The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin noted this week that Bashar Assad must be held responsible for the fate of around six Americans in his custody.

Let me go further than that. The Trump administration should make clear to Assad’s regime that it knows the regime has been holding courageous journalist Austin Tice since August 2012. If Tice is killed or “disappeared,” the U.S. should destroy Assad’s security command infrastructure in Damascus and sanction Russia. That threat will increase pressure on Assad to release Tice, while dangling the prospect of punitive and painful retaliation if he is harmed.