joining me now are austin's parents mark and deborah tice. thank you so much for joining me.w these have been difficult days for the nation but especially for families who are waiting to find out the status of their loved ones. a lot of people are confused as to who might be holding austin. we have only really heard about isis and the hostages isis has had. can you tell us a little bit about who you guys may -- what the theories are out there in terms of who may have austin in captivity? >> from the very beginning, alex -- and thank you for having us -- we made a decision not to speculate because we felt that speculation was a short road to insanity for us, so the only thing that we can tell you with certainty is we do not know who is holding austin. we know that he is not being held by daesh. he's not in any syrian government facility. we certainly understand people's frustration with not knowing who has him. >> what was your reaction? we talk about those who have been in the news the names of those in the news. kayla mueller was not someone known to the public until recentl

today the state department spokesperson was asked about deborah tice's comments and did not push back as i referenced, a review of our policies. and family engagement is part of that. the families have been asked to engage in the effort and expresed their suggestions and concerns. >> austin tice's father also confirmed in the interview that president obama has not directly reached out to the tice family. we'll have more after the break. but first the cnbc market wrap. >> let's look at how the stocks stand going into tomorrow. the dow rising 110 points. the nasdaq climbing by 56 points. that's it from cnbc. first in business worldwide. 1. could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week and let it grow over time, for twenty to thirty years that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. ♪ ♪ tonight, every dish came out of the cupboard. literally. can this mess be conquered by a little bit of dawn ultra? yes. one bottle has the grease cleaning power of two bott

tice's parents at the news conference this week. u.s. director of reporters without borders. we saw deborah and mark tice there at that press conference and mrs. tice saying that u.s. hostage policy needs to improve significantly. what do you think might be the number one change? >> reporters without borders, we of course support strongly mr. tice's parents. there are many requests. we urge the u.s. administration to create a single point of accountability really dedicated to the safe and soonest return of the hostage. this focal point doesn't exist right now and it would really represent an improvement of the communication between all the government agencies involved in hostage crisis. another request is an improvement in the external communication, the communication with the family and we and the families are really pushing for maybe the consideration of authorizing security clearance sometimes with the families. >> what does that mean before you go on? >> just to order families to have access to classified information they don't have access to right now. the administration is not sharing

marc and deborah ticera tice join us now. how did the meeting go yesterday in washington?ou, shepard, for having us on. we had a number of meetings this week with a number of government agencies and friends that are helping us here in washington. frankly, we believe they've gone very well. >> the frustration has been with typical government red a lack of single point accountability. is that right? >> that's right. we have individuals especially at state that we have worked with really well. that have supported us immensely. our senator has been amazing. our congressman al green. but there is a frustrating amount of red tape. a little bit of chaos in a can, as far as how these hostage situations are handled. >> i heard you say something yesterday that made so much sense in its simplicity. i was in some way surprised we're not there already. that because this is clearly an ongoing problem, there should be one point person one agency, if you will in charge of hostages. >> exactly. that's what we believe. that's what we hope will come out of this policy review. we have, right

and here are his parents, deborah and mark tice.t to have you on "the real story" today. i know it takes a lot of courage for you to come on and talk about your son who's been missing now for almost three years. what kind of communication have you had from our government that they are looking for him? >> well, you know, we had communication within a few days of determining that austin was out of contact and missing and we've had ongoing communication kind of ever deepening communication across a number of departments and agencies and now even with some of the white house staff. you know, the communication has been constant. it's the content that we feel like could be a little deeper. >> in what way, deborah or marc? what are you talking about? >> well, we're not really given very much information. we feel certain that there's more information that could be shared with us. it's not shared with us because we don't have the appropriate clearances and we're not vetted. as i've said before i feel like god vetted us when he gave us this m