A BBC News investigation has found that US and Lebanese authorities are financing and sheltering a former Syrian commander wanted for crimes against humanity. Bassam al-Hassan is a former senior adviser to President Bashar al-Assad and the head of Syria’s chemical weapons program. Following the collapse of the Assad administration in 2024, he is being harboured in Lebanon.
The BBC and US station NPR have investigated and found that Hassan has been allowed to remain there under an arrangement involving the FBI and other US and Lebanese officials. We have been told this was because he was eager to share information about the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice in Syria in 2012 and other intelligence.
Last month it was discovered that the BBC had said the abduction of Tice was a planned operation with Hassan in the chain of command. Officials from two branches of Syria’s new administration have told the BBC they want Hassan returned to stand prosecution. But US authorities want him held in Lebanon and there is little Damascus can do about it.
We asked the FBI, the CIA and Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security for comment on our findings. Only the FBI responded, but it declined comment and referred us to a previous statement in which it stated it remained focused on discovering the facts surrounding the Tice case and on achieving his return.
“If what you are saying is true, it is offensive that our tax dollars are being used to provide a comfortable life for someone associated with the use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians who claims to have had Austin Tice executed,” Phil Elwood, spokesman for the Tice family said in response to our findings.
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