Mr President,

Austin chose to go to Syria as a freelance journalist to report on the
conflict there. His work was published by the McClatchy Newspapers, the
Washington Post, Associated Press, AFP, as well as CBS, NPR, and BBC.
His reporting was awarded the 2012 George Polk Award for War Reporting
and the 2012 McClatchy Newspapers President’s Award.

On August 13, 2012, two days after his 31st birthday, Austin disappeared
as he was preparing to travel from Daraya, near Damascus, Syria, to
Beirut, Lebanon.

I urge that you do all you can to bring him safely home.

Syria is the world's most dangerous country for journalists since the
start of the uprising in March 2011, with hundreds of journalists and
citizen-journalists arrested, kidnapped or killed by the various parties
involved in the conflict, as Reporters Without Borders reported
constantly. The local journalists have especially paid a high price in
their fight for freedom of information.

Without journalists, the world wouldn’t know about the Syrian human
drama. Without journalists, we are all deprived of information, we are
all blindfolded.

Sincerely,