Where Is Austin Tice?: 2. "A Black Box"
episodePreviously titled “Where Is Austin Tice?: 2. A Black Box” — renamed by the publisher on Sep 14, 2026
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What events led to the chaotic aftermath of Assad’s downfall in Damascus?
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Tässä sinulle Haiku, joka pehmentää argea. Tuntui Garulta. Golea Argi Aamu Sitten sen jugun. Gogele pehmeää herkkoa. Oi jogu mikä magu? Eloveena. Teyttä eloa. Kaaren karnevaalipärähtää käyntiin ensi viikon keskiviikkona. Luvassaan viisi päivää mutkattomia hintoja ja pikkurahan herkkuja. Kaara suorinta reittiä kaareen napsimaan parhaat päältä. Katso tarjoukset kaarenkarnevaali.fi.
I just wanted to make you aware that there is some content in this episode that you may find upsetting. There are moments in history where everything changes. Where you mark a before and an after. This is one of them.
Високоти не дам.
It's the eighth of December, twenty twenty four. A Syrian news anchor appears on television. He pauses. glances at his watch and then looks up and speaks directly to the nation. He says, it's now exactly 18 minutes past six in Damascus. This is Syria without President Bashar al Assad. The режим газ фолен.
I struggle to stay on my feet as the crowd surges in downtown Damascus. A burst of sunlight strikes a flag that's draped across a man's back. It's the flag of the revolution. Wearing that here just a few days ago would have gotten you killed. But now, fifty years of rule by the Assad family in Syria. Is over.
Away from the crowd, Damascus feels suspended. Like it's holding its breath. Shops are mostly shuttered, streets are virtually empty. Overnight the army vanished. The police are also gone. Their deserted vehicles litter the roads. In some neighborhoods, fighting has broken out between loyalists of the Assad regime and the group that's driven them from power. I can hear surveillance drones above us. They're watching everything. Beneath their gaze, black smoke rises from airstrikes that are falling across Damascus. Sometimes they land nearby. It's the Israeli Air Force striking what it says are Syrian weapons stockpiles. They say they don't want armed groups to have them. Across the city, pictures have started to appear on walls.
Each photo is someone's parent, sibling or child. More than a hundred thousand people have gone missing since the Civil War began. Many vanished into Syria's prison system. Just like Austin Tice. An American journalist who disappeared more than a decade ago while working here. This is the backdrop to our search for Austin. I've been given a purple folder. It contains coordinates that were gathered by Western intelligence agencies for where Austin might be. And for the first time, with the regime gone, we can get inside those facilities. So despite the situation being chaotic and dangerous, the We're gonna search those sites across Damascus one by one. Because somewhere in the ruins of this regime lies the truth about what happened to Austin Tice.
I'm Josh Baker, and from BBC Radio 4, an NPRs embedded, this is Where is Austin Tice? Series three of I'm Not a Monster presents. Episode two A black box.
Here are Coordinates relating to Austin's location and this goes back sometime, right? So the difficulty is knowing which locations are more relevant. My colleague Sarah and I are at a hotel going through the purple folder that contains the list of locations where Austin might be held. Some are prisons, but others seem to be secret facilities.
Can I have a look at the locations?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, let me see.
On the left hand side. Yeah. This is the branch number, like two one five.
So this is Syrian military intelligence two one five. This is a notorious branch. I know some people who were held there and there were always allegations of torture that came out of that prison. Um, okay, so this is Syrian military intelligence two hundred thirty five. It's like colloquially known as Palestine branch.
Right, which is what our other source told us, do you remember?
Yeah.
two three five Palestine branch. That's the same location, Salon, the source I met in the English countryside, had told me that Austin was held at. And now I'm seeing it in these files. So we head there.
Yeah, that's the.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What events led to the chaotic aftermath of Assad’s downfall in Damascus?
0:00–8:49
2
How did the journalists locate the secret Syrian intelligence branch known as “Palestine Branch”?
8:49–21:09
3
What did the team discover inside the hidden interrogation room and its blood‑stained floor?
21:09–33:46
4
How did the investigators uncover the massive archive of dead prisoners’ files?
33:46–38:51
5
What was revealed about the regime’s “foreigners” section in the prison records?
38:51–42:54