2026年6月1日 / 美国东部时间上午11:22 / 哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）新闻
华盛顿讯——美国官员在特朗普总统首届任期内曾寻求俄罗斯的帮助，以确保记者奥斯汀·泰斯获释。此前情报显示，这位海军陆战队退伍老兵大概率仍然在世，但多方面线索和高额赏金都未能帮助找到他的下落。
当时担任特朗普政府人质谈判代表、后来出任特朗普国家安全顾问的罗伯特·奥布莱恩，曾询问俄罗斯国家安全顾问尼古拉·帕特鲁舍夫，俄罗斯能否利用其对时任叙利亚领导人巴沙尔·阿萨德的影响力，帮助营救泰斯。
“长期以来，俄罗斯一直是阿萨德的支持者之一，事实上，这位独裁者的政权能存续，很大程度上要归功于俄罗斯2015年对叙利亚内战的军事干预，”奥布莱恩在一本新书中写道。该书披露了此前未被报道过的多起追查泰斯下落的细节。
奥布莱恩在书中写道，帕特鲁舍夫同意了这一请求。但据该书提前样稿（目前以电子形式在特朗普政府内部流传，并被CBS新闻获取）显示，“即便是阿萨德的盟友也碰壁了”。
自由记者泰斯于2012年8月在报道叙利亚内战时失踪。几周后，一段短视频在网上流传，视频中情绪低落的泰斯被蒙住眼睛，身旁疑似是他的绑架者。这是人们最后一次见到他。
奥布莱恩表示，演员肖恩·潘、梵蒂冈、约旦国王、捷克官员、多个海湾国家以及一名自称曾当面见过泰斯的黎巴嫩商人，也都曾尝试追查潜在线索或与美国没有正式外交关系的阿萨德政权进行幕后接触。
2020年秋，奥布莱恩派遣两名美国官员前往叙利亚会见该国情报负责人：时任美国国家安全委员会反恐高级主任卡什·帕特尔，以及奥布莱恩的继任者、总统人质事务特别特使罗杰·卡斯滕斯。
“特朗普政府内部在这一策略是否明智的问题上并未达成一致，”奥布莱恩写道。
奥布莱恩写道，时任国务卿迈克·蓬佩奥强烈担忧美国官员会被绑架，同时他希望通过外交和经济制裁对阿萨德保持强硬立场。
蓬佩奥安排美国中央司令部部署武装无人机和高空卫星，在帕特尔和卡斯滕斯身处大马士革会见情报负责人阿里·马姆卢克期间，对他们进行监视和保护。
从贝鲁特驱车前往大马士革风险极高，但“尽管他们尽了最大努力，卡什和罗杰仍未能促成奥斯汀的获释”。
曾利用好莱坞明星身份协助被错误扣押美国人的潘，在2019年致电奥布莱恩，告知他自己在洛杉矶一场筹款活动上的一次偶遇。潘称，一名与阿萨德政权有联系的黎巴嫩商人表示，他刚在叙利亚见到了泰斯，当时该政权组织了一场会面，以表明这名被绑架的记者仍然活着。
奥布莱恩与潘以及商人埃利亚斯·夸哈姆会面，共同谋划二人如何充当与该政权的中间人。“但预期中的联系始终未能达成，”奥布莱恩写道。
尽管约旦与阿萨德政权关系不佳，但奥布莱恩推测，该国接待的叙利亚难民中可能有人了解泰斯的情况。
他在加利福尼亚州纳帕谷的一场反恐会议上见到了约旦国王阿卜杜拉二世。奥布莱恩写道，国王“态度亲切，对泰斯案十分了解，并愿意听取更多案件细节。他承诺会责成其安全部门追查新线索，不过他也表示，我们已有多年未收到泰斯还活着的证据”。
梵蒂冈拥有全球最广泛的外交触角之一，包括在叙利亚境内。奥布莱恩在梵蒂冈举办的一场晚宴上结识了一名与阿萨德一同长大的知名黎巴嫩商人。
“他最终联系了阿萨德，阿萨德告诉他，如果美国人想要回泰斯，”奥布莱恩写道，“他们不应该如此偷偷摸摸地行事。”
美国中央情报局在2024年更新了对泰斯案的评估，以低可信度认定他大概率已经死亡。
奥布莱恩表示，特朗普首届政府从24个国家营救了55名美国人，且未作出任何让步。在特朗普第二届任期内，迄今已有超过80人被营救。
关于奥斯汀·泰斯失踪案的新播客
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/new-podcast-digs-into-american-journalist-austin-tice-who-went-missing-in-syria/
U.S. sought Russia’s help to free journalist Austin Tice in Trump’s first term, ex-envoy says
June 1, 2026 / 11:22 AM EDT / CBS News
Washington— U.S. officials sought help from Russia during President Trump’s first term to secure the release of journalist Austin Tice after intelligence indicated that the Marine veteran was likely still alive but numerous leads and a hefty reward hadn’t helped locate him.
Robert O’Brien, who was a hostage negotiator for the administration at the time and later became Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, asked Nikolai Patrushev, the Russian national security adviser, if Russia could use its pull with then-Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to free Tice.
“The Russians had long been one of Assad’s patrons, and in fact the dictator substantially owed the survival of his regime to Russian military intervention in the civil war in 2015,” O’Brien wrote in a new book, which includes previously unreported details on multiple attempts to track down Tice.
Patrushev agreed, O’Brien wrote. But “even Assad’s allies ran into a brick wall,” according to an advance copy of the book that has been circulating inside the Trump administration in digital form and was obtained by CBS News.
Tice, a freelance journalist, disappeared in August 2012 while reporting on the Syrian civil war. Weeks later, a short video appeared online that showed a distressed Tice blindfolded with his apparent captors. It was the last time he was seen.
Freelance journalist Austin Tice. Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Kash Patel, actor Sean Penn, the Vatican, the king of Jordan, Czech officials, various Gulf states and a Lebanese businessman who claimed he’d met with Tice in person also tried to chase potential leads or backchannel with the murderous Assad regime, with whom the U.S. did not have official diplomatic ties, O’Brien said.
In the fall of 2020, O’Brien sent two U.S. officials to Syria to meet with the country’s head of intelligence: Patel, then the National Security Council’s senior director for counterterrorism, and Roger Carstens, O’Brien’s successor as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.
“There was no unanimity within the Trump Administration on the wisdom of this tactic,” O’Brien wrote.
Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a strong concern about the risk that the American officials would be kidnapped, and also wanted to maintain a hard line on Assad through diplomatic and economic sanctions, O’Brien wrote.
Pompeo arranged with U.S. Central Command to have armed drones and overhead satellites moved into place to monitor and protect Patel and Carstens while they were in Damascus to meet with Ali Mamlouk, the intelligence chief.
It was a risky overland drive from Beirut to Damascus, but “again, despite their best efforts, Kash and Roger could not procure Austin’s release.”
Penn, who used his Hollywood celebrity status to aid wrongfully detained Americans, called O’Brien in 2019 to tell him about an encounter he’d had at a fundraiser in Los Angeles. Penn said a Lebanese businessman with contacts with the Assad regime claimed that he had just seen Tice in Syria at a meeting orchestrated by the regime to signal the kidnapped reporter was very much alive.
O’Brien met with Penn and the businessman, Elias Kwaham, to strategize how the pair could act as intermediaries with the regime. “But the hoped-for connections never materialized,” O’Brien wrote.
Although Jordan didn’t have good relations with the Assad regime, O’Brien theorized that one of the Syrian refugees the country hosted might know something about Tice.
He caught up with Jordan’s king, Abdullah II, at a counterterrorism conference in Napa Valley, California. The king was “gracious, knowledgeable about the Tice case, and receptive of some additional case details. He promised to task his security services to look for new leads, although he expressed concern that we had not received proof of life for several years,” O’Brien wrote.
The Vatican, which has one of the world’s most expansive diplomatic footprints, including inside Syria, hosted a dinner where O’Brien connected with a prominent Lebanese businessman who had grown up with Assad.
“He eventually reached out to Assad, who told him that if the Americans wanted Tice back,” O’Brien wrote, “they shouldn’t go about it in such a secretive way.”
The CIA changed its assessment of Tice’s case in 2024 to indicate, with low confidence, that he was likely dead.
O’Brien said the first Trump administration recovered 55 Americans from 24 countries without concessions. More than 80 have been recovered so far during the president’s second term.
New podcast on Austin Tice’s disappearance
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/new-podcast-digs-into-american-journalist-austin-tice-who-went-missing-in-syria/
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