Austin Tice's abduction was approved by Syria's former leader Bashar al-Assad, a source claims.
US journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012, was kidnapped in a calculated operation which was more than a month in the planning, the BBC can reveal.
A member of the group which detained Tice has also claimed the abduction was sanctioned by Syria's leader at the time, President Bashar al-Assad.
Tice was seen getting into a car with a driver he knew and trusted. For years, many assumed they had stumbled upon a government checkpoint, and that the abduction of the journalist had been opportunistic.
But we have uncovered evidence that, in fact, his disappearance was anything but chance.
In a new BBC podcast: Where is Austin Tice? Series 3 of I'm Not A Monster Presents , we reveal the findings of a years-long investigation into what happened to Tice, who had been reporting on Syria's civil war at the time.
His case has been followed closely by international media and cited by successive US presidents.
Josh Baker enters a dangerous world of fear, greed and betrayal as he uncovers what happened in one of the biggest missing-person cases of our time - the abduction of Austin Tice.
Georgetown University law student Tice, who had served as a US Marines captain, was last seen in a video - blindfolded and in apparent distress - posted more than a month after his capture.
As the regime fell 12 years later, tens of thousands of people emerged from the administration's prisons. Tice was not one of them.
We obtained co-ordinates from an intelligence source for multiple locations US authorities suspected he could have been held at, and searched for him for more than a month, but found no sign of him.
A former Syrian commander has said Tice was executed . Others have questioned this account and no remains have been found.
But in the aftermath of the regime's collapse, we did uncover secret Syrian intelligence files on Tice - hundreds of pages of internal records providing the first definitive proof that it was the regime that had held the journalist.
Two crucial questions remained unanswered, however: how exactly had Tice been taken in the first place? And, who was responsible for his abduction?
We have spoken to a number of men from the regime involved in Tice's detention, and have reviewed recordings of discussions about it. One man we spoke to, Abu Ali, is a former member of the National Defence Forces (NDF), a militia which was fiercely loyal to Assad.
He says the abduction operation began when Tice's driver - who multiple sources say had been passing the regime information for some time - told a senior NDF member that Tice was moving through rebel-held areas, reporting on the opposition.
Reporting synthesized and verified under Nexvoro.tech editorial guidelines. Full primary records referenced via BBC World.
OpenAI has formed a new independent mathematics advisory group hosted at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton following a surge in automated problem-solving. The move arrives amid mounting academic scrutiny regarding the rapid pace of artificial intelligence in advanced mathematical research.
As debate intensifies over the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence, OpenAI has proposed a comprehensive framework for international safety standards, focusing heavily on alignment research and recursive self-improvement. The move follows recent high-profile departures and escalating concerns from industry insiders regarding humanity's long-term control over advanced frontier models.
As Washington fiercely debates artificial intelligence oversight, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has emerged as President Donald Trump's top confidant, successfully pushing back against growing regulatory pressures. While rival tech executives advocate for government slowdowns, the head of the world's most valuable chipmaker is charting a rapid course for American tech supremacy.
