United States | Damascene excursion

Tulsi Gabbard, Sean Penn and the hunt for an American hostage

A controversial trip to Syria in 2017 produced a possible sighting of Austin Tice, an imprisoned journalist

Tulsi Gabbard
The woman who will explain the world to Donald TrumpPhotograph: Getty Images

EARLY IN 2019 a Lebanese-American businessman tried to bring a stunning piece of information to the attention of Tulsi Gabbard, then a 37-year-old Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii. The man told her that two years earlier, while they were visiting Syria together, he had met Austin Tice, a freelance American journalist abducted in 2012 while working outside Damascus.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Tulsi Gabbard and the hunt for an American hostage”

From the January 18th 2025 edition

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