US prisoners in autocratic regimes

[ionelv]

BBC has an article on Austin Tice who was taken prisoner in 2012 by Syria. He was a former US Marine captain and a Georgetown law student that went to Syria as a freelance journalist. Riiight. The chances that he was not a spy is very low given his service record and CIA's own list of recruitment hotspots. That Syria (or any foreign intelligence service) did not know this is even more remote. I wonder how often this is the case with US prisoners in autocratic countries.