CIA set up secret back channel with Syria to free US hostage

EW YORK 24 June 2017:In the early days of the Trump administration, U.S. national security officials began exploring ways to free Austin Tice, an American journalist and a former Marine officer believed to be held by the Syrian government, The New York Times reported.

His case has frustrated investigators and diplomats since he disappeared while on assignment nearly five years ago.

White House officials decided, because of the delicacy of the situation, to set up a back channel.

Given the deteriorated relations between the United States and Syria, options were limited. So in early February, Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, spoke on the phone with Ali Mamlouk, the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau intelligence service, a man accused of human rights abuses during the country’s civil war and slapped with sanctions by the United States.

The call was the highest-level contact between the governments in years.