Five years ago, 30-year-old Sam Goodwin arrived in Syria from Iraq as part of his years-long journey to visit every country in the world.
His trip to war-torn Syria, country 181 out of 193 for the St. Louis native, would be quick. Goodwin stopped in Qamishli, a town on the Turkey-Syria border that he believed was under Syrian control. US-backed Kurds.
After checking into the Asia Hotel and eating something, he waited to meet a friend, a local fixer, who would take him around northeastern Syria.
As he was walking to a nearby restaurant to meet his guide, Goodwin decided to call his mother, Ann, on FaceTime near a statue of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad — the late father of the country’s current president, Bashar al-Assad — to show her some of the sights.
Portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (left) and his late father and predecessor Hafez hang on the wall of a destroyed apartment in the southern Lebanese city of Bint Jbeil, August 17, 2006. (PATRICK BAZ/AFP via Getty Images)
A man in military uniform called out to them, and Goodwin instinctively explained that he wasn’t taking pictures; he was just talking to his mother.
This was the last thing Ann heard before the phone went off, and it was her last conversation with her son until his release from prison. Syria’s prison system After 62 days.
Goodwin spoke to Fox News Digital ahead of the release of his book, “Saving Sam — the true story of an American’s disappearance in Syria and his family’s extraordinary fight to bring him home.”
“I was taken to the basement of a facility I now learn was called Syrian Military Intelligence (Branch) No. 215, a feature that is notoriously known “I was kept in solitary confinement for 27 days in a cell used to hold political prisoners. I had human contact only for a few seconds in the morning and evening when the guards brought me bread, boiled potatoes and water,” he said.
A view of Sam Goodwin at the Lebanon-Syria border after his release, and Branch 215 in Damascus. (Sam Goodwin/Fox News Digital Ashley Carnahan)
Goodwin, a former Division I collegiate hockey player, told Fox News Digital that he turned to a number of things to help him during his incarceration at Branch 215 and Adra prisons, including his Catholic faith and world travels.
“I relied on the belief that I had a purpose in life and a desire to be reunited with family and friends. In that cell, even though I was really at rock bottom, I found strength by leaning into gratitude, which is a little paradoxical, controlling the things I could control and recognizing that these uncertain times are an opportunity for growth,” he explained. “And that’s what I learned, and that’s what I try to communicate today, after being caught in a difficult situation.”
He said they didn’t have much information about why he was detained and were still looking for answers.
Map of the location where Sam Goodwin was taken in Qamishli, Syria, in 2019. Courtesy of Sam Goodwin
“Northeast Syria is largely controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, but there are still some Assad regime figures there,” said Andrew Tabler, the Martin J. Gross Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute.
“These are areas you should stay away from, because if you’re stopped at those checkpoints, and you’re a U.S. citizen, you can be detained for a variety of reasons.”
From Adra to Lebanon and back home
Goodwin said he was blindfolded and interrogated for hours by a man who spoke perfect English. The man threatened to hand him over. Towards ISIS If he doesn’t admit to being a spy.
On the 27th day of solitary confinement, Goodwin was transferred to another larger prison building, and a few days later he was moved to Adra Prison on the outskirts of Damascus.
An aerial view of Adra prison on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria. (Google Earth/Fox News Digital Ashley Carnahan)
“The other prisoners in Adra became friends. We cooked and ate together. They taught me Arabic. I taught them English. The prison had a basketball court and I taught several of them how to play knockout. One of them even sent a note out of prison on my behalf, a note that succeeded in a game of geopolitical telephone and found its way back to my father. here in the united states“These people literally risked their lives to save mine and set an amazing example of humanity,” he recalled.
“These people reinforced some of the most important things I learned during my travels. For example, never judge people by what their government does. I learned that those who have the least are often the ones who give the most. I found this to be true in every corner of the world.”
In this May 28, 2010 file photo, police stand at the gate of Damascus Central Prison in the Adra area, near the Syrian capital Damascus. (Reuters/Khaled al-Hariri/Files)
“I’ll never forget, about two weeks into that second month, a prisoner came up to me and I said to him, I said, everybody here is treating me so well … and he said to me, Sam, in Syria, all the good people are here in prison, because all the bad people are out there putting us here. And that was a very sobering comment to hear,” he added.
Goodwin’s family has worked with the FBI, CIA, State Department, Special Presidential Offices, and other agencies. Envoy for Hostage AffairsVatican envoys, Middle East experts and others were there to bring them back home.
The Goodwin siblings and matriarch Ann meet former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. Courtesy of Sam Goodwin
The family also wrote a letter to Pope Francis, requesting him to help in efforts to secure their son’s release.
Joseph Abbas, a friend of Goodwin’s sister and the uncle of a former college roommate, approached his old friend, General Abbas Ibrahim, who was appointed head of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate in 2011, for help in the case.
Top Lebanese intelligence chief, mediator in Syria case steps down
Sam Goodwin (left), General Abbas Ibrahim (middle) and Joseph Abbas (right) meeting in Lebanon. (Courtesy of Sam Goodwin)
General Ibrahim traveled to Syria and met with Ali Mamluk, a close security aide and adviser to President Assad, and explained that Goodwin was not a spy; he was just a tourist.
After months of prayers, meetings and phone calls, Goodwin’s release was secured and he was sent to prison. to LebanonWhere he saw his parents, who came to visit him for the first time in two months.
“The real heroes of this story are my family. The fact that they were able to do this reaching out to a head of state To see people on the other side of the world treat us in different ways is extraordinary and it’s humbling. And I’m still struggling to understand how to portray what I feel about that,” he told Fox News Digital.
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“On the one hand, I think it’s an unforgettable story that involves traveling to every country in the world, high-stakes diplomacy, heads of state, celebrities. But on the other hand, and I think more importantly, it’s also about what we all learn through this experience.”
