American College Student Missing in Syria Returns Home to Tell Harrowing Jail Tale

Posted on April 5, 2011 at 1:53am by Emily Esfahani Smith
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When Pathik ‘Tik’ Root, a 21-year-old American college student, traveled to Syria to learn Arabic, little did he know that he would be spending weeks in a Syrian jail cell.

But that’s what happened when he stumbled upon an anti-government protest in Damascus and was taken to be a CIA official by the Syrian police.

It all began innocently enough. Root was wondering around the Old City in Damascus, soaking up the scene. He decided to snap some pictures on his smartphone–and that’s when the trouble began:

In an interview at the airport last night, Pathik Root explained how he was wandering around the Old City after Friday prayers ended on March 18 as hundreds of people began flooding out of mosques. He had just bought some chicken shwarma when he caught sight of some flags and heard chanting.

Then he made the fateful mistake of taking out his BlackBerry to take some pictures.

Seconds afterward, several plainclothes members of the secret police grabbed him, he said. One tried to drag him by his hair. He explained that he was an American, and the men threw him in the back of a Chevy Suburban.

When he showed his passport, it made things worse. The worldly young man, who studied politics and economics and has long been fascinated by the Middle East, had previously visited Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Egypt, all of which had stamped his passport.

“I was saying, ‘I’m an American. What’s going on?’ ’’ he said.

They told him there was no problem, but then shoved his head down in the back seat. Five secret police officers crowded into the vehicle and drove him to a prison in Damascus. He never learned its name.

In the prison, Root describes his environs:

For his first week in custody, he was kept in a dank, tiny cell with one other man, a Syrian. They strip-searched him and took his shoelaces and the string from his hooded sweatshirt. He said the cell was about 3 feet by 7 feet and windowless. The only time he was allowed out, he said, was to go to the bathroom three times a day.

“They didn’t like it if you took very long,’’ he said.

Root said they slid his meals through a peep hole in the cell door. He ate only bread and potatoes for the 15 days he was in custody, and didn’t discover there was water until he asked for it on his third day. He said he was never allowed to shower.

Root and his father on CNN

But the worst part, he said, was hearing the screams. He said he was sure the prison was using electricity and clubs to torture the other prisoners. He said he met a man who was beaten for putting an X over a picture of President Bashar al-Assad’s face.

“I was not beaten, but I would say at least 75 percent of those in the prison were,’’ he said.

He said he slept on blankets on the floor of his cell and fought boredom by sleeping as much as possible, which wasn’t easy. “I would write stuff on the walls,’’ he said.

Root found out on Friday that he would be released, thanks in no small part to the lobbying efforts of his parents and the responsiveness of Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. Root, and his family, are from Vermont.

The Boston Globe details the understandable anxiety of Root’s parents in the preceding weeks:

The parents of the 21-year-old Middlebury College junior from Ripton, Vt., who went to Syria to study Arabic, had no idea whether their son was alive. They spent the past two weeks making call after call to congressmen, senators, ambassadors — anyone who could help find their son and bring him home.

This weekend, after Syrian officials confirmed that Root was not a CIA agent, Root caught a flight from Damascus to London to Boston’s Logan Airport, where he emotionally reunited with his family.

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Comments (39)

JohnWiggin
Posted on April 6, 2011 at 5:29pm
Accusing this kid is absurd. Plenty of young people travel that aren’t commie sympathizers. The only evidence to suggest that he is anything other than an ordinary student is that the Syrian government thought he might be. I don’t smell anything fishy about this at all.
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thegreatcarnac
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 5:45pm
torturing and burning and beating….ahhhhh…the religion of peace rolls on…
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1minuteman
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 3:09pm
ah come on man cant you see its a real democratic movement over there. its those evil israeli’s we have to wipe off the earth. fuuny but i have never heard of americans being treated like that in israel but everywhere obama says its a democratic movement i see christians and muslims being killed and tortured left and right. it probably is those angry white teaparty extremists. hope and change. what a wonderful thought.
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pma_guy
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 3:08pm
Pathik Root seems to be an AWESOME young man. Grateful to have you back.
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Gypsy123
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 10:39am
Peace Loving Muslims >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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28_ID
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 9:25am
What a moron….he‘s lucky that he didn’t receive a Darwin Award.
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Watchingtheweasels
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 9:20am
Dude, two words: Rosetta Stone.

Macgirl is right. Sounds a bit more like a google/facebook/twitter amateur agitator than an innocent bystander there to learn Arabic. From blue state Vermont, too.
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MacGirl
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 8:15am
Yeah, going to Syria to learn Arabic… sounds innocent enough. Except when you think about all the other places that aren’t in the middle of riots that you can do so.

And … he STUMBLED upon protests? This all sounds terribly fishy to me. Then if you have a look at his profile, … Bachelor of Arts candidate: International Politics and Economics…. sounds like he might have known what he was getting into over there.
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SpankDaMonkey
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 7:40am
.
This might be a HOAX! This kid could be a SLEEPER! I know your going Spank wtf? This could be a Home Grown Terrorist why else you you go to such a place? Study a Aribic my behind, Bomb Making 101 more like it…….
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Gonzo
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 7:08am
”The worldly young man has long been fascinated by the Middle East.” Still fascinated genius?
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teddrunk
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 7:06am
His dad is Dan Reeves? Dan, tell the kid to get a haircut. No one teaches Arabic in the U.S.? You can only learn it in Syria?
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- Gonzo
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 7:47am
  He probably took some classes in bomb making as well Ted.
  Report Post »
lillianrose
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 6:34am
Lets see a student going to Syria- which is 90% of the population is Muslim to study economics in which that country is a has been based on agriculture, oil, industry, and tourism. They just so happen to have wide scale corruption and have a poor capital record and financial markets with apparently high rates of unemployment. Now how can a country that has low rates of investment and poor agricultural and industrial productivity be a good place for one to learn? There just to study Arabic? American colleges and universities so provide these programs- so I don’t think we have the full story here.
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searching for the Truth
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 6:25am
Wouldn’t have been easier to just go swim in a lake of crocodiles?
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Fina Biscotti
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 5:18am
So what will Obama be doing about these HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS in SYRIA?!

************

We are still waiting on what he is doing about the TWO STUDENTS held HOSTAGE in IRAN =

NOTHING!!!!!
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Fina Biscotti
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 5:16am
And Usurper President Barack HUSSEIN Obama/Barry Soetoro – just set up a US Ambassador – in Syria……..regardless of Syria previously being considered an enemy of the USA – for decades.
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AmeriCat
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 4:35am
Same old story. Berkeley and now Middlebury.
Why do American students at Liberal Progressive schools
want visit a nation ruled by Islamic law?

And…why do they think they will get a pass?

Better yet, how can their parents think their children will be unharmed?
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Harvey
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 4:27am
How can you me or anyone feel sorry for this child,he should have known better than to go to Syria.Why would anyone go to Syria.Anyone can learn Arabic right here in the good old U.S.A.There was some other reason this young man had to go there.
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- AmeriCat
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 4:37am
  Agree. No pity here.
  All they do is create problems for America.
  Report Post »
politicaljules
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 4:19am
Something fishy going on here. Hopefully the media watchers will investigate it.
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gb2
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 2:21am
maybe he should have minded his own business and not gotten involved in their politics. by the way syria isnt a bad place, ive been there several times, walking around with my white skin and blond hair. they actually have a lot more freedom then you think. in some ways more then us. most of the people in syria like americans they just dont like our government policies, well guess what neither do i. i believe the syrian president, that it is a conspiracy formulated by outside influences.
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- riseandshine
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 4:07am
  good to hear, GB2
  Report Post »
- riseandshine
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 4:14am
  Glenn Beck always says to think outside the box, but would have us all thinking inside the same box he thinks in. We are the United States of America, not the United States/ Israel
  Report Post »
MinorityRightsAdvocate
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 2:12am
Good to see he made it back and Senator Leahy did something right for a change, but then why go to an anti-American place like Syria to study Arabic?

Aren’t there more American friendly places to study Arabic?

This could just be naive, but is there more to this one?
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- marine249
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 2:18am
  like in the USA
  Report Post »
latinapatriot
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 2:02am
This is outrages and should never happen. I would have asked to speak to the american embassy.
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- walkwithme1966
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 3:08am
  How sad it is that we are in danger when we are just traveling in foreign countries because everyone believes us to be CIA. This young man could have ended up lost in this prison for years without anyone knowing where he was! Sad situation when your only crime is that you are an American!
  http://maboulette.wordpress.com
  Report Post »
Old Truckers
Posted on April 5, 2011 at 2:01am
Ahh, Syria. Now that is a place I would want to go. Yikes!
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- cheezwhiz
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 2:22am
  My 6th sense says this story doesn’t make sense. The name of this young man, his previous visits in other hotbeds of islamic terrorism, he sounds more like a John Walker Lindh
  than an innocent “ American” .
  Report Post »
- AzDebi
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 2:25am
  Sorry…This is Off Topic…but I want to share this info with as many of you as possible:
  
  Cliff Kincaid & Lee Kaplan on ” Al-Jazeera, Global Jihad, and the Suicide of the West”
  
  You are not going to believe the things you are about to hear from Lee Kaplan re: the “ISM” (International Solidarity Movement)…
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z7F32PW8Tg&feature=feedu
  
  When you are at the site, you need to sign up to subscribe to the “JihadWatchVideo” youtube site…that way you will be receive the latest videos available from Jihad Watch (David Horowitz’s web site)…
  
  You will also see additional videos from this April 1st National Press Club meeting…in the list to the right…Pamela Geller also spoke at this club meeting…
  
  This explains so much of what we are seeing between the Flotillas, the Unions, the Marxists, the Radical Moos-lims, etc., etc.,
  
  We’ve got to spread this info…
  Report Post »
- Showtime
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 3:04am
  @AZ Debi ~
  
  Thank you for the link. I downloaded the video. It’s now 3 a.m.; I will go baack and record some more. I also sent the video to Katie in Congressman Walter Jones’s office and asked her to ensure that he knows about it.
  Report Post »
- AmeriCat
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 4:53am
  @Azdebi…Thank you for the alert and link:
  
  Cliff Kincaid & Lee Kaplan on ” Al-Jazeera, Global Jihad, and the Suicide of the West”
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z7F32PW8Tg&feature=feedu
  
  Also, Jihad Watch, David Horowitz’s site. His book (also R. Poe) is timely:
  ” The Shadow Party. How George Soros, Hillary Clinton,
  and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party.”
  Report Post »
- redneck
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 5:08am
  Citizenship has it’s privileges, I wonder which vehicle he would have been thrown into had he not been an American?
  Report Post »
- home_of_the_brave
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 5:21am
  My spidey sense is tingling. Something doesn’t add up here. Who goes on vacation to the middle east by themselves? And when were all the other middle east trips taken? BYW thanks for the link AZDEB.
  Report Post »
- kryptonite
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 5:27am
  Cheez,
  Agreed. If I’m not mistaken, this guy’s brother was on Fox yesterday, and he admitted the guy is a political activist. It is quite clear from his passport that he participated in all the Mid East protests. I don‘t think he’s CIA, but it looks like he is an Islamist. Now Holder will recruit him.
  Report Post »
- cheezwhiz
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 7:18am
  Checkout his bio.
  Look what stands out about his “ activism”
  http://www.leoandleo.com/bio_pathik.php
  Report Post »
- cheezwhiz
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 7:30am
  @ kryptonite
  IIRC, 9-11 hijackers were here as “ students” too .
  Ofcourse this Pathik dude seems to be a pretty little commie ( his parents need to be checkedout too)
  CIA or not, he doesn’t look to be that poor innocent thing the media is making him out to be .
  He had to become an “ American” the moment the Syrians put him in jail :D
  Report Post »
- 13th Imam
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 9:22am
  Leaky Leahy has finally done something worthwhile. He must have called his goomba buddy Bashar Assad and asked him for a favor. I used to stumble out of bars but never into a protest. Especially in that neck of the woods.
  Report Post »
- Robert-CA
  Posted on April 5, 2011 at 10:35pm
  Mr Root you don’t have to go to Syria to learn Arabic .
  Report Post »

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