Catherine Rusoff
One American citizen who disappeared seven years ago while traveling in Syria is presumed dead, the man’s daughter said on Saturday.
Maryam Kamalmaz told the Associated Press that eight senior U.S. officials revealed earlier this month that they have specific and highly credible information about the alleged death of her father, Majd, a Texas psychotherapist.
During the meeting, held in Washington, officials told him that, on a scale of one to 10, their confidence level about his father’s death was a “high nine.” She said she asked whether other detained Americans had ever been successfully recovered in light of such credible information, and was told no.
“What more do I need? There were a lot of high-level officials we needed to confirm to us that he was really gone. There was no beating around the bush,” said Maryam Kamalmaz.
Julio Cortez/AP
She said authorities told her they believe the death occurred years ago, early in her father’s captivity. In 2020, she said, authorities told the family they had reason to believe he had died of heart failure in 2017, but the family remained hopeful and U.S. authorities continued to pursue him.
But, she said, “it wasn’t until this meeting that they really confirmed to us how credible the information is and the different levels of (verification) it had to go through.”
She did not describe the intelligence she learned.
Majd Kamalmaz disappeared in February 2017, aged 59, while traveling through Syria to visit an elderly relative. The FBI said he was stopped at a Syrian government checkpoint in a suburb of Damascus and has not been heard from since.
Kamalmaz immigrated to the US when he was six years old and acquired dual citizenship.
“We are Americans in every way possible. Don’t let that fool you. I mean, my dad always taught us that this is your country, we’re not going anywhere. We were all born and raised here,” Maryam Kamalmaz told CBS News 2019.
Spokespeople for the White House and the FBI, which investigates kidnappings in foreign countries, did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment Saturday.
Kamalmaz is one of several Americans who have disappeared in Syria, including journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus. Syria has publicly denied holding Americans captive.
In 2020, in the final months of the Trump administration, senior officials visited Damascus for a high-level meeting aimed at negotiating the Americans’ release. But the meeting proved fruitless, with the Syrians failing to provide any information to prove their lives and making demands that US authorities considered irrational. U.S. officials said they continue to try to bring Tice home.
The New York Times first reported the alleged death of Majd Kamalmaz.
