakour a civilian young man from Azaz, who disappeared at a YPG checkpoint in August 2016 in Kafr Janna, and who was likely transferred to Baghdad in 2026

• Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, the Italian Jesuit priest abducted in Raqqa

We have already made significant progress in all these cases. However, uncovering the full truth requires continued efforts, cross-border research, and fieldwork. Your sponsorship directly enables the vital travel needed to push these investigations forward.

You can use this link: https://steunactie.nl/actie/de-zoektocht-naar-austin-tice-6/-64488 or support us via Substack.

Thank you for your consideration!

#AustinTice #Syria #US #Iran #MissingJournalist

The information stream went dark following my December 2024 departure from Syria. In my blog post last week, you can read how I became unexpectedly involved in the Search for Austin Tice.

https://renanetjes.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/215989373?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fhome

In the beginning of 2025, I co-produced reports for German outlets on Syria’s A…

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“Rena, I hope you are safe and well. I have something very urgent concerning an American citizen. Could you call me as soon as possible?”

This message came from a former U.S. ambassador to Syria on Dec. 11, 2024. A Syrian colleague and I had just arrived in Damascus, “the fourth day after Assad,” as Syrians called it. Bashar al-Assad’s regime had collaps…

Read more

But this isn’t just a story about geopolitical stalemates. It’s a story about the people who get pulled into the orbit of a missing man. In this premier episode, I lay out the exact sequence of events that brought me into this search.

And that is how I first became involved in the search for Austin Tice. Or, perhaps more accurately how the search found me. Hope you find this interesting and helpful!

The Investigation Behind the Episode

This premiere is just the beginning of a much larger journey. Months of intensive reporting, both inside and outside Syria, have culminated in The Search for Austin Tice: a video podcast by Rena Netjes and Sophie Fullerton, produced by Hayan Imadi.

This is the most challenging investigation I have ever undertaken.

After Syrian Revolutionary networks put me on track in December 2024, I couldn’t let go. Uncovering the truth, spanning 2023, 2024 mostly, and beyond, has required constant vigilance and endless verification to cut through a barrage of false narratives.

My mission is simple: to make these findings fully accessible, and to shed as much light as possible on what happened to Austin Tice, especially for his family.

As an independent journalist, this is a massive undertaking. Although we have made significant progress thanks to Dutch crowdfunding and our own resources, we are not there yet.

If you value this journalism, please consider supporting our work. Sponsorships and contributions directly fund our ongoing fieldwork in Syria and neighboring countries, enabling us to conduct critical interviews and undertake necessary journeys safely.

While my primary focus is the search for Austin Tice, we are also using our extensive network to investigate other critical disappearances in Syria.

With the tremendous help of the Syrian Revolutionary Networks, we are actively looking into the cases of:

• Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim (Syriac-Orthodox) and Paul Yazigi (Greek Orthodox Metropolitan) of Aleppo were kidnapped in April 2013.

• Farouq Bakour a civilian young man from Azaz, who disappeared at a YPG checkpoint in August 2016 in Kafr Janna, and who was likely transferred to Baghdad in 2026

• Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, the Italian Jesuit priest abducted in Raqqa

We have already made significant progress in all these cases. However, uncovering the full truth requires continued efforts, cross-border research, and fieldwork. Your sponsorship directly enables the vital travel needed to push these investigations forward.

You can use this link: https://steunactie.nl/actie/de-zoektocht-naar-austin-tice-6/-64488 or support us via Substack.

Thank you for your consideration!

Read more

International Office - VPRO, September 8, 2026 1.30 PM – 2.00 PM

https://www.nporadio1.nl/fragmenten/bureau-buitenland/01a080dd-7ff6-725d-ad1f-654d85cfd3be/2026-09-08-spoor-van-in-syrie-verdwenen-journalist

Tens of thousands of people have disappeared in Syria under the Assad regime; among them is American journalis…

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What Happened in Ras al-Ayn?

Azad Osman, a community leader in Afrin, a former member of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (Etilaf) and a former Kurdish FSA commander in Ashrafiya, Aleppo, says that those involved in confrontations with returning families were Iraqis rather than Syrians. “To be honest, in Ras al-Ayn, when there were problems involving fami…

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An Unpublished Interview with Hussein Al-Raad, Former Vice President of the Ras al-Ayn/Sere Kaniye City Council

A Kurdish journalist interviewed Hussein Al-Raad, the former vice president of the city council of Ras al-Ayn/Sere Kaniye under the Syrian Interim Government. Raad is himself displaced from Debersiya and is of mixed Arab-Kurdish descent. He is …

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When I returned from a family holiday in Spain to Istanbul, I hoped to leave for Syria a few days later. But the long-term visa I had applied for still wasn’t ready.

That same evening, I went to a terrace in Istanbul wearing a half-sleeved cardigan over my dress. It was 24°C outside, but with the air conditioning blasting — and even spraying ice-cold mist — It was too cold for me.

I had just come from Madrid, where it had been much warmer. So, I gave up, went back to the apartment where I was staying, and thought about renewing my gym and swimming-pool membership. It is ridiculously expensive in Istanbul these days, but at least it would be a good way to make the most of my unexpected time there.

Then a colleague said: “Why don’t you come to Didim and wait there? It’s hot here, and there’s an empty house near the beach. You can stay there.” Oh wow. That was an offer too good to refuse. I thought about it for one day. The next morning, I decided to take him up on it.

Didim? Where is that?

I have to admit something: I had lived in Turkey for almost eight years, but I had never even heard of Didim.

I had never really visited the Aegean coast either. Over the years, whenever I had any extra money, I tended to spend it on trips to Syria or on places in Turkey connected to my Syria work. Priorities. So suddenly, I found myself heading to a part of Turkey I had never seen before.

When I arrived, three weeks ago now, I walked along the boulevard. Restaurants and beach clubs seemed to be competing with one another to persuade tourists to come inside. There were hardly any Western tourists. No Arabs at all.

I did hear a lot of German, sometimes broken German, as well as French, English and Dutch. Most of the holidaymakers seemed to be Turkish — including many Turks who live in Germany, France, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. You could see it from the number plates on the cars as well.

At one venue, the Dior Club, I noticed a long line of young people waiting outside. On a poster, I recognized the Turkish hip-hop singer performing that Thursday night:

Lvbel C5.

I knew him from a song he made with the Belgian-Moroccan singer Dystinct, who has probably become my favourite Arabic singer of the past few months. For those who don’t know this side of me: I absolutely love Arabic music. And Hebrew music too.

Before January 2011, I used to watch Arabic music channels almost every day. Over the years, I also had my students translate dozens of songs with me — usually my favourites. After 2011, I simply didn’t have the time anymore. There was far too much happening in the Arab world, and I ended up spending much more time following the news than watching music videos.

Anyway, I wanted to be 100% sure. I asked a young woman standing in the line: “Is he the singer of Gel Gel Gel?” “Yes, he is.” I thought: Wow. I come to this small town in Turkey — a town I had never even heard of — and on the same day, the one Turkish singer of the moment that I actually know and listen to turns out to be performing here.

Arabic music… in Didim?

The next day, I took my first swim in the sea. One can swim surprisingly far here before it gets deep or dangerous. I love it. Then came Saturday. This time, I spent the whole afternoon in the water and on the beach. And that’s when I started noticing something else.

It wasn’t only Gel Gel Gel, that Turkish-Arabic mix I had heard earlier, playing somewhere along the beach. From another beach club, I suddenly heard an Arabic-only song:

Dystinct — Yama.

In the days that followed, I kept hearing more Arabic music from different venues while I was doing my daily 45-minute swim. Mostly Dystinct.

As I said, he has become one of my favourite singers. I love the upbeat, danceable music — and I particularly like that the lyrics aren’t vulgar. Quite the contrary. I don’t listen to much modern Western or Turkish music because I find the lyrics far too vulgar. That’s another reason I enjoy Arabic music so much.

I also heard Ma Tnsani, Ahla Laila Ahla Nas by Vanco featuring Aya, and Eih al-Youm al-Hilw da, Eih il-Nas il-Hilwa Di by Ahmed Saad. And even Egyptian singer Hakim — whom I don’t like quite as much — appeared on the playlist every now and then.

I found it fascinating. In Istanbul, I wouldn’t normally hear all this Arabic music being played in Turkish cafés or on terraces. Usually, I would have to ask for it. (I do this sometimes…) And even then, they might only play it if there were Arab guests around — or if the terrace was almost empty. There have even been occasions when “our” terrace at Papel in Kadıköy would put on my favourite Dystinct songs as soon as they saw me arriving.

But here in Didim? No Arabs. No Syrians. No Arab tourists. And yet there was Arabic music. Cool. And completely unexpected.

And then I saw the poster…

A few days later, a colleague joined me in Didim. We walked along the same boulevard, passing all the beach clubs and restaurants, looking for a decent fish restaurant. Eventually, we found one. A couple of hours later, we were walking back when I noticed that a new poster had appeared outside Medousa.

It showed the singers who would be performing there over the coming weeks. There were quite a few Turkish names. And then, among all those Turkish singers, I saw a name that made me stop: DYSTINCT. I couldn’t believe it.

I already knew he was going to perform in Istanbul on August 7 at an open-air concert. But the tickets were expensive, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to stand in a huge crowd just to listen to him live. More importantly, I thought I would be in Damascus by then.

But now…He was coming to Didim. And not to some enormous concert arena. He was going to perform at a relatively small club, right here on the boulevard, basically around the corner from where we were staying. I asked about the ticket price. “About 1,000 Turkish lira.” Around 20 US dollars.

Wow. We are going.

And just like that, the voorpret had begun. Voorpret is a Dutch word for that anticipation you feel before something you’re looking forward to. My colleague wanted to come too. Buying the tickets turned out to be more complicated than expected. My Dutch credit card didn’t work with İş Bankası, just as it hadn’t in Istanbul. My colleague’s Turkish bank card didn’t work either, I had some euros with me, which they were willing to accept.

Finally, the tickets were ours. After all that effort, I thought, this concert had better be fun.

The night of Dystinct

The evening of August 6 arrived. The program said the concert would run from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. That sounded extremely late.

I hadn’t been to a concert since 1997, when I saw the Lebanese singer Nawal Al-Zoghby in Jerash, Jordan. When we left, I was harassed by a man and kicked him hard enough that he could barely walk afterwards. A Jordanian woman was also harassed, and a crowd came to her aid — although, notably, no one came to help me. Our visit to the front row of the Jerash Theatre had even made it into the local newspaper.

Thankfully, I haven’t had experiences like that here in Turkey.

After seeing U2 and Mariah Carey in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, respectively, this was only the fourth concert I had ever attended. Before the concert, I was walking back from a café where we often work when I heard some young men speaking Dutch on the terrace of an apartment building. They told me they were having a few drinks before going to a concert because drinks inside the club were expensive.

“Are you going to Dystinct?” I asked. “Yes!” I asked how an Arab singer had become so well known in Turkey. “Because of his song with Lvbel C5,” one of them said. They were all Dutch Turks and Kurds. None of them spoke Arabic. I joked: “If something happens to us tonight, ladies, you can protect us, right?” They agreed.

By this point, I was wondering whether all the voorpret might eventually make the concert tegenvallen — another Dutch word, meaning that something turns out to be disappointing after you’ve built it up too much in your mind.

There was only one way to find out. We went to Medousa Beach Club, just five minutes from where we were staying. The venue itself was already worth the trip. It was an open-air club, with fire burning in large cauldrons and, of course, a beautiful view of the sea. The whole atmosphere of Didim — and Medousa in particular — felt much more relaxed and less seedy than clubs In Istanbul.

So even before the main act appeared, the evening was already a pretty great experience. Sometime after 1 a.m., the DJ changed. The music became Arabized than and then…

Dystinct came on stage.

His first song was in French, and I immediately realized how many people in the venue knew the words and were singing along. French-speaking Turks? Belgian Turks? Then he moved into Moroccan Arabic. He sang Tek Tek, followed by the two songs I know him best for — and love most: Yama and my favourite, Ta3al. What surprised me most was the audience. They were singing along to songs in Moroccan Arabic. Not just a few people. A lot of them.

Perhaps Dystinct himself was surprised too, because at one point he asked the audience one question: “Who is from Morocco?” About twenty hands went up. Twenty. So, who were all the others singing along in Moroccan Arabic? Turks. I still find that remarkable.

And in a way, it is exactly what Dystinct aims to achieve. In earlier interviews, he has talked about wanting people who aren’t Arabs to sing in Moroccan Arabic — bringing “Morocco to the world.”

He has also explained that he initially started singing in Dutch, but people didn’t respond to his songs. Then he moved to Arabic, but couldn’t find a producer. So. they decided to do it themselves. And it worked. Very, very well.

Dystinct’s Turkish tour took him along the coast: Antalya, Bodrum, Izmir, Didim — and finally Istanbul. And I find that genuinely remarkable.

Over the years I’ve often heard, in Turkey, that people don’t like Arabs or Arab culture. I’ve even been asked whether I am Arab — and, when the answer was yes, I would have to get out of the taxi in Istanbul. And yet here we were, standing in a beach club in Didim, surrounded largely by Turkish young people, listening to them sing along — in Moroccan Arabic, French and other varieties of Arabic — to a Belgian-Moroccan artist.

Not because there were Arab tourists in the audience. Not because a group of Syrians had requested the music. Not because someone had put on an Arabic playlist for Arab guests.

That, to me as a linguist, was one of the most interesting parts of the whole experience. I had come to Didim because a visa delay forced me to wait. I had never even heard of the place before. I expected hot weather, sunshine, swimming, work and a healthy escape before Syria. Instead, I discovered something I hadn’t expected at all: a small corner of the Turkish Aegean where Moroccan Arabic was being sung back to a Moroccan-Belgian singer by Turkish young people.

Sometimes, the best discoveries are the ones you never planned to make.

Read Sophie Fullerton’s full piece: https://www.turkiyetoday.com/opinion/hidden-contradictions-in-laura-loomers-pro-ukraine-pivot-3224961?s=7

I grew up in a small village called Lemelerveld, in the eastern Netherlands, not far from the German border. My parents always told us stories about what had happened in Nazi Germany and the horrors of the Holocaust. According to my mother, it was a Protestant preacher who preached in both Germany and the Netherlands who raised the alarm about what was …

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The idea of using Kurdish forces against Iran reflects a long-standing strategic concept sometimes called the “Kurdish card,” in which outside powers seek to leverage Kurdish nationalist movements to pressure regional governments.

“The Kurds aren’t a large enough part of the population to topple the regime,” Iranian-American journalist Borzou Daraghi say…

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