On December 8th, 2024, rebels swept into Damascus and ousted Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad. One of the first things they did was open up the prisons. Syrians who disappeared years earlier began to emerge from their grim detention cells. Would missing American journalist Austin Tice be among them?

In the second episode of our three part series on The Weekend Intelligence, Middle East correspondent, Gareth Browne, finds out what the Americans knew about Austin’s whereabouts and traces diplomatic efforts to get him back. He also goes deeper into the inner workings of Bashar al-Assad’s security state to understand how an American could get lost in it.