Former Head of Syrian Chemical Weapons Program, Sanctioned by the U.S., Sheltered and Funded in Beirut by U.S. and Lebanese Authorities

According to a joint investigation by the BBC and NPR, while the United States has designated former Syrian general Bassam Hassan as a suspect in crimes against humanity subject to U.S. Treasury sanctions, it has also worked with Lebanese security agencies to provide him with residency, protection and living expenses in Beirut; two officials from different departments in Syria's new government told the two outlets that they hope to have Hassan extradited to stand trial at home, but the U.S. side wants him to remain in Beirut, and Damascus has limited leverage.

Hassan was formerly a senior adviser to Assad and headed Syria's chemical weapons program. After the Assad regime fell in December 2024, he first fled to Iran, and subsequently, through a Syrian businessman with ties to Lebanese authorities acting as an intermediary, relocated to Beirut. He remains on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list and is internationally wanted for crimes against humanity due to his role in the Assad government.

Meeting minutes obtained by the BBC and NPR show that during meetings with Hassan, the U.S. side offered him "residency," "protection" and help addressing his "living needs." Sources familiar with the matter said payments were made through intermediaries to make them harder to trace; participants included FBI and CIA representatives as well as Lebanese security officials. Hassan himself, in a phone interview with the BBC last year, asked the media to seek clearance from "FBI and CIA officials at the U.S. Embassy" in order to interview him.

At the core of this arrangement is Hassan's alleged willingness to provide information on the case of American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, as well as other intelligence. The Tice case is one of the U.S. government's most closely watched missing-persons cases, and has been publicly addressed by both Presidents Biden and Trump, who have sent teams to the Middle East to engage with the Syrian side.

However, the veracity of the information Hassan has provided is being questioned. According to the BBC, Hassan told U.S. investigators that Tice was executed on Assad's orders and provided possible locations of his remains; but multiple sources familiar with the matter said no findings were made after the locations were searched. The BBC also reported that the U.S. side may have halted excavation early due to safety concerns before the search was complete, raising questions about how thorough the search was.

Hassan is not the only former regime member allegedly funded over the Tice case. Another former regime member connected to the case acknowledged that he had been paid multiple times by the FBI, and said he "wouldn't hand over all the information at once so as to stretch out getting money from them for as long as possible." Another former regime member told the BBC by phone that he lives in Lebanon under what he described as the "protection" of U.S. authorities, citing that as his reason for not being able to discuss the Tice case. The BBC quoted a former senior Lebanese intelligence official as saying that Lebanese intelligence does indeed have payment arrangements with the United States on overlapping cases, but the official said he had no knowledge of payments related to the Tice case.

Confronted with these findings, the Tice family's spokesperson Phil Elwood said: "If what you're saying is true, taxpayer money is being used to provide a comfortable life for someone tied to the use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians and who claims to have ordered the execution of Austin Tice. This is nothing short of outrageous. This is helping a wanted war criminal evade justice. The Syrian people deserve justice; he should be sent back to stand trial."

Tice's mother, Debra Tice, told the BBC she had been told by an FBI official that Hassan was in Beirut and that the U.S. side had spoken with him. She flew to Lebanon in May 2025 in an attempt to meet Hassan in person but was unsuccessful. She said: "I don't want to interrogate him. I don't want to berate him, I don't want to lecture him, that's not my job. I want to know where my son is."

On the Syrian government's side, two officials from different departments told NPR and the BBC respectively that they hope to have Hassan extradited to stand trial at home, but the U.S. side wants him to remain in Beirut, and they believe Damascus has limited leverage. The CIA and Lebanon's General Directorate of Internal Security both declined to comment; the FBI also declined to comment, pointing only to its previous statement that it remains focused on ascertaining the facts of the Tice case and working toward his return.

The investigation also revealed the overseas circumstances of several other former Syrian regime members connected to the Tice case. According to the BBC, Mohammad Makhlouf, who participated in filming Tice's abduction and served as a senior officer at the facility where Tice was held, currently lives in Lebanon; Hassan's nephew, Sakr Rustam, also connected to the Tice case, was contacted by the BBC in the United Arab Emirates, and when asked about the Tice case said he "preferred to focus on things going forward"; former Syrian Republican Guard general Ghassan Nasr, reportedly connected to the prison where Tice was held, is currently living with his family in the United Arab Emirates.