Parents of American Journalist Missing in Syria Speaking Out
MALVEAUX: In Syria as the ceasefire there holds parents of a journalist who went missing during the war in that country they are now speaking out. They haven't heard from their son but the U.S. government has said there is reason to believe that he's still alive. Our CNN's Brian Stelter, he sat down with Austin Tice's mother and father.</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Reporters in Syria have been killed in some cases. They have been kidnapped in other cases and they have just vanished. That's what happened to Austin Tice, an American journalist who was in Syria reporting on the conflict in 2012. One day he disappeared and his parents have never heard from any captors, any group holding him, any group demanding ransom. But Debra and Marc Tice remain optimistic that they will be reunited with their son. And earlier in December the U.S. government says it has high confidence that Austin Tice still alive in Syria. I spoke with his parents about what this means to see the end of another year without their son and why they are hopeful that the incoming Trump administration will continue to work as the Obama administration has, trying to find Tice and be able to bring him home to the</s>U.S. DEBRA TICE, MOTHER OF MISSING JOURNALIST, AUSTIN TICE: We have had credible reports ever since Austin was taken that he is alive and so we have hung on to those messages without doubt, without any doubt.</s>MARC TICE, FATHER OF MISSING JOURNALIST, AUSTIN TICE: His captors have not reached out to us, you know. We don't have any way of, you know, completing this solution to bring him home because only -- only half of the equation is working here and that half is, you know, the efforts that we've done, the efforts of the United States government and all those people and organizations that have been supporting us. But, yes, it was extremely comforting and --</s>D. TICE: Uplifting.</s>M. TICE: -- uplifting to hear and for the office of the special presidential envoy and the United States government to say that their assessment is he is alive. We have every reason to believe he's reasonably well. And so, you know, we continue to, you know, press that there's every reason to do everything possible. Keep doing everything possible to bring him home.</s>STELTER: So hard to imagine what these past four-plus years have been like for those parents. They know the statistics all too well. According to the committee to protect journalists in 2016 Syria was the deadliest place in the world for reporters. That's been true for five years in a row. Now, these parents hoping for a much happier outcome for their son, hoping 2017 can be the year they will be reunited.</s>MALVEAUX: And did Russians plant malware found in a Burlington Electric laptop and could it be an attempt to disrupt the nation's power grid? Well, up ahead we are going to talk with the company's general manager live about what they found. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.