Why is the US protecting a wanted Syrian general in Lebanon?
A former Syrian general wanted for crimes against humanity is being bankrolled and protected by the U.S. and Lebanese authorities, a BBC investigation has found.
Bassam al-Hassan, who oversaw Syria's chemical weapons program and was a senior adviser to former President Bashar al-Assad, is being harbored in Lebanon following the Assad regime's collapse in 2024, the BBC said.
An investigation by the BBC and the U.S. broadcaster NPR has discovered that Hassan has been allowed to remain in Lebanon under an arrangement involving the FBI, and other U.S. and Lebanese authorities. “This is because of his willingness to provide information about the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice in Syria in 2012, as well as additional intelligence,” sources told the BBC and NPR.
Last month the BBC revealed Tice's abduction had been a planned operation, with Hassan in the chain of command.
Officials from two different branches of Syria's new government have told the BBC they want Hassan returned to face trial, but that U.S. authorities want him kept in Lebanon, and they say there is little Damascus can do about this.
“Hassan receives money from the U.S. authorities through an intermediary, making it harder to trace,” sources told the BBC.
Hassan is sanctioned by the US government.
“People connected to the Tice investigation say they have seen little evidence it has significantly advanced since Hassan began providing information as part of this agreement. The deal is believed to have been struck in the spring of 2025,” the BBC said.
Hassan is not the only Syrian regime official whose connection to the Tice case has seemingly afforded him financial payments or assistance for living abroad.
One former regime member said he had received money from the FBI multiple times in exchange for his co-operation on Tice's case. It was "not in his interest to share all the information all at once," he told the BBC, "in order to be able to drag out how long he can continue to receive payments from them [the U.S. authorities]".
Another former regime member connected to the Tice case claimed he was living in Lebanon under the "patronage" of the U.S. authorities, citing this as the reason he could not speak to the BBC about Tice.
The BBC spoke to a former senior Lebanese intelligence official who confirmed that Lebanese intelligence does have arrangements with the Americans, and that these types of payments have and do take place when both agencies have overlap in cases, but said he had no knowledge of payments involving the Tice case.
Following the fall of the Assad regime in early December 2024, Hassan is believed to have initially escaped to Iran.
A Syrian businessman, with strong connections to both the former regime and the Lebanese authorities, told the BBC that negotiations had then taken place -- involving the U.S., Lebanon, and Iran -- to bring Hassan to Lebanon.
The businessman, who asked to remain anonymous, said Hassan was valuable, not only because of what he is believed to know about Tice, but because of his knowledge of Syria's chemical weapons program and its military relationship with Iran -- secrets that U.S. intelligence was allegedly interested in.
Hassan told U.S. investigators last year that Tice had been executed on former President Assad's orders, but several people with knowledge of the investigation have questioned the details of his account. Hassan has provided a potential location for Tice's remains, but when the site was searched, nothing was found -- according to multiple sources familiar with the dig -- casting doubt on the validity of some of Hassan's information.
There are questions, however, over how thoroughly the site was searched. Two sources who said they had intimate knowledge of the operation told the BBC that U.S. authorities stopped digging before the search had been completed, possibly because of security concerns.
When the BBC managed to reach Hassan by phone last year to ask for an interview, he directed them to seek permission for him to speak from the FBI and CIA at the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
The BBC investigation has found that other Syrian officials connected to the Tice case have also apparently found refuge abroad.
They include Mohammad Makhlouf, who reported to Hassan in Syria and was connected to Tice's detention -- now believed to be residing in Lebanon. And Sakr Rustom, Hassan's nephew who was involved in Tice's abduction, now believed to be moving between the UAE and Lebanon. When the BBC attempted to speak to Rustom about Tice's case, he said he "preferred to focus on matters of the future."
Ghassan Nassour, a former general in Syria's Republican Guard, is said by former members of the National Defense Forces to have presided over the jail Tice was held in, and is believed to be living in the UAE with his family, the BBC has been told.
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